EMILYs List Celebrates Wave of Women Victories for Statewide, Legislative, and Local Public Offices

For Immediate Release
November 15, 2018

EMILYs List Celebrates Wave of Women Victories for Statewide, Legislative, and Local Public Offices

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As races continue to be called in favor of pro-choice Democratic women Thursday, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulated 290 endorsed candidates on hard-won and historic victories for statewide, legislative, and local public offices. Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“EMILYs List is proud to stand with women across the nation who, from their family farms and classrooms to small businesses and kitchen tables, built grassroots movements to win the support of voters and the chance to be a voice in the rooms where our future is being decided. Now, as they assume their seats in state and local offices across the country, pro-choice Democratic women will be the champions that families can count on. We still have work to do, but you can bet future women candidates saw these victories and are getting ready to run their own campaigns. EMILYs List can’t wait to recruit, train, and elect the next wave of pro-choice Democratic women who will lead progress in communities across the country.”

At least 290 EMILYs List-endorsed candidates for statewide, legislative, and local public offices, including 120 first-time candidates, have won their races so far and flipped 119 seats from red to blue. That also includes at least 56 candidates who attended EMILYs List trainings, in addition to many more guided by EMILYs List in how to run for office. Just under two dozen races are still to be called.

At least twenty EMILYs List-endorsed candidates, including six who flipped red to blue seats, have won statewide office from coast to coast. That includes historic wins from women including Lieutenant Governor-elect Eleni Kounalakis, the first woman elected to the office in California, to Attorney General-elect Tish James, the first woman and first African American to be elected to the office in New York. *Two races for statewide office, Katie Hobbs (AZ-SOS) and Nikki Fried (FL-Ag Commissioner) are still too close to call.*

Women led Democrats in flipping at least six legislative chambers since Election Day (ME Senate, NH House, NH Senate, CO Senate, MN House, NY Senate), defending Democratic majorities in seven legislative chambers (WA Senate, WA House, CO House, ME House, NV Senate, NV House, NM House), breaking Republican supermajorities in four chambers, (NC Senate, NC House, PA Senate, MI Senate) and gaining new supermajorities in five chambers (DE House, OR Senate, OR House, NV Assembly, IL House).

EMILYs List-endorsed candidates in Nevada ensured a Democratic supermajority in the state Assembly, and in a first for the nation, a women-majority lower chamber. And in states including Oregon, Massachusetts, Maine and Michigan, more women will serve in state legislatures than ever before.

EMILYs List worked with partners nationwide this election cycle to recruit, endorse, and support a record number of women in the organization’s history, and succeeded in electing more women of color to statewide, legislative and local offices including:

Fiona Ma (CA-Treasurer) — First Asian American woman to hold this seat.
Anna Eskamani (FL-HD47) — First Iranian American elected to the Florida Legislature.
Juliana Stratton (IL-LG) — First African American woman elected to serve as lieutenant governor.
Padma Kuppa (MI-HD41) — First Indian American woman elected to the Michigan Legislature.
Stephanie Chang (MI-SD01) — First Asian American woman elected to the Michigan Senate (formerly the first elected to the Michigan House).
Erika Geiss (MI-SD06) — One of the first Latinas elected to the Michigan Senate. Identifies as both African American and Latina.
Peggy Flanagan (MN-LG) — First Native American elected statewide in Minnesota.
Shea Backus (NV-AD37) — First Native American woman to serve in the Nevada Legislature.
Kate Marshall (NV-LG) — First Latina elected to this office. 
Safiya Wazir (NH-Merrimack 17) — First former refugee elected in New Hampshire. She was born in Afghanistan, grew up in a refugee camp, and moved to New Hampshire when she was 16.
Melanie Levesque (NH-SD12) — First African American to be elected to the New Hampshire state Senate.
Catalina Cruz (NY-AD39) — First Dreamer elected in New York.
Tish James (NY-AG) — First woman and African American elected as attorney general in New York.

For a current list of EMILYs List-endorsed candidates who have won thus far, please view the attached PDF.

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $500 million to support pro-choice Democratic women candidates – making them one of the most successful political organizations ever. Our grassroots community of over five million members helps Democratic women wage competitive campaigns – and win. We recruit and train candidates, support strong campaigns, research the issues that impact women and families, and turn out women voters. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect 116 women to the House, 23 to the Senate, 12 governors, and over 800 to state and local office. Forty percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. Since the 2016 election, thousands of women and counting have reached out to us about running for office. To harness this energy, EMILYs List has launched Run to Win, an unprecedented effort to get more women to run at the local, state, and national levels.