EMILYs List Endorses Jessica Cisneros for Congress

For Immediate Release
December 7, 2021

EMILYs List Endorses Jessica Cisneros for Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, endorsed Jessica Cisneros in the race to represent Texas’ 28th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“Jessica Cisneros has worked on behalf of Texans for her entire career, and EMILYs List is proud to stand with her as she runs to represent her hometown in Congress. A progressive leader, immigration attorney, and community advocate, Cisneros has proven that she has what it takes to bring real change and opportunity to families in her community. We know that her work on behalf of Texas’ families will only continue when Cisneros is in Washington.

“With abortion access and voting rights under assault in Texas, it is urgent that we elect congressional representatives who will fight back against these attacks. Jessica Cisneros will fight for the expansion of reproductive rights and affordable health care, and will work to protect voting rights at the federal level. We could not be prouder to stand with Cisneros and her historic campaign.” 

Jessica Cisneros was born and raised in the border town of Laredo, Texas. She attended Early College High School in Laredo, graduating as valedictorian. She went on to earn an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law, where she specialized in immigration law. In June 2019, Cisneros launched her first campaign to challenge Rep. Cuellar. She continued to fight for South Texas as a human rights attorney helping detained families who couldn’t afford lawyers, and started working at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the Asylum Defense Project in Laredo, Texas. Most recently, Cisneros was the supervising attorney at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES). If elected, she would be the first woman to represent Texas’ 28th congressional district.

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.