EMILYs List Statement on the Senate’s Decision Not to Advance the Freedom to Vote Act
For Immediate Release
October 20, 2021
EMILYs List Statement on the Senate’s Decision Not to Advance the Freedom to Vote Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, all 50 Republican senators voted against advancing the Freedom to Vote Act, which would bolster voting rights and reform the election systems in the U.S. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, released the following statement:
“Congressman John Lewis said on the House floor that the right to vote is ‘a sacred right.’ It’s a right that should never be boiled down to partisan antics. Our democracy is under constant threat by Republicans who unanimously showed today that they will fight against any effort to ensure that all Americans can have equal access to the ballot box. This is about restoring integrity back into our democracy, but it’s also about representation in the halls of power. It’s imperative that every American has the right to cast their ballot and elect representatives with diverse voices from different communities and backgrounds across our country. EMILYs List is proud to support and elect Democratic pro-choice women who are fighting to secure this fundamental right.”
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, 158 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.
