EMILYs List Endorses Missy Cotter Smasal for Election to Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Missy Cotter Smasal for election to Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. EMILYs List Interim President Jessica Mackler released the following statement:
“Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District deserves better than an anti-choice extremist who has supported some of the most radical and draconian abortion restrictions in the country. Missy Cotter Smasal is ready to hit the ground running and get the district back on track on day one. She’s a pro-choice champion who is committed to stopping a Republican national abortion ban and ensuring that Virginians, and all Americans, have access to reproductive health care and the ability to control their bodies and their futures. EMILYs List is proud to endorse her today, and we look forward to helping her unseat Jen Kiggans in November.”
Missy Cotter Smasal is a U.S. Navy veteran, former small business owner, adjunct professor, and the executive director of a nonprofit organization that honors our nation’s servicewomen. She served as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy and deployed aboard the U.S.S. Trenton during Operation Enduring Freedom, after which she owned a small business in the restaurant industry in Virginia Beach for a decade. Cotter Smasal also serves as the Virginia citizen representative on the Chesapeake Bay Commission, working to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed. She and her husband Bryan, who is also a veteran, have two children together.
EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, works to elect Democratic pro-choice women up and down the ballot and across the country with a goal of fighting for our rights and our communities. Our work is centered around a fundamental vision: Run. Win. Change the World. EMILYs List has raised $850 million in service to that vision and has helped Democratic women win competitive elections by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running one of the largest independent expenditure operations for Democrats, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country’s first woman as vice president, 175 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 20 governors, and over 1,500 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. Visit www.emilyslist.org for more information.
