EMILYs List Endorses Summer Lee for Congress

For Immediate Release
March 22, 2022 

EMILY's List Endorses Summer Lee for Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Pennsylvania state Rep. Summer Lee to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement: 

“EMILYs List is thrilled to endorse state Rep. Summer Lee for the must-win open seat in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. Pennsylvania has never before elected a Black woman to Congress, but Lee is positioned to change that. Lee has a proven track record of driving change through her work as a dedicated political organizer, activist, and advocate for social justice. During her time as state representative, Lee has proven herself as a bold, inspiring leader, making major strides to advance opportunity and justice in her community. She has fought for sustainable jobs, environmental justice, and police accountability, and she has championed workers’ rights, union protections, and gender and racial equity. Lee is a powerful advocate for reproductive justice, pledging to protect our constitutional right to abortion and to address inequities in reproductive health care access and outcomes. EMILYs List is proud to stand with Lee as she continues to courageously fight for justice.”

A lifelong resident of the region she is running to represent, Summer Lee grew up in the North Braddock and Rankin neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, and currently lives in Swissvale, Pennsylvania. Lee is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University and Howard University School of Law, where she specialized in civil rights and constitutional law. She interned with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and worked as student attorney in the Howard University School of Law Civil Rights Clinic. She went on to serve as a labor organizer with the Fight for $15, to lead voter turnout efforts with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential elections, and to spearhead a successful effort to transform the Woodland Hills School Board. In 2018, Lee won more than 67% of the vote in a race against a 20-year incumbent, doubling voter turnout, and becoming the first Black woman from Western Pennsylvania ever elected to the legislature. 

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.