EMILYs List Endorses Dana Balter in New York’s 24th District

For Immediate Release
June 26, 2019

EMILYs List Endorses Dana Balter in New York’s 24th District

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Dana Balter in New York’s 24th Congressional District. Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“Dana Balter is committed to serving her community and will fight hard for New York’s working families in Congress. Her personal experience with the health care system – through dealing with her own health issues – has driven her to work to ensure all Americans have access to affordable, quality health care. Dana’s other priorities include improving public education, investing in a renewable energy economy, and expanding economic opportunity for families in the 24th District.

“Dana is running against incumbent Republican Rep. John Katko in a district that Donald Trump lost in 2016. Katko’s deep-pocketed special interests will spend lots of money to protect this seat and we expect it to be a tough fight. EMILYs List is excited to support Dana so we can flip this seat and help expand the House majority.”

Dana Balter learned how to be a fierce advocate from her parents and her younger brother, who has cognitive disabilities. Inspired to fight for others, Dana began her career in special education at a nonprofit organization serving adults with cognitive disabilities. She worked there as a teacher and went on to serve as director of education and then director of communications and marketing. Dana earned her master’s degree in public administration and taught at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. She won a tough primary and came close to flipping New York’s 24th Congressional District as a first time candidate in 2018, and stepped up to run again in 2020, quickly mounting a strong grassroots campaign. Dana lives on Syracuse's East Side with her three rescue dogs.

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $600 million to elect pro-choice Democratic 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 strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect 150 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and nearly 1,100 women to state and local office. Nearly 40 percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. During the historic 2017-2018 cycle, EMILYs List raised a record-breaking $110 million and launched a record independent expenditure campaign. We helped elect 34 new women to the House, including 24 red-to-blue victories; enough seats to have delivered the U.S. House majority alone. Since the 2016 election, more than 46,000 women have 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.