EMILYs List Congratulates Melisa López Franzen on Making History

For Immediate Release
September 14, 2021

EMILYs List Congratulates Melisa López Franzen on Making History as the First Latina Senate Minority Leader in Minnesota

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, released the following statement congratulating state Sen. Melisa López Franzen for being elected by her colleagues to serve as the new Minnesota Senate minority leader: 

“EMILYs List is thrilled to congratulate Minnesota Sen. Melisa López Franzen on her groundbreaking election as the first Latina and member of the Legislature’s People of Color and Indigenous caucus to serve as Senate minority leader. EMILYs List knows that we need leaders who reflect all of us, and we are grateful to see another hard working woman take charge. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Melisa moved to Minnesota at 21 years old to pursue her graduate studies and has dedicated her career to advancing equity and opportunity for all Minnesotans. Since being elected to the state Senate in 2012, Melisa has  been a champion for small businesses, public schools, front-line workers, and health care accessibility. We look forward to watching as she continues to advocate for Minnesotans as the new Senate minority leader.”  

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.