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WOMEN WILL TAKE THE GAVEL FROM MITCH MCCONNELL
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN PAC LAUNCHES BIGGEST POLITICAL INVESTMENT IN HISTORY TO FLIP SENATE
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Organization for Women Political Action Committee (NOW PAC) has announced its largest slate of endorsements at this stage of the election cycle, in preparation for its biggest financial investment in the organization’s history.
NOW PAC released its initial slate of endorsements, announcing support for 136 feminist candidates in 30 states to flip the Senate and keep the House. It includes seven Senate candidates hoping to join the Senate and nine Senate incumbents, as well as 23 House candidates looking to unseat incumbents or win an open seat, plus 99 House incumbents. The political arm of NOW — funded entirely by NOW members — will focus its efforts on funding and mobilizing its grassroots members for Senate candidates in states that can flip the Senate to a pro-woman majority.
“It doesn’t matter who is in the White House if we don’t take the gavel from Senator Mitch McConnell and give it to someone who supports women,” said NOW PAC Chairwoman Toni Van Pelt. “For too long, an anti-women majority in the Senate has attacked our reproductive rights, our economic security, our safety and our dignity in this country.”
NOW PAC also highlights its “rebound candidates,” who are candidates that ran in 2018 and lost, but are back in 2020. We’ve already seen early success of these candidates in their second time around, such as Marie Newman (IL-03) who toppled an anti-choice Democratic incumbent in the Illinois primary.
Women voters and NOW members have always been a critical volunteer base to talk to women voters about the feminist issues at stake in elections from the bottom of the ballot to the top. The 2020 election results will depend on the turnout of women of all demographics and backgrounds.
Additionally, 80 percent of the NOW PAC endorsed candidates who are challenging an incumbent or vying for an open seat are women candidates.
Van Pelt said that the organization will soon launch its largest- ever digital organizing program to recruit members to volunteer for key target races, with a plan to unveil an Adopt a Senate Campaign program in the summer. This program was planned prior to COVID-19, but it creates a natural response to current physical distancing.
“NOW members have been mobilizing for candidates for years -- or in many cases, decades -- knocking doors and volunteering in campaign offices,” Van Pelt said. “In this new reality, we are prepared to shift our efforts into all of the remote opportunities available to reach voters and make a huge impact in November.”
The global pandemic has shown just how much the world relies on women’s labor in the workforce as health care workers, domestic workers, educators and service workers. It also has shown how much unpaid labor women provide as primary parents and as caretakers of family members.
As a result, COVID-19 has laid the case for NOW’s priority legislation and electing feminists who will pass them – such as raising the minimum wage for all workers, removing the artificial timeline on the Equal Rights Amendment, equal pay, paid sick leave, paid family leave, federal abortion protections and universal health care.
“We ask about these issues in our candidate interviews, so we know our endorsed slate will be a part of the new majority in Congress that will finally pass these priorities and build a safe, equal, and dignified United States for everyone in it,” Van Pelt said.
