EMILYs List Congratulates Karen Bass on Advancing to the Runoff Election

For Immediate Release
June 8, 2022 

EMILYs List Congratulates Karen Bass on Advancing to the Runoff Election in the Los Angeles Mayoral Race

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulates Rep. Karen Bass on advancing to the November runoff in the race for mayor of Los Angeles. President of EMILYs List Laphonza Butler released the following statement:

“EMILYs List is thrilled to congratulate Rep. Karen Bass on advancing to the runoff election in the Los Angeles mayoral race. For more than 16 years, she has been a fierce advocate for Los Angeles, in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C. After making history as the first Black woman to serve as speaker of the California State Assembly, she fought for Californians impacted by the 2008 economic crisis, worked to bring billions of dollars worth of infrastructure investment to the state, and passed legislation to make health care more affordable. When she was elected to Congress, she continued to advocate for the working families and marginalized communities of Los Angeles. We are confident she will be a fierce champion for Los Angelinos as mayor. We look forward to celebrating her historical election as the first Black woman mayor of Los Angeles.”

Karen Bass and her three brothers were born and raised in Los Angeles. As a child, Rep. Bass  watched the civil rights movement unfold on television, which sparked her interest in community activism and justice. As an adult, she worked as a nurse, physician assistant, and clinical instructor at USC. She later founded Community Coalition — an organization that empowers Black and Latino communities to address substance abuse, poverty, and crime — and the National Foster Youth Institute, which advocates for foster youth. Rep. Bass was elected to represent Los Angeles in the California State Assembly in 2004, and she went on to serve as the first Black speaker of the Assembly. In 2010, she was elected to Congress for the first time, where she represents Los Angeles. Rep. Bass would be the first woman and first Black woman elected to the office.

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.