EMILYs List Endorses Jennifer Riley Collins for Mississippi Attorney General
For Immediate Release
October 15, 2019
EMILYs List Endorses Jennifer Riley Collins for Mississippi Attorney General
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Jennifer Riley Collins for Mississippi Attorney General. Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:
“EMILYs List is proud to stand with civil rights advocate and Army veteran Jennifer Riley Collins’ campaign to be the next Attorney General of Mississippi. With deep ties to the state and a long career serving her country, Jennifer is more than ready to tackle the top challenges facing Mississippi families, including the opioid epidemic, affordable health care, and criminal justice reform. She has built her career on championing equality, justice, and fairness, and voters can trust that she will bring those values to the attorney general’s office in her fight for Mississippi women and working families. EMILYs List is thrilled to endorse Jennifer’s historic bid to be Mississippi’s next attorney general.”
Born and raised in Mississippi, Jennifer Riley Collins has spent her career serving and protecting her fellow Mississippians as an attorney, civil rights advocate, and a Military Intelligence Officer in the United States Army. As the former executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, she led efforts to reform the state’s juvenile justice system and has been a strong advocate for marginalized communities in Mississippi. Jennifer has served with honor in both active and reserve duty in the military for 32 years, with tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Throughout her impressive career, she has received several high profile awards including the Meritorious Service Medal and the Joint Service Medal, and she has also been nominated for recognition as one of Mississippi’s Most Outstanding Women Lawyers. Jennifer would be the first Black woman elected to statewide office in the state of Mississippi.
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 48,000 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.