The NPR Politics Podcast - Interview: EMILY's List President On Electing Democratic Women

Episode Date: September 16, 2021

The group was founded in 1985 to get Democratic women who back abortion access elected to office and has faced criticism in the years since from people who say the group has not done enough to support Black women and other candidates of color.Now, EMILY's List has chosen a new leader: Laphonza Butler. She is the first first woman of color and the first mother to lead the group and spoke with NPR political correspondent Juana Summers and NPR White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe about her plans.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Aisha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Juana Summers. I cover politics. So no politician who runs for office does it by themselves. There's always this massive team behind that one person whose name is on the ticket because it takes a lot of support and it takes a lot of money to run for office. For a lot of women candidates over the past few decades, one of the most important teams that they can get an endorsement from and get buy-in from is Emily's List. But a lot of people listening may not know what Emily's List is. Juana, can you explain what Emily's List is? Yeah, so Emily's List is one of the biggest fundraising powerhouses on the left. It was

founded back in 1985 by a group of women, and it specifically and explicitly supports Democratic women in politics who back abortion rights. It's called Emily's List, and you might think there's a woman named Emily out there who must be the founder, but Emily actually stands for early money is like yeast. At the time that the organization was founded, there were only 12 Democratic women in the House. A Democratic woman had never been elected to the Senate without succeeding her husband. And in the 30-some years since Emily's List was founded, it has been a force that has helped empower so many women in politics, not just with money, but also helping them put together all those building blocks that you need to run a successful

and viable campaign. Okay, I really did not know that Emily's List was not named after someone named Emily. I'm just going to be honest. That is news for me. But this organization, which has been around for a long time, it just had a change in leadership, a leader who we're going to talk to today, thanks to you, Juana. And it comes at a time when all eyes are on women running for office. And because there are some

pretty key issues for women that could potentially be on the ballot this midterm. Yeah, that's right. So today we're talking to LaFonza Butler, who is the new head of EMILY's List. She is the first woman of color, the first Black woman to lead this organization. And she is taking over EMILY's List at a really high stakes time for Democrats. They are staring down what could be a really difficult midterm election in 2022. And this is also happening during a really big fight over abortion rights that looms large, and it has energized a number of Democratic women. LaFonza Butler, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today.

Thanks for having me, Juana. I am excited to be here and to be a part of this conversation with you and Aisha. So you've been a union leader. You've been a Democratic strategist for a long time. You worked on a presidential campaign last cycle. Can you tell us what made you want to run Emily's list? You know, it's the same thing that made me want to wake up every single day and do those other jobs. Honestly, Juana, I have a seven-year-old daughter. Her name's Nyla. And every day waking up, not different than any other parent, wanting to make sure that what I was doing with my life and time was a demonstration to her about what she can be, but also every day making sure that I'm creating a better space and world in

which for her to live. And so as I was thinking about the M. Weasley's role, I remembered that her class had had, her kindergarten class had had a mock election around about the same time as the presidential race. And Nyla was the only kid in her kindergarten class to vote for the turtle. There are lots of different animals that were, of course, running. You know, I think there was a bear and a wolf and everybody had their own reason. All of the candidates had their own reason to run. And Nyla was the only one who voted for the turtle because he said he wanted to be fair to everybody. And so as I was thinking about the Emily's List role, I thought about the world that my daughter wanted to be a part of, a world that was fair to everybody. And so choosing to do the

work at Emily's List really does give me the opportunity to show her all that she can be, help to create a better world for her, and I think most importantly, help to create the world that she wants for herself. You are taking over this organization at a really critical moment. When I talk to women, particularly on the left, there is frankly a lot of overt fear, a lot of concern about what many of them describe as the most widespread threat to abortion rights since Roe. And that's something that's so central to Emily's list mission. So I wonder if you can talk about how you see that landscape and that challenge. I've spent my entire career doing hard things. And this, yes, is an incredibly difficult moment.

And the abortion rights and a woman's right to make her own health care decisions with her family and her doctor is an issue that is supported by a majority of Americans. And so I think what we what EMILY's List has in its favor is the will of the American people. The right wing has really been telling us exactly what their intentions were as it relates to Roe. I think that, you know, we're going to have to make sure that everyone is clear, publicly clear on what their position is on this issue. And I think that, you know, we are going to be able to continue to turn out Democratic voters to support Democratic pro-choice women in Liz's list of candidates because they're tired of seeing rights taken away.

