The biggest THANK YOU to our incredible community of supporters for making last night’s Men & Allies the best one yet! This event couldn’t happen without our incredible sponsors, silent auction donors, and partners – endless thanks for your unyielding support for electing champions of choice!

Couldn’t make it? There’s still time to donate to give our pro-choice champions an extra push before Election Day!

Thank you to our 2024 sponsors, partners, and silent auction donors!

Ally 

Pamela Deal | Traci Esades | Charles Nauen | Minnesota Senate DFL Caucus

Partner

Curtis Johnson | Harley Gee & Karen Hudson | Jean Spielman Housh | Rosemary & Mark Sump | Bob Rosenbaum

Supporter

Carol Ball | Dr. Annie Baietto | Sam Clark | Corey Day | Sen. Scott Dibble | Billy Dinkel - Living and Healing with Purpose | Sen. Nick Frentz | Jon Grebner | Julie Greene | Kathy Heltzer | Former Rep. Frank Hornstein | Caroline Marsili | Mary McKinley & Larry Young | Rep. Dave Pinto | Lee Sheehy | Betsy & Steve Sitkoff | Liz Young & Tim McKivergan

Friend

Michael Anderson  | Rick Brundage | Rep. Nathan Coulter | Elizabeth Carman | Mayor Melvin Carter | Sen. Steve Cwodzinski | Rep. Peter Fischer | Rep. Mike Freiberg | Bradley A. Gangnon | Former Rep. Betty Folliard | Ron Harris | w. h. | Melissa Hettmann | Marge Hoffa |  Mark Hortman | Judith Kahn | Rep. Larry Kraft | Majority Leader Jamie Long | Nevada Littlewolf | Kira Littlewolf | Ken Martin | Mike McCool | Brigette Mathiason | Polina Montes de Oca | Garrison McMurtrey | Mary & Del Moen | Toni Monster | Catherine Pearson | Daniel Pollock | Gerald Seck | Tim Stanley | Jane Willard | Gia Vitali | David Ziegler

Partners

Bauhaus Brew Labs & Minnesota Women's Press

Silent Auction Donors 

Angel Food Bakery |  Atuvava | Kate Bryant | Molly Burns-Hansen  |  Embroidered Gold  |  Erin Flannery | Jen Fox | Christy Hettmann (@creativeCPA)  |  Melissa Hettmann | Klobuchar for Minnesota |  Larissa Loden Jewelry | Nevada Littlewolf | Mary McKinley  |  Minnesota Aurora FC  | Minnesota Orchestra | Sawbill Canoe Outfitters | Spiral Brewing | Betsy & Steve Sitkoff

Every year, Women Winning hosts the Action Series leading up to the General Election that supports our endorsed champions of reproductive freedom. With power from everyday people in the community, we knock doors and raise money for our incredible candidates to give them an extra boost before Election Day! 

THIS WEEKEND

Door Knock with Sarah Kruger 

Special Guest Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman

Saturday, October 19 - 1PM

327 W King St

Winona, MN 55987

UPCOMING

SD 36 Door Knock with Janelle Calhoun & Rep. Brion Curran

Saturday, October 26 - 12PM *UPDATED TIME*

Tamarack Nature Center

5287 Otter Lake Rd

White Bear Township, MN 55110

*JUST ADDED*

SD 45 Door Knock & Rally with Kelly Morrison, Ann Johnson Stewart, Tracey Breazeale, & Rep. Patty Acomb

Monday, November 4 - 2:30PM

CD3 DFL Office

3319 County Rd 101

Wayzata, MN 55391

Women Winning hosted its annual Men and Allies fundraiser last Thursday, featuring three guest speakers: Mayor Melvin Carter, Minnesota Second Gentleman Tom Weber, spouse of Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, and John Bessler, spouse of Sen. Amy Klobuchar. 

“The fact that only four states have sent two women senators to the U.S. Senate tells you everything we need to know about why this organization is still necessary,” Mayor Melvin Carter said.

“But the name of the organization isn’t Women Candidates Winning. It’s not just about Peggy winning. It’s not just about the Vice President winning. It’s not just about Toni Carter winning. This is about the women in our families, the women on our block, the women we work with, the [future] women we are raising in our homes, the women we adore, the women who raised us. I’m tired of hearing men say, ‘as a father, or husband, or a son, this is important to me.’ This is important as a member of humankind — that everyone gets to live with dignity, that everyone gets to make decisions about their health care, that everyone gets to live in the fullness of American democracy and the freedom that we celebrate as a country.”

