EMILYs List Endorses Donna Edwards for Congress
For Immediate Release
February 16, 2022
EMILY's List Endorses Donna Edwards for Congress
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Donna Edwards to represent Maryland’s 4th Congressional District. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:
“EMILYs List is proud to have supported Donna Edwards throughout her career of service, and we are thrilled to endorse her campaign to return to Congress. Edwards is a proven leader, a dedicated public servant, and a courageous champion for the people of Maryland. She brings a wealth of experience to this race — not only her nine years of service in the House, but also her personal experiences as a Black woman and mother that have enriched our national political discourse in her recent years as an insightful analyst. As a nonprofit executive, Edwards spearheaded the bipartisan effort to pass the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. As a member of Congress she fought to expand STEM education in schools, passed historic investments in HBCUs, secured funding for Maryland’s After-School Supper Program, saved and created thousands of Maryland jobs, and prevented cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Maryland and our country need Donna Edwards back in Congress, building on the progress she has made, and EMILYs List will be with her every step of the way.”
Former Congresswoman Donna Edwards is a proven leader running to fight for her Maryland community in the U.S. House once again. Edwards grew up in a military family and earned her bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish from Wake Forest University, where she was one of only 12 Black women in her class. She went on to earn her law degree from the University of New Hampshire School of Law, worked as an attorney in private practice, clerked for a District of Columbia Superior Court judge, and worked as a public interest lawyer. As a nonprofit executive, she co-founded and led the National Network to End Domestic Violence, spearheading the bipartisan effort to pass the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. In 2008, Edwards became the first Black woman elected to represent Maryland in Congress. She vacated the seat to run an historic campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2016, and brought her vital perspective to a tough primary. After Donald Trump was elected, she set out in a borrowed RV, logging 12,000 miles on state and local roads to understand the sources of America’s disunity while camping, hiking, and fishing along the way. Upon returning home to Maryland, she brought her voice as a Black woman from Prince George’s County to the national political conversation as an analyst on NBC/MSNBC and a contributing columnist for the Washington Post.
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.
