EMILYs List Congratulates Tina Kotek on Advancing to the General Election in Oregon’s Gubernatorial

For Immediate Release
May 17, 2022 

EMILYs List Congratulates Tina Kotek on Advancing to the General Election in Oregon’s Gubernatorial Election

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulated Tina Kotek on advancing to the general election to determine who will serve as Oregon’s next governor. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:
 
“Tina Kotek is a fighter who will take the same passion she has had in Oregon’s state house all the way to the governor’s office. Kotek’s tenacity and commitment to championing the rights and wellbeing of Oregonians are unmatched, and we are thrilled to congratulate her on this important milestone for her campaign during a time when pro-choice governors represent a crucial defense against anti-choice legislation.”

Tina Kotek is the descendent of four grandparents who emigrated from eastern Europe. Kotek is a dedicated public servant and advocate, beginning with her work to win domestic partnership benefits for faculty and students at the University of Washington in the mid-1990s. When she returned to Oregon, Kotek worked as a policy advocate for the Oregon Food Bank, the policy director for Children First for Oregon, and then was elected to the Oregon state House in 2006.  In 2013, Kotek made history as the first openly lesbian speaker of any state legislature in the nation, and has been the longest serving speaker in Oregon’s history. She is now running to make history again as the first openly lesbian governor of any state.

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.