It’s never easy to tell this story, and I think all of us who speak about our reproductive challenges wish we didn’t have to. You would think that you’d get used to it, but you don’t. I don’t. Still, it’s too important, and the fight is too real. We have the opportunity to protect our reproductive freedoms. So, I tell my story in the hope that it will empower people to take their own power and change the way forward.

Earlier this year, Tim and I were in his office at the Minnesota State Capitol, getting ready to do a press conference, when we heard the news that the Alabama Supreme Court had ruled that embryos have personhood, which effectively halted IVF treatments in the state as clinics and hospitals tried to figure out what to do. We looked at each other, and we were both just right back there, all those years ago, when we were trying to start our own family and going through our own fertility treatments. We both needed a second. Tim asked me, “Do you feel like we can talk about this publicly?” And I said, “We absolutely do not have a choice.” At the time, we had not talked about it, even with people who knew us well. But this news brought us to our knees.

I’d felt pangs of frustration and anger since Roe was overturned. I don’t think anyone should be telling us when, if, or how to start families. But when the Alabama Supreme Court ruling came down, that was a moment when it was just like, okay, now we’re here. We went through this difficult time for a purpose—to have our children—but there’s another purpose now. We have an opportunity, in leadership roles as governor and first lady, and now on the campaign trail for Kamala Harris, to tell our story. So, we told it all across the country.

During the recent debate with Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance alluded once again to the myth of “post-birth abortions” when he referenced his (mis)understanding of Minnesota’s reproductive health care laws. He claimed that Walz signed a bill that allows “a doctor who presides over an abortion, where the baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide lifesaving care to a baby who survives a botched late term abortion.” 

Vance seemingly referred to the 2023 Legislature’s repeal of the “Born Alive Infants Protection Act.” The new law now allows parents to hold and show love to their infants born with fetal abnormalities often incompatible with life, while no longer mandating doctors perform medical interventions that have no chance of success. 

This follows the presidential debate during which Donald Trump repeated his claim that abortions are being performed post-birth. While moderator Linsey Davis quickly fact-checked, “There is no state in the country where it is legal to kill a baby after it was born,” there remain voters who believe these harmful myths about abortion care. While fear and misplaced trust play a role, insufficient sex education policies lay the foundation that allows such persistent misunderstanding of pregnancy and abortion.

Thirty states require sex education, but 17 of them mandate an abstinence-only approach. Just three states both require sex education and establish that the education must be comprehensive (e.g., curriculum inclusive of a wide range of sexual, gender and relationship heath topics not limited to abstinence). 

Unfortunately, Minnesota is not one of them — our state laws currently require only that schools teach sex education; that it is “technically accurate”; and that it covers abstinence. 

Across the country, the state of sex education is not an accident.  

Lilly Ledbetter had worked for 19 years at a tire plant in Alabama when she was sent an anonymous note: her pay was as much as $2,000 a month less than what men were receiving in the same supervisory job. Ms. Ledbetter sued for sex discrimination in 1999 in federal court in Alabama, and a jury awarded her more than $3 million in back pay and damages. But the decision was reversed on appeal.

Undeterred, she pursued the case to the United States Supreme Court, which in 2007 also ruled against her, saying that she was too late — that she should have filed her claim within 180 days of receiving her first unequal paycheck, citing a narrow interpretation of the law. In a vigorous dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said it was all but impossible for Ms. Ledbetter to have known of her unfair pay in such a time period.

To close this loophole, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, which was the first piece of legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law, shortly after his inauguration. It effectively eliminates the statute of limitations on fair-pay claims. At the signing ceremony in the White House, Ms. Ledbetter, who had retired by then from her job at a Goodyear tire and rubber factory, stood behind Mr. Obama shaking her head and wringing her hands in seeming disbelief.

Ms. Ledbetter, who became a national symbol of unequal treatment of women in the workplace and a hero to many for her yearslong persistence in fighting against the status quo in court, in Congress and on the political campaign trail, died on Saturday in Alabama. She was 86.