EMILYs List Announces Madam Mayor Program to Champion Local Women Leaders in Executive Office
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, announced the Madam Mayor program to support and champion women serving in local executive office, along with six mayoral endorsements. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement:
“EMILYs List is proud to announce the Madam Mayor program today, because the critical importance of electing Democratic pro-choice women to local executive office has never been more clear. The battle for reproductive freedom and our very democracy is playing out on a local level every single day — and these women stand at the frontlines, working to make their communities a better place and standing up to Republican extremism in the face of a relentless onslaught against our freedoms. There is so much that women in executive office can do to protect those seeking reproductive health care and ensure that the will of the people is heard, and EMILYs List is here to help them do it.”
In conjunction with the announcement of the Madam Mayor program, EMILYs List endorsed the following incumbent mayors for reelection: London Breed, mayor of San Francisco, CA; Kate Gallego, mayor of Phoenix, AZ; Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade County, FL; Erin Mendenhall, mayor of Salt Lake City, UT; Lauren McLean, mayor of Boise, ID; and Vi Lyles, mayor of Charlotte, NC.
These six mayors join the following list of local women in executive leadership that EMILYs List has already endorsed this cycle: Donna Deegan, mayor of Jacksonville, FL; Emily Larson, mayor of Duluth, MN; Holly Mitchell and Janice Hahn of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors; Leirion Gaylor Baird, mayor of Lincoln, NE; Satya Rhodes-Conway, mayor of Madison, WI; Regina Romero, mayor of Tucson, AZ; and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, candidate for mayor of Houston, TX.
In an effort to expand the work of electing and supporting local women leaders serving in executive office, EMILYs List launched Madam Mayor in the summer of 2023, a program to highlight and support women running for local executive office across the country. This program was created acknowledging that women, and particularly women of color, face more misinformation and disinformation when running for office, which hurts their candidacy and has a chilling effect on recruitment. At a time when local executives are facing more challenges than ever before, these attacks have proven especially prevalent for women running in these positions, and the Madam Mayor program will serve as a critical touchpoint for these Democratic pro-choice champions to receive the resources and support they need to serve their communities.
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 $850 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 operations 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, 175 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 20 governors, and over 1,500 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.
