EMILYs List Endorses Susan Platt for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
April 26, 2017
EMILYs List Endorses Susan Platt for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Susan Platt for lieutenant governor of Virginia.
“Susan Platt has spent her career working tirelessly behind the scenes to make Virginia a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” said Lucinda Guinn, vice president of campaigns at EMILYs List. “The EMILYs List community — now more than five million members strong — is excited to support her history-making candidacy to become the next lieutenant governor of Virginia.”
Susan Platt is a trailblazer, an organizer, an advocate for Virginia jobs, a champion for women, and a fighter for progressive values. In the mid-1990s, Susan was one of the only women managing a U.S. Senate campaign and one of the only women serving as chief of staff in a U.S. Senate office, and was nationally recognized by her bipartisan colleagues as Campaign Manager of the Year. Later, as Chief of Staff to former Vice President Joe Biden, Susan worked on the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act, highway and infrastructure investments, civil rights, and gun safety.
Susan also lobbied on behalf of thousands of Virginia jobs. She worked with U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Ted Kennedy to improve public health and begin FDA oversight of tobacco products. She led a national grassroots effort that was central to the signing of the Master Settlement Agreement between tobacco companies and 46 state attorneys general; the settlement provided more than $200 billion for state Medicaid and anti-smoking programs that reduced teen smoking from 25 percent to six percent. She also successfully advocated passage of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit that helps employ veterans and the under-employed.
A co-founder of The Farm Team and Emerge Virginia, Susan recruited and trained hundreds of women to run for office, providing them the skills they needed to be successful. One of her many triumphs was organizing women across her state to re-elect Mayor Joan Foster of Lynchburg, defeating the handpicked candidate of arch-conservative Jerry Falwell, Jr.
Virginia has never had a woman serve as governor or lieutenant governor in its 228-year history.
EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $500 million to support pro-choice Democratic women candidates – making them one of the most successful political organizations ever. Our grassroots community of over five million members helps Democratic women wage competitive campaigns – and win. We recruit and train candidates, support strong campaigns, research the issues that impact women and families, and turn out women voters. Since our founding in 1985, we have trained nearly 10,000 women to run and helped elect 116 women to the House, 23 to the Senate, 12 governors, and over 800 to state and local office. Forty percent of the candidates EMILY’s List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color – including every single Latina, African American, and Asian American Democratic congresswoman currently serving.
