EMILYs List Endorses Karen Bass for Mayor of Los Angeles

For Immediate Release
October 7, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Karen Bass for Mayor of Los Angeles

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Karen Bass for mayor of Los Angeles. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“For more than 16 years, Karen Bass has been Los Angeles’ fiercest advocate, both in the halls of Sacramento and Washington, D.C. The first Black woman to serve as speaker of the California State Assembly, Karen fought to provide aid to Californians impacted by the 2008 economic crisis, jumpstarted billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure investment, passed legislation to make health care more affordable, and improved the child welfare system. When she went to Congress, Karen continued fighting for the women, children, and underserved communities of Los Angeles. As mayor, we know Karen will bring people together to find progressive solutions to the complex issues facing her city, including COVID-19 recovery and the homelessness crisis. If elected, Karen would become the first Black woman to hold the office of mayor of Los Angeles, and EMILYs List is thrilled to stand with her historic campaign.”

Karen Bass and her three brothers were born and raised in Los Angeles. As a child, Karen watched the civil rights movement unfold on television, which sparked her interest in community activism and justice. As an adult, Karen worked as a nurse, physician assistant, and clinical instructor at USC. She later founded Community Coalition — an organization that empowers Black and Latino communities to address substance abuse, poverty, and crime — and the National Foster Youth Institute, which advocates for foster youth. Karen was elected to represent Los Angeles in the California State Assembly in 2004, and she went on to serve as the first Black speaker of the Assembly. In 2010, Karen was elected to Congress for the first time, where she represents Los Angeles. Karen would be the first woman and first Black woman elected to the office.

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, 158 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40 percent 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.