Deborah Peoples Picks Up Endorsement from EMILYs List in Race for Fort Worth Mayor

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Deborah Peoples Picks Up Endorsement from EMILYs List in Race for Fort Worth Mayor
By: Luke Ranker

The progressive Emily’s List has endorsed Deborah Peoples in the race for Fort Worth mayor.

Emily’s List is a national political action committee focused on electing pro-choice Democratic women to office. Peoples, an outgoing Tarrant County Democratic Party chair and retired AT&T vice president, is running against Mattie Parker, the founding CEO of a nonprofit focused on education, in the June 5 runoff.

The group touted Peoples’ experience as a business woman as well as her commitment to expanding access to health care.

Early voting starts Monday for the June 5 runoff.

“If elected, Deborah would be Fort Worth’s first Black woman mayor, which would make Fort Worth the largest city in the South to be led by a Black woman, and Emily’s List is proud to support her in this historic campaign,” Emily Cain, executive director of Emily’s List, said in a statement.

Emily’s List has raised $700 million to elect its candidates. The group boasts of helping to elect 157 women to the U.S. House, 26 to the U.S. Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office since 1985.

The endorsement comes a few days after Gov. Greg Abbott signed into a law a measure one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. The measure prohibits abortions in Texas as early as six weeks. It also opens the door for almost any private citizen to sue abortion providers and others.

Peoples has several other endorsements, including from Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks, State Board of Education Member Aicha Davis and Tarrant County Constable Michael Campbell. The national Collective Political Action Committee, which focuses on boosting Black politicians, also endorsed Peoples. Legendary Fort Worth basketball coach Robert Hughes endorsed Deborah Peoples for mayor Monday.

Parker has also collected wide-ranging endorsements, including outgoing Mayor Betsy Price and both the police and firefighters associations. The list also includes Republican state Reps. Phil King and Craig Goldman as well as Democrat Pete Geren, a former congressman, outgoing council member Dennis Shingleton and former council members Danny Scarth, Bill Meadows, Zim Zimmerman and Brian Byrd.