EMILYs List puts Ohio Senate ‘On Notice’

Cleveland.com: EMILY's List puts Ohio Senate 'On Notice'

By Mary Kilpatrick

EMILY's List, a political group that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, is recruiting candidates to run for the Ohio Senate in next year's election.

The organization on Thursday included the Senate on its “On Notice” list, a group of political bodies and offices it plans to target in 2018. It hopes to win enough Democratic seats in the Ohio Senate to break into the Republican majority. Republicans in the Ohio Senate have a supermajority, and many of the Republican seats in the chamber are safe.

“Republicans in the Ohio State Senate have pushed one of the most extreme and shameful agendas to turn back the clock on women's rights and eliminate reproductive health care options,” EMILY's List Executive Director Emily Cain said in a news release. “These legislators passed an extreme 'heartbeat' bill, in addition to several pieces of legislation that would ban abortion after 20 weeks–even in cases of rape and incest. That is why EMILY's List is recruiting an historic number of strong, pro-choice Democratic women leaders in 2018 to hold these Republican legislators accountable for their out-of-touch agenda.”

The group's “On Notice” list also targets legislative bodies and offices across the country, including the Michigan House, Virginia House, Pennsylvania House and Senate, North Carolina House, New Hampshire House and Senate, Minnesota House, Wisconsin Senate, Washington Senate and the Colorado Senate.