EMILYs List Congratulates Nikki Budzinski on Advancing to the General Election in Illinois

For Immediate Release
June 29, 2022 

EMILYs List Congratulates Nikki Budzinski on Advancing to the General Election in Illinois’ 13th Congressional District

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulates Nikki Budzinski on advancing to the general election for Illinois’ 13th Congressional District. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement:

“Nikki Budzinski now represents one of the best chances in the country to flip a House seat from red to blue. Her hard work, determination, and experience fighting for working families make her the right choice to represent the people of Illinois’ 13th Congressional District, and EMILYs List is thrilled to congratulate her on her victory and support her continued candidacy.”

Born in Peoria, IL, Nikki Budzinski is the granddaughter of a union painter and a public school teacher. She attended the University of Illinois Champaign and was inspired to pursue a career in public service after interning with former Congressman Dick Gephardt, former Sen. Paul Simon, and Planned Parenthood. She has worked to protect firefighters' rights with the IAFF and has fought for grocery workers and meatpackers with the UFCW. Budzinski then served as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s senior advisor on labor issues and as the chair of the Illinois Broadband Advisory Council. She then served as chief of staff for President Biden’s Office of Management and Budget.

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.