EMILYs List Congratulates Brittany Pettersen on Advancing to the General Election in Colorado’s 7th

For Immediate Release
June 28, 2022 

EMILYs List Congratulates Brittany Pettersen on Advancing to the General Election in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulates Brittany Pettersen on advancing to the general election for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement:

“State Sen. Brittany Pettersen is exceptionally qualified to represent the people of Colorado’s 7th Congressional District. She has spent her time in the state Senate lifting up other women and advocating for their rights, and EMILYs List is proud to be supporting her candidacy. As we look toward the general election, we know that the Republican nominee for this seat will seek to disregard the will of the majority of Coloradans and fight against abortion rights in Congress. But we also know that Pettersen has what it takes to win, and we eagerly anticipate celebrating her victory and the great work she will do in Congress.” 

A fourth generation Coloradan, Brittany Pettersen had to take on adult responsibilities at a young age as her mom battled with addiction. She began to work cleaning houses and taking odd jobs at the age of 12, and with relentless hard work and the support of her teachers, she beat tough odds to become the first member of her family to graduate from high school and college. Pettersen has dedicated her career to civic engagement, building community, and public service. She worked on President Obama’s historic 2008 campaign and engaged a new generation of Coloradans in their democracy through voter registration and advocacy before stepping up to put her own name on the ballot. In 2012, she ran a successful grassroots campaign in a competitive race for the Colorado House of Representatives — and became the youngest woman in the state legislature. In 2018, Pettersen was one of five young Democratic women candidates nicknamed the “Fab Five,” whose double-digit wins in 2018 helped take the majority in the state Senate. She and her husband, Ian are proud parents of a young son, Davis, and she is only the second Colorado legislator to give birth during a legislative session.

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.