EMILYs List Congratulates California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley N. Weber on her Victory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2022

EMILYs List Congratulates California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley N. Weber on her Victory in the General Election

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, celebrates California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley N. Weber on winning her election. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement:
 
“We are thrilled to congratulate Dr. Shirley N. Weber on becoming California’s first elected Black secretary of state. Weber has been a champion for Californians’ civil, voting, and reproductive rights. Since her historic nomination in 2020, she has led with integrity and we are proud to support her as she continues to preserve democracy in California.” 

Dr. Shirley N. Weber was born to sharecroppers in Hope, Arkansas during the segregationist Jim Crow era. Although her family moved to California when Weber was three years old, her family’s experience in the Jim Crow South, including her father being threatened by a lynch mob and denied the right to vote, have shaped her public service career. Weber attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she received her bachelor’s, master’s, and a doctorate degree. Weber worked as a professor at San Diego State University in the Department of Africana Studies for 40 years. She then served four terms as an Assembly member representing California’s 79th Assembly District. She was nominated to serve as California secretary of state by Gov. Gavin Newsom in December 2020. Secretary Weber is California’s first Black secretary of state and only the fifth Black person to serve as a state constitutional officer in California’s 170-year history.
 
EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, works to elect Democratic pro-choice women up and down the ballot and across the country with a goal of fighting for our rights and our communities. Our work is centered around a fundamental vision: Run. Win. Change the World. EMILYs List has raised over $700 million in service to that vision and has helped Democratic women win competitive elections by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running one of the largest independent expenditure campaigns for Democrats, and turning out women voters 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 nearly 1,400 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. Visit www.emilyslist.org for more information.