Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego Nominated by EMILYs List for 2022 Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award
For Immediate Release
March 22, 2022
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego Nominated by EMILY's List for 2022 Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, announced that Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego is a nominee for the ninth annual Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award.
“EMILY’s list is thrilled to announce that Mayor Kate Gallego is a nominee for the 2022 Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award,” said Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List. “After being elected with the highest number of votes ever cast for a Phoenix mayoral candidate, Gallego hit the ground running to better the lives of her constituents.”
“Under Mayor Gallego’s leadership, Phoenix is on its way to becoming one of the most sustainable cities in the country. She has fought to drastically improve Phoenix infrastructure, galvanizing the campaign for the largest local government commitment to transportation infrastructure in the United States when it passed in 2015. She is a proponent of business growth and has worked tirelessly to bring new jobs across various sectors to Phoenix, while also advocating for the importance of equal pay for women. EMILYs List applauds Mayor Gallego’s impressive track record as a civil servant and is eager to see how she continues to positively impact Arizonans in the future.”
EMILYs List proudly supported Kate Gallego both times she ran and won the race for mayor of Phoenix, including a 2018 special election run and again in 2020.
About Mayor Kate Gallego
Kate Gallego serves as mayor of Phoenix, the fifth largest city in the country. The pandemic hit during her first full year as mayor. She worked to fight for her community while juggling responsibilities as a divorced mom of a toddler. Her priorities include addressing climate change and creating high-wage jobs. Prior to running for mayor, she served on the Phoenix City Council where she worked to close the pay gap and improve transportation access.
About the Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award
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, California Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo in 2019, former Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes in 2020, and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo in 2021.
The Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award winner will be chosen with community input. Online voting can be found here.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego is nominated alongside:
- Vernetta Alston, North Carolina state representative
- Cecelia González, Nevada state representative
- Christina Haswood, Kansas state representative
- Tishaura O. Jones, St. Louis mayor
- Bee Nguyen, Georgia state representative
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.
