EMILYs List Endorses Jena Griswold for Reelection

For Immediate Release

November 17, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Jena Griswold for Reelection

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Jena Griswold for reelection as Colorado secretary of state. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“At a time of unprecedented attacks on voting rights and democracy, EMILYs List is proud to stand with Secretary of State Jena Griswold as she runs for reelection. While Republicans restricted voting rights across the country, Secretary Griswold increased polling locations and expanded Colorado’s mail-in ballot program. She oversaw the largest general election in Colorado’s history and worked with secretaries of state across the country to ensure voters could make their voices heard despite the ongoing pandemic. Coloradans deserve a leader who will always protect the integrity of their elections and the sanctity of the right to vote, and Secretary Griswold has proven time and again that she is that leader.”

Jena Griswold is a lawyer and former small business owner who grew up in a working-class family in rural Colorado. She was the first person in her family to attend a four-year college before receiving her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Griswold practiced international anti-corruption law and worked as a voter protection attorney. She served as the director of the governor of Colorado’s D.C. office, advocating on behalf of Colorado in D.C. During that time, Griswold helped deliver hundreds of millions of relief dollars to help the Colorado communities hit by the 2013 flood. In 2019, Griswold became the youngest secretary of state in the U.S. and made history as the first Democratic woman secretary of state in Colorado’s history. 

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.