What Is EMILY's List, the Group Sen. Laphonza Butler Led?

EMILY’s List, the organization formerly headed by the newest U.S. senator, Laphonza Butler, has been supporting pro-choice Democratic women, including many LGBTQ+ ones, for elected office for nearly 40 years.

Butler, the president of EMILY’s List since 2021, was appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to serve the remainder of Dianne Feinstein’s Senate term (until 2025) after Feinstein’s death. Butler, a lesbian, is only the third Black woman U.S. senator in history and the first LGBTQ+ person of color in the body. She was sworn in Tuesday.

What is EMILY's List?

EMILY’s List — EMILY stands for “Early Money Is Like Yeast” — was founded by a group of Democratic activists, including IBM heir Ellen Malcolm, in 1985. Malcolm has explained the “yeast” reference by saying, “It makes the dough rise.”

It donates money to pro-choice Democratic women running for local, state, and federal offices. It has supported 1,700 winners since 1985, according to its website. Its usual donation is $5,000, the maximum allowed by federal law, The New York Times has reported. It also makes so-called independent expenditures —spending that doesn’t go directly to candidates but funds mailings and other efforts on their behalf. In addition, it connects candidates to other donors.

Who has EMILY's List endorsed?

EMILY’s list endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and has supported other women, including transgender women and nonbinary people, running for offices ranging from Congress down to county boards and city councils. LGBTQ+ women it has benefited include U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; U.S. Reps. Sharice Davids of Kansas, Angie Craig of Minnesota, and Becca Balint of Vermont; Govs. Tina Kotek of Oregon and Maura Healey of Massachusetts; and mayors such as Tampa, Fla.’s Jane Castor, Madison, Wis.’s Satya Rhodes-Conway, Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, and Seattle’s Jenny Durkan. Castor and Rhodes-Conway are now in their second terms, while Lightfoot and Durkan ended up serving one term only.

Trans women EMILY’s list has supported include Sarah McBride, a Delaware state senator who’s now running for U.S. House, and Danica Roem, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates who’s now making a bid for the state’s Senate. Its nonbinary endorsees include Mauree Turner, an Oklahoma state representative.

The group has gone through some controversies. It received criticism in 2018 for endorsing Stacey Abrams in the Democratic primary for Georgia governor over Stacey Evans. Evans and some others felt EMILY’s List should have stayed out of a race that pitted two pro-choice Democratic women against each other, the Times reported that year.

It usually avoids endorsing anyone running against a Democratic incumbent, male or female, but it made an exception in 2018, when Marie Newman ran in the primary against anti-choice Democratic Rep. Daniel Lipinski for a U.S. House seat from Illinois. Newman lost, leading some to say EMILY’s List should have acted earlier. It went on to endorse Newman in 2020, when she won the primary and general elections, and 2022, when she lost the primary to Sean Casten.

To be endorsed by EMILY’s List, a candidate has to be not only pro-choice and a Democrat but also viable — to be well-organized and have a reasonable chance of winning. Michelle Lujan Grisham didn’t get the group’s endorsement when she first ran for U.S. House from New Mexico in 2008, but she acknowledged she wasn’t ready then. “That’s a harsh reality,” she told the Times in 2018. But EMILY’s List offered advice and tech support, and “hung in there with me,” she added. It endorsed her in later, successful runs for Congress and for New Mexico governor, the post she now holds.

“There’s no way I would be here” without EMILY’s List, she said.

Pictured, from left: Oklahoma Rep. Mauree Turner; U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids; Virginia Del. Danica Roem