Congressional Women’s Softball team releases roster

The Congressional Women’s Softball team has released its 2019 roster, with just over a month left until the annual face-off with members of the media. 

Among the returning players on the 17-member team is 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who will step out on the field again this year as one of the team’s captains.

Other veteran competitors include Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who founded the charity game in 2009.

{mosads}A number of rookies will step up to bat this year, such as Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.), Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) and Del. Jenniffer González-Colón (R-Puerto Rico). 

“We congressional women are in a league of our own, and I’m proud to continue keeping this tradition of bipartisanship, camaraderie, and friendly competition alive for a great cause,” Capito said in a statement.

Gillibrand tweeted in January that she recruited Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), but the congresswoman is not on the roster.

I’ll come clean: I recruited @AOC to the congressional women’s softball team. https://t.co/7CeIyCI2p8

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) January 25, 2019

The annual tradition pits bipartisan lawmakers against the Bad News Babes, a team made up of members of the press, and serves as a fundraiser for breast cancer survivors. Since its inception, the game has raised more than $1.3 million for the Young Survival Coalition, which is dedicated to young adults with breast cancer, according to a release.

“As a breast cancer survivor, I know firsthand the importance of education and outreach that informs women 45 and younger about their breast cancer risks, and empowers them to speak up for their health and fight this deadly disease,” Wasserman Schultz said in the news release. “It’s an important and special opportunity to build camaraderie as women in support of one another that we look forward to each year.”

For the past three years, the press team has walked away as the winner, but with a field of new faces, the congresswomen could give them a run for their money. However, the lawmakers’ squad will have to bounce back from the loss of its MVP, former Utah Rep. Mia Love (R), who lost her reelection race in the midterms.

“The Congressional Women’s Softball Game is the best night of the year in Washington,” Gillibrand wrote in a statement. “It brings together Democrats, Republicans, Congress, and the press, for two amazing causes: helping an important charity for women breast cancer survivors, and beating the Bad News Babes!”

The two teams will play ball on June 19.