EMILYs List Congratulates Rita Ali on Her Historic Win in Peoria Mayoral Race

For Immediate Release
April 21, 2021

EMILYs List Congratulates Rita Ali on Her Historic Win in Peoria Mayoral Race 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulated Rita Ali on her historic win in the race for mayor of Peoria, IL. Emily Cain, executive director of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“Last night, Rita Ali made history as the first woman, Black woman and person of color to become mayor of Peoria, IL. Rita’s experiences as a community leader, government official, and champion of education make her an ideal leader for Peoria’s COVID-19 recovery efforts. The EMILYs List community is thrilled to congratulate Rita on this historic win and to watch as she works to ensure that all Peoria residents can prosper in a safe, equitable environment.”

Rita Ali currently serves as an at-large member on the Peoria City Council, member of the Peoria Advisory Committee on Police-Community Relations, and president of the Martin Luther King Committee of Peoria. Through her work to bolster education, Rita has secured more than $50 million in federal, state, and private grants to support academic success and workforce training and development projects and initiatives. As a champion for equity and diversity, Rita co-chaired the Peoria Police and Fire Diversity Committee that conducted a study and produced recommendations to diversify police officer and firefighter positions. As the newly elected mayor of Peoria, Rita has made history as the first woman, Black woman, and person of color to be the city’s mayor.

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, 157 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.