EMILYs List Endorses Val Demings for U.S. Senate in Florida

For Immediate Release

June 10, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Val Demings for U.S. Senate in Florida

Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Val Demings for U.S. Senate in Florida. Emily Cain, executive director of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“EMILYs List is proud to endorse Val Demings for U.S. Senate. Congresswoman Demings has dedicated her career to pursuing justice and equality for all Floridians. First as a social worker, then as a law enforcement officer, she has been a champion for the vulnerable families and children in her community. She was first elected to Congress in 2016 and has since been a leader on issues including criminal justice, economic equality, and gender discrimination. We know that her hard work will only continue as a U.S. senator.” 

“Florida’s women and families have been abandoned by their senators in favor of an extreme, partisan agenda. We are confident that Val Demings will always prioritize people over politics and will better the lives of Floridians. We look forward to supporting Congresswoman Demings as she flips this seat from red to blue and expands the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate.” 

Lifelong Floridian Val Demings is the youngest daughter of a janitor and a maid’s seven children. She attended a segregated school until sixth grade and was the first in her family to graduate from college. She became a social worker in foster care before joining law enforcement to continue to protect her community’s vulnerable children. After 24 years of distinguished service in Orlando law enforcement, she became the first woman appointed as chief of police in 2007. In 2016, Val Demings was elected to Congress to represent Florida’s 10th District, where she has fought for criminal justice reform, economic equality, gun safety measures, and an end to gender discrimination and violence against women. If elected, Val Demings would be Florida’s first Black woman U.S. senator. 

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.