WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, EMILY’s List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulated state Rep. Summer Lee on advancing to the general election to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILY’s List, released the following statement:
“EMILY’s List is thrilled state Rep. Summer Lee is advancing to the general election to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. Lee is a reproductive justice champion who tenaciously fights for her community’s best interests, and we know she is ready to fight for our rights in Congress. Lee is a dedicated advocate for economic and environmental justice, equitable education, and voting rights, and we know that she has what it takes to win this November. We are thrilled to stand with this bold and inspiring trailblazer in her bid to advance justice for all Pennsylvanians.”
A lifelong resident of the region she is running to represent, Summer Lee grew up in the North Braddock and Rankin neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, and currently lives in Swissvale, Pennsylvania. Lee is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University and Howard University School of Law, where she specialized in civil rights and constitutional law. She interned with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and worked as student attorney in the Howard University School of Law Civil Rights Clinic. She went on to serve as a labor organizer with the Fight for $15, to lead voter turnout efforts with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential elections, and to spearhead a successful effort to transform the Woodland Hills School Board. In 2018, Lee won more than 67% of the vote in a race against a 20-year incumbent, doubling voter turnout, and becoming the first Black woman from Western Pennsylvania ever elected to the legislature.
EMILY’s 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 EMILY’s 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.
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