EMILYs List Announces its Spring 2022 Ignite Change Fellows

For Immediate Release
April 8, 2022

EMILYs List Announces its Spring 2022 Ignite Change Fellows 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, announced the selected fellows for its Spring 2022 Ignite Change Fellowship, a nine-week virtual initiative to train community leaders and advocates and prepare them for a future run for office. This year’s spring cohort elevates women and nonbinary people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, and is made up of 70% women of color, 43% LGBTQ+ people and 73% people under 35 years of age. Starting on Saturday, April 9, these fellows will join together virtually from across the country to learn the nuts and bolts of running for office and gain the confidence to take the next steps for their own campaigns. 
 
“EMILYs List is proud to select 30 new fellows for our 2022 Ignite Change Fellowship. For too long women of color, LGBTQ+ people, women from rural areas and women with disabilities have been leading the fight for social justice yet underrepresented at every level of government. It’s time for that to change,” said Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List. 
 
“Increasing representation ensures that our government better speaks for all of us and that starts by training our community activists that are fighting every day on the front lines. EMILYs List is committed to building a diverse pipeline of Democratic pro-choice women and nonbinary people running for office who have led and care deeply about their communities, and we’re excited to see the 2022 Ignite Change fellows learn and grow through this initiative as our next generation of leaders.”

Since its inception and prior to the 2022 spring cohort, 90 activists, organizers and community leaders have joined the Ignite Change Fellowship. This virtual opportunity gives fellows the tools they need to turn their passion for community activism into change using political power. 

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color 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 more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.