EMILYs List Statement on Nan Whaley Advancing to the General Election in Ohio’s Gubernatorial Elect

For Immediate Release
May 3, 2022

EMILYs List Statement on Nan Whaley Advancing to the General Election in Ohio’s Gubernatorial Election

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulated Nan Whaley on advancing to the general election to determine who will serve as Ohio’s next governor. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“With abortion under attack in states all across the country, it is critical that pro-choice governors work to protect abortion access in their state wherever possible. Whaley was the only candidate in this primary with a well-documented history of protecting abortion rights and fighting for Ohioans rights to make their own reproductive health care decisions. I have no doubt she will continue to do so in the governor’s office, and EMILYs List looks forward to supporting her every step of the way.”

Originally from a small town in Indiana, Nan Whaley learned the values of hard work and resilience from her father, a union autoworker who lost his job but never his dignity, and her mother, who worked at the laundromat behind their house to help make ends meet. Whaley viewed Ohio as a place of opportunity, so she attended the University of Dayton, becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college. Whaley fell in love with her adopted hometown and committed her career to serving it. First elected to the Dayton City Commission in 2005, Whaley was the youngest woman ever chosen for a commission seat. Whaley was elected as Dayton’s mayor by a double-digit majority in 2013 and has since worked tirelessly on behalf of her community’s women and children. EMILYs List first endorsed Whaley during her 2013 run for mayor of Dayton. She was also a finalist for the 2014 Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award, which celebrates extraordinary women serving in state or local office. Whaley is EMILY's List’s first endorsed challenger at the gubernatorial level in the 2022 cycle.

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.