To the EMILYs List Community —
Going into this election, the polls predicted a historically close race. Now that the results are in, it's clear that our country is painfully divided. In a devastating setback, Donald Trump has once again been elected president.
Like you, I wanted to believe that the American people would choose to turn the page on the chaos and division that Donald Trump has wrought. I wanted to believe that his campaign of hate and disinformation would fail. I wanted to believe that, together, we would begin to chart a new path forward.
From the beginning, we have been clear about the stakes in this election. The threat to our fundamental freedoms, including democracy and abortion rights, is real — and we must continue to fight for them. I know that this fight will be led by the courageous Democratic pro-choice women who won their elections this week, and who will be the fiercest and most determined advocates for the American people in the months ahead. After all, and across time, it has been women at the forefront of some of the toughest fights humanity has ever faced.
While we await results in several races and to learn the outcome in the House, I'm grateful to all of the Democratic pro-choice women who put their name on the ballot across the country, like Senator Tammy Baldwin (WI) and Senators-elect Angela Alsobrooks (MD), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), and Elissa Slotkin (MI), who won their races. Over the past eight years, we've also made tremendous progress in the states, including last night when we expanded the Democratic majority on the Michigan Supreme Court and broke the Republican supermajority in the North Carolina state House.
We will continue to share updates with you as we get more information. For now, it's too early to make firm conclusions about exactly how specific voting blocs behaved and what drove last night's terrible result, but it is clear that voters were extraordinarily dissatisfied with the status quo. We are in the field now with a large post-election survey and will be digging deep into what went wrong. I do firmly believe that the wins we did have down ballot (and there are some really important ones to note), were driven by reproductive freedom.
I am also profoundly grateful to Vice President Kamala Harris for stepping up to lead and running an incredible campaign in just 13 weeks. She faced significant headwinds in addition to a candidate willing to lie and divide in order to win.
Finally, I'm grateful to you for always believing that a better future is possible, and for investing your time and resources into making it a reality. For nearly 40 years, EMILYs List has fought against all odds to prove that women can run, women can win, and women can lead. That fight continues. In difficult times, the EMILYs List community has always been a source of comfort and a fount of strength. I'm counting on that now, and I hope you know you can count on us too.
With determination,
Jessica
Jessica Mackler (she/her/hers)
President, EMILYs List
