EMILYs List Commemorates Juneteenth

For Immediate Release
June 19, 2022

EMILYs List Commemorates Juneteenth

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today marks Juneteenth, a holiday to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, enslaved people were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement in celebration: 
 
“EMILYs List is proud to commemorate Juneteenth, while acknowledging the work that is left to achieve true liberation.  We are thrilled to support groundbreaking Black women like Dr. Shirley Weber (CA), the first Black woman to serve as secretary of state in California, or Rep. Karen Bass (CA), who is running to be the first Black woman mayor of Los Angeles. Others like Cheri Beasley (NC), who was the first African American woman to serve as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and who is now running to be North Carolina’s first African American U.S. senator, as well as Rep. Val Demings (FL), who is running to represent the state of Florida in the U.S. Senate. The victory of these candidates will bring our nation one step closer to a government that truly represents the people who it is called to serve.”
 
As primaries take place across the country and the midterms approach, we must remember who is working to expand rights and who is working to restrict them. Republican attempts to disenfranchise Black voters and pass anti-choice legislation cannot stand. That’s why EMILYs List is honored to continue to help elect the extraordinary Black Democratic pro-choice women running at every level of the government to better their communities, and support them as they continue to fight for voting and reproductive rights. Because reproductive justice is racial justice, and true equity cannot be achieved without protecting the right to vote for all.”

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.