EMILYs List Endorses Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Thomas for the Michigan State Supreme Court
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Thomas for the Michigan state Supreme Court. Since the fall of Roe, the battle for abortion access is playing out at the state level like never before, and reproductive freedom increasingly hangs in the balance of state Supreme Courts where justices often decide whether abortion bans can be implemented. EMILYs List President Jessica Mackler released the following statement:
“EMILYs List’s endorsement of Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Thomas today is a testament to both the dedication and tenacity of these accomplished women and the critical role that state Supreme Courts play in protecting our reproductive freedom. As the first Black woman to sit on the Michigan state Supreme Court, Justice Bolden’s historic service has been exemplified by a commitment to fairly interpreting the law and protecting the rights of Michiganders. Kimberly Thomas has spent her life pursuing justice for lower-income Americans and youth, and her devotion to defending our freedom is unparalleled and will make her a tremendous Justice.
“Michigan is a shining example of EMILYs List’s work and of the power that comes when women run, win, and change the world. At a time when courts in more than half of the country are seeing cases related to abortion rights, ensuring a strong pro-choice majority on the state’s Supreme Court is critical to safeguard abortion access for years to come. EMILYs List is honored to be a part of this crucial work by endorsing two fair and impartial jurists in Thomas and Justice Bolden.”
Thomas and Justice Bolden are the second state Supreme Court endorsements in EMILYs List’s history and the first this cycle, following our endorsement of Judge Janet Protasiewicz’s successful campaign for Wisconsin state Supreme Court in 2023 which secured the liberal leaning majority in the court.
Justice Kyra Harris Bolden is currently serving her second year on the Michigan Supreme Court after being appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2023. During her first year on the bench, she authored three majority opinions, one unanimous. Bolden is a graduate of Southfield Public Schools in Michigan. She received her bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University and went on to attend the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. Following law school, Bolden became a criminal defense attorney and later, a civil litigation attorney. In 2018, she was elected to the Michigan state House, where she served for two terms. Bolden sat on the Judiciary Committee and was instrumental in the passage of five bipartisan bills that became law focusing on criminal justice reform and protecting survivors of sexual violence. EMILYs List previously endorsed Bolden in 2020.
Kimberly Thomas is currently a law professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where she leads the Juvenile Justice Clinic, representing people who cannot afford lawyers. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park and her law degree from Harvard Law School. Thomas was honored with a U.S. Fulbright Scholar award and taught at the University College Cork School of Law in Cork, Ireland. She served on the bipartisan Michigan Task Force on Juvenile Justice Reform, where recommendations for improvement of the state’s juvenile justice system were made using a data-driven approach. She is passionate about representing lower-income Michiganders and teaching students the practice of law.
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.
