Georgia State Rep. Michelle Au Nominated for EMILYs List’s Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, announced that Georgia state Rep. Michelle Au is a nominee for the 10th annual Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award. EMILYs List President Laphonza Butler released the following statement:
“As the only Democratic pro-choice physician in the Georgia legislature, Dr. Michelle Au is intimately familiar with just what’s at stake when reproductive freedom is restricted, and she has worked for her entire career in office to fight for quality health care that is available and accessible to Georgians. Au has been at the forefront of advocating for addiction recovery services, affordable housing, and gun reform in the wake of the 2021 Atlanta shootings that targeted Asian women. Her dedication to her community is unparalleled, and EMILYs List is honored to have Au as one of our 2023 nominees.”
Rep. Dr. Michelle Au, a proud second-generation Chinese American, became the first Asian American woman elected to the Georgia Senate in 2020. Following redistricting, Dr. Au was elected to represent Georgia’s 50th House District in 2022 where she currently serves. Dr. Au is a practicing anesthesiologist with degrees from Wellesley College and Columbia University. As the only Democratic physician in the General Assembly, Dr. Au advocates for public health and safety, reproductive rights, and patient protections. Dr. Au was first endorsed by EMILYs List in 2020.
Named in honor of the dedicated and courageous Gabrielle Giffords, the Rising Star Award celebrates an extraordinary woman serving in state or local office. The award honors a woman who demonstrates the sort of commitment to community, dedication to women and families, and determination and civility that have been the highlights of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ career, in and out of office. Previous Rising Star Award recipients include former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams in 2014, former Boston City Councilwoman Ayanna Pressley in 2015, former Colorado House Speaker Crisanta Duran in 2016, Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym in 2017, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in 2018, and California Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo in 2019; former Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes in 2020; Harris County, Texas Judge Lina Hidalgo in 2021; and former Georgia Rep. Bee Nguyen in 2022.
The Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award winner will be chosen with community input. Online voting can be found here.
Michelle Au is nominated alongside:
Shea Backus, Nevada State Representative
Sabrina Cervantes, California State Representative
Joanna McClinton, Pennsylvania Speaker of the House
Danica Roem, Virginia State Delegate
Fentrice Driskell, Florida State Representative
EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, works to elect Democratic pro-choice women up and down the ballot and across the country with a goal of fighting for our rights and our communities. Our work is centered around a fundamental vision: Run. Win. Change the World. EMILYs List has raised $850 million in service to that vision and has helped Democratic women win competitive elections by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running one of the largest independent expenditure operations for Democrats, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country’s first woman as vice president, 175 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 20 governors, and over 1,500 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. Visit www.emilyslist.org for more information.
