EMILYs List Celebrates Fall 2021 Class of the Ignite Change Fellowship
For Immediate Release
October 6, 2021
EMILYs List Celebrates Fall 2021 Class of the Ignite Change Fellowship
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, released the following statement celebrating the fall 2021 class of the Ignite Change Fellowship:
“Each class of the Ignite Change Fellowship has been made up of superstars, and this class is no different. Representing 16 states including D.C., these 30 fellows are the next generation of changemakers recruited and trained by EMILYs List. More than half of the fellows enrolled in the Ignite Change Fellowship are activists and community leaders of color. Every day, they are giving voice to the concerns of those who would otherwise go unnoticed. This class of fellows goes to show that what was known as the blue wave is really actually a sea change. During the next nine weeks, the fall fellows will learn all they need to know to take their community activism to the next level and wield it as political power.”
The Ignite Change Fellowship is a nine-week virtual initiative to train women and nonbinary community leaders and advocates to prepare them for a future run for office. More than half of this year’s cohort are people of color and nearly a quarter are members of the LGBTQ+ community.
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, 158 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40 percent 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.
