EMILYs List Endorses Congresswoman Jahana Hayes for Reelection in Connecticut’s 5th CD

For Immediate Release
March 26, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Congresswoman Jahana Hayes for Reelection in Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Congresswoman Jahana Hayes for reelection in Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District. Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“EMILYs List is proud to endorse proven fighter and former award-winning educator Congresswoman Jahana Hayes for reelection in Connecticut’s 5th Congressional District. As the first Black woman to be elected to Congress from Connecticut, Congresswoman Hayes has been a critical voice for her constituents. The 2016 National Teacher of the Year, she’s working to ensure equitable access to quality education, to promote a diverse educator workforce, and to ensure food security for all. We are so proud to have representatives like Congresswoman Hayes in Congress and look forward to continuing our support.”

Jahana Hayes is a lifelong Connecticut resident. Growing up in a Waterbury housing project and finding herself a teen mom, Jahana went back to school to fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher. She got her GED, enrolled in her local community college, then went on to earn her bachelor’s, master’s, and advanced degrees all while working to support her family. Jahana has dedicated her career to public education and worked as a high school social studies teacher in New Haven and Waterbury. She earned the 2016 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Award and went on to earn the 2016 National Teacher of the Year Award. Connecticut had never elected an Black woman to Congress, and Jahana became the first with her historic win. She lives in Wolcott with her husband, a police officer, and is a proud mother of four children.

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.