In some ways, it seems like with these court decisions coming out, with the makeup of the Supreme Court right now, that's where part of the concern is that a lot of the decisions seem to have in some ways have already been made. Obviously, you can have changes with Congress. I guess what specifically is Emily's List going to be looking for from candidates or the arguments that they're going to be making to voters for why they should vote now when it seems like these things are already happening. And it's not clear what can be done about them in this moment if they if they are concerned about abortion rights. Well, you know that these let these pieces of legislation that are making their way to the courts start at the state legislature. And so a way to ensure that these are issues that are that are being that these rights are being protected is to make sure that Emily's list continues to.

And all of us really continue to pay attention to the legislature and who we're electing at the state and local level. Yes, the federal government is important and whether it's the, and the attacks on our rights, the rights to make decisions about our body, the attacks on our voting rights, that is happening with governors and state legislators. And so Emily's List specifically is going to be focused on engaging and investing the resources to win at the state and local level so that these are cases that don't wind their way to the courts. All right. We're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, we're going to talk about some of the biggest criticisms facing Emily's List. And we're back. There has been some criticism of Emily's List that they haven women in particular, but women of color overall, have felt like they've been left out of organizations like EMILY's List, and that these organizations have focused more on white women, just being frank about it.

Look, I appreciate the frankness. I appreciate the criticism. And it is true that all organizations can do better. I have only been a Black woman for has the courage to put herself up for consideration for public office and, frankly, experiencing daily criticism while doing it. I accept the criticism. I also accept the challenge that the organization has done not well enough to have our women candidates and women candidates of color feel like Emily's List is a home for them. And look, under my leadership, one of the things that, that I feel like is critical is that every woman feels like Emily's List is their political home. Um, and that's what we're going to be committed to doing.

Many people may not know that you were a senior strategist on then candidate Kamala Harris's campaign before she joined the Biden ticket, before she became vice president. And that is very closely tied to the work that you'll be doing with Emily's List. So I am personally curious, what did that experience teach you about women in power, women in politics, the work that you're setting out to do? What I was able to see in any number of the races in which I supported her, and particularly as a senior advisor in her run for president, is the sheer magnitude of misinformation and disinformation that happens online. The attacks of her, about her in particular, were quite ferocious in describing her character, her race, and other areas of sort of who she was as a person. me in terms of my preparing me for this role at Emily's List is that we can't ignore the disinformation that exists out there. We should not strategically, we should not want to amplify it.

At the same time, we've got to be able to tell voters who our candidates are and tell them who they are early. Kamala Harris, as a Black woman, the attacks on her, I'm not saying that obviously any vice president will be criticized, but there are very specific attacks on her as a woman and certainly as a Black woman. And even you saw this with Stacey Abrams, questions about qualifications, questions about like there's a very real thing that comes with Black women where they are questioned on their substance, their womanhood and all of these other really nasty ways as you were talking about. I guess part of it is how do you overcome built in racism? I mean, which is a fact.

Look, built in racism racism is a fact. And to say that we're going to overcome it in an electoral campaign, I think is wishful thinking. What I think we have to do with our candidates is, again, make sure that they're trained and equipped to push through those kinds of attacks. Look, Stacey Abrams is another great example of those kinds of nasty attacks. And they used what they thought would be a winning issue, a winning divisive issue. And the fact that she had filed for bankruptcy in support of her family and those other sort of financial issues.

And what strategically smart thing that she did in her campaign was to make sure that she that is. Yes, that is who she is. And yes, that is also the story of many other Georgians, is also the story of many other working families who had to make those kinds of choices in order to be able to provide for our families and do the things that are necessary. And so that's tactically and strategically in campaigns, that I think is how we push through. And those attacks, yes, they come fast and nasty at women and Black women in particular, and making sure that we run smart campaigns, that we do the work, that we engage authentically with voters. Those are the ways in which I've seen Black women in particular overcome those kinds of challenges and be successful, whether it's Stacey Abrams,

Vice President Harris, or, you know, Supervisor Holly Mitchell in LA, Black women who've seen those attacks, who've engaged authentically, and went on to be incredibly successful. All right, we're gonna have to leave it there. LaFonza Butler, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. Thank you all for having me. Thanks to your listeners. And I look forward to being able to talk with you all again. All right. That's a wrap for today. We will be back in your feeds tomorrow.

I'm Aisha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Juana Summers. I cover politics. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.