Statement on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
For Immediate Release
January 17, 2022
Statement on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, released the following statement honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day:
“Today we reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the ongoing work to achieve his dream of justice and equality. Decades later, we are still seeing heinous attacks on voting rights. The work of freedom for which Dr. King gave his life is not finished, and we owe it to his legacy and those who paid the heaviest price to continue this mission until it’s realized. We must elect democracy defenders who are committed to making sure all Americans have equitable access to ballot boxes.”
EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 159 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.
