EMILYs List Endorses Melissa Winker in Wisconsin Special Election

For Immediate Release
March 11, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Melissa Winker in Wisconsin Special Election 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Melissa Winker in the special election for Wisconsin State Senate to represent District 13. Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“EMILYs List is thrilled to endorse Melissa Winker for State Senate. As a fourth generation Wisconsinite, educator, small business owner, and mother of five, Melissa Winker has deep roots in her community and is ready to fight for Wisconsin families. Melissa’s commitment to securing clean drinking water, affordable health care, and improving the education of all children in Wisconsin will make her a critical voice in the State Senate and we are confident she will win this special election. ” 

Melissa Winker is an educator, parent, and business owner whose family has been in Wisconsin for four generations. Her grandfather opened a dentistry practice more than 80 years ago in Oconomowoc, where Melissa and her husband, Eric Winker, a firefighter and paramedic, reside. Melissa has been teaching in Wisconsin schools for over 18 years and understands the realities of running a business, as she and her husband have owned a number of residential properties. Her credentials include a master of science in education (UW-Madison) and National Board Certification. 

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, 157 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.