Senate Candidates to Flip the Senate
Teresa Tomlinson (Georgia)
Kimberly Graham (Iowa)
Sara Gideon (Maine)
Steve Bullock (Montana)
Abby Broyles (Oklahoma)
Jaime Harrison (South Carolina)
Open Seat
Rep. Ben Ray Luján (New Mexico)
Senate Incumbents
Senator Doug Jones (Alabama)
Senator Dick Durbin (Illinois)
Senator Gary Peters (Michigan)
Senator Tina Smith (Minnesota)
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
Senator Cory Booker (New Jersey)
Senator Jeff Merkley (Oregon)
Senator Jack Reed (Rhode Island)
Senator Mark Warner (Virginia)
House Challengers
Celeste Williams (AR-03)
Chris Bubser (CA-08)
Liam O'Mara (CA-42)
Diane Mitsch Bush (CO-03)*
Marie Newman (IL-03)*
Betsy Dirksen Londrigan (IL-13)*
Dani Brzozowski (IL-16)
Kara Eastman (NE-02)*
Nancy Goroff (NY-01)
Melanie D'Arrigo (NY-03)
Tedra Cobb (NY-21)*
Tracy Mitrano (NY-23)
Dana Balter (NY-24)*
Nate McMurray (NY-27)*
Vangie Williams (VA-01)*
Carolyn Long (WA-03)*
Open Seats
Christy Smith (CA-25)
Ammar Campa-Najjar (CA-50)*
Kathleen Williams (MT-AL)*
Kathy Manning (NC-06)
Jackie Gordon (NY-02)
Melissa Mark-Viverito (NY-15)
*Denotes a “rebound candidate”
House Incumbents
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-02)
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (AZ-03)
Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-07)
Rep. John Garamendi (CA-03)
Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05)
Rep. Doris Matsui (CA-06)
Rep. Jerry McNerny (CA-09)
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11)
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-12)
Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-13)
Rep. Jackie Speier (CA-14)
Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA-18)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA-19)
Rep. Julia Brownley (CA-26)
Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27)
Rep. Adam Schiff (CA-28)
Rep. Grace Napolitano (CA-32)
Rep. Raul Ruiz (CA-36)
Rep. Karen Bass (CA-37)
Rep. Linda Sanchez (CA-38)
Rep. Gil Cisneros (CA-39)
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40)
Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43)
Rep. Katie Porter (CA-45) \
Rep. Alan Lowenthal (CA-47)
Rep. Mike Levin (CA-49)
Rep. Scott Peters (CA-52)
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL)
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (FL-07)
Rep. Darren Soto (FL-09)
Rep. Val Demings (FL-10)
Rep. Lois Frankel (FL-21)
Rep. Ted Deutch (FL-22)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23)
Rep. Frederica Wilson (FL-24)
Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (FL-26)
Rep. Donna Shalala (FL-27)
Rep. Lucy McBath (GA-06)
Rep. Abby Finkenauer (IA-01)
Rep. Bobby Rush (IL-01
Rep. Robin Kelly (IL-02)
Rep. Jesús "Chuy" Garcia (IL-04)
Rep. Mike Quigley (IL-05)
Rep. Sean Casten (IL-06)
Rep. Danny Davis (IL-07)
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09)
Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10)
Rep. Bill Foster (IL-11)
Rep. Lauren Underwood (IL-14)
Rep. Sharice Davids (KS-03)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)
Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08)
Rep. Cheri Bustos (IL-17)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-13)
Rep. Angie Craig (MN-02)
Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03)
Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-04)
Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05)
Rep. David Price (NC-04)
Rep. Alma Adams (NC-12)
Rep. Andy Kim (NJ-03)
Rep. Tom Malinowski (NJ-07)
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11)
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12)
Rep. Deb Haaland (NM-01)
Rep. Xochitl Torres Small (NM-02)
Rep. Dina Titus (NV-01)
Rep. Susie Lee (NV-03)
Rep. Steven Horsford (NV-04)
Rep. Kathleen Rice (NY-04)
Rep. Nydia Velázquez (NY-07)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08)
Rep. Jerry Nadler (NY-10)
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-12)
Rep. Eliot Engel (NY-16)
Rep. Antonio Delgado (NY-19)
Rep. Anthony Brindisi (NY-22)
Rep. Kendra Horn (OK-05)
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
Rep. Madeline Dean (PA-04)
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05)
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06)
Rep. Susan Wild (PA-07)
Rep. David Cicilline (RI-01)
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07)
Rep. Veronica Escobar (TX-16)
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18)
Rep. Sylvia Garcia (TX-29)
Rep. Elaine Luria (VA-02)
Rep. Bobby Scott (VA-03)
Rep. Don McEachin (VA-04)
Rep. Abigail Spanberger (VA-07)
Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08)
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (VA-10)
Rep. Gerry Connolly (VA-11)
Rep. Gwen Moore (WI-04)
See all federal endorsements at nowpac.org/federal2020.
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Since 1977, the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee (NOW PAC) has worked to elect more uncompromising feminists to the White House and Congress. NOW PAC’s aggressive grassroots organizing and early support for feminist candidates have been changing the faces of those elected to federal office.
NOW PAC only raises money from NOW members, so our political work is 100% grassroots.