Dear Friends,
We have a great opportunity that I want to share with you. Barbara Evans Fleischauer, currently the longest-serving woman Delegate in the West Virginia State House, is running for the WV State Senate.
Not so long ago, West Virginia was a solid blue state. Now it is solid red. Former President Trump carried all counties of the state in 2016. Through it all, for over two decades, Barbara has been in the WV State House, leading the fight for feminist issues, women’s, children’s, the environment, and Labor issues.
Now, during this post-Roe emergency, she has an opportunity to fight for women’s rights in the WV Senate. Meanwhile, her opponent, a former Senator, has a long voting record of support for abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or incest. He is strongly endorsed by the West Virginia Right to Life while Barbara has a zero rating. He started his career as a Democrat but when the going got rough, he became a Republican.
Barbara is a Democratic leader who has been successful in passing progressive legislation and policies for a better tomorrow. Her most recent bipartisan success was passage of a monthly cap on insulin – 3 years before Congress did it for seniors on Medicare.
This is a very close race—a toss-up—but Barbara can do it. I invite you to join me at a fundraiser for Barbara from 5:30pm to 7:30pm on Thursday, October 13 at the Georgetown Law offices of Bailey & Glasser, 1055 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, Washington, D.C. If you can’t go, please go to her website, www.FriendsofBarbara.com, and support her. We need idealistic, effective, feminist state legislators. Please help Barbara. She can and must win. She can and must win.
I have known Barbara for decades. I met her when she was a dedicated teenage member of the National Organization for Women in Pittsburgh, where I began my feminist activism. Her Aunt JoAnn Evans Gardner and Uncle Gerry Gardner were activists and leaders in NOW. Her Aunt Barbara was president of the Pittsburgh NOW. They recruited me to NOW. And together, with their leadership, we sued the Pittsburgh Press over their sex-segregated newspaper Want Ads. We took it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won! Our Pittsburgh NOW chapters also battled a long list of entities for discrimination including the Pittsburgh police department for sex and race discrimination, and a local super markets chain.
What’s important is Barbara today is a fighter, who does her homework, works tirelessly and makes things happen whether she is in the majority or the minority of the state legislature. An attorney and activist, Barbara started out as a president of the local NOW chapter and president of West Virginia NOW. She is the real deal of a legislator fighting for social justice, practical everyday issues, and economic gains for the people of WV and indeed for all of us. We need Barbara to be elected to the WV Senate. If you can, please help her..
