EMILYs List Endorses Alisha Shelton For Congress

For Immediate Release
November 30, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Alisha Shelton For Congress 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Alisha Shelton to represent Nebraska’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“EMILYs List is thrilled to stand with Alisha Shelton as she runs for one of the most pivotal House seats in the country. A mental health therapist and community advocate, Shelton is ready to advocate for her community’s needs, including affordable mental health and health care, better paying jobs, and an equitable economic recovery. With Shelton in office, Nebraskans will gain a leader who will always put their interests over corporate donors and special interests. Shelton is ready to get to work for Omaha’s working people and families, and EMILYs List is thrilled to support her historic campaign.”

Alisha Shelton moved to Omaha at the age of 12 and grew up with seven brothers and sisters. Shelton detasseled corn in her youth, then paid her way through college working in the Omaha Kellogg’s factory and working at Home Depot. Shelton graduated pre-med from Xavier University of Louisiana and went on to earn two graduate degrees in counseling and human services from Bellevue University. As a student, she volunteered as a tutor for second graders and answered phones for a sexual assault hotline. Shelton is a licensed independent mental health practitioner and professional counselor. She lives in Omaha with her husband and their two rescue dogs. If elected, Shelton would be the first Black person and second woman to represent Nebraska in Congress.

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.