EMILYs List Endorses Deidre DeJear for Iowa Governor

For Immediate Release
December 17, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Deidre DeJear for Iowa Governor

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Deidre DeJear for governor of Iowa. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“The people of Iowa deserve a champion for small businesses, education, child care, and affordable health care as their governor, and Deidre DeJear is the right candidate to help move the state forward. A local businesswoman and nonprofit leader, DeJear has dedicated her career to supporting small businesses, children, and families in Iowa. We know that as governor, she will continue to work on behalf of Iowans to make their state a more prosperous, more equal place to work and raise a family. EMILYs List is thrilled to support DeJear’s historic campaign to be the first Black governor of Iowa.” 

Deidre DeJear was born in Jackson, Mississippi and moved to Oklahoma as a child with her family. DeJear moved to Iowa to attend Drake University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism. While still a student, DeJear co-founded the nonprofit Back to School Iowa to support youth to continue their education. DeJear built a business in Iowa nearly 15 years ago to support the growing need for small businesses to access affordable marketing tools, empowering over 600 businesses across Iowa. If elected governor, she would be the first Black governor of Iowa and the first Black woman governor in the country.

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.