EMILY’s List eyes $90 million haul for 2018

EMILY’s List is looking to invest tens of millions of dollars in candidates for 2018 – an amount similar to a presidential year – as it looks to take advantage of strong donor interest and a surge of women running for elected office.

“It’s been the best off-year we’ve ever had,” EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock said during an interview for The Hill’s Power Politics podcast.

EMILY’s List raised and spent $90 million as it worked to elect Hillary Clinton and other female candidates in 2016. A recent burst of mobilized donors and eager candidates has propelled the organization to think big for 2018.

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“I’m feeling confident that we can meet that $90 million, even without a presidential campaign going on, and the truth is, we’re going to need it,” said Schriock, the influential leader of the nation’s largest resource organization for women in politics.

“We have never had this many candidates,” she continued. “We have already launched women in well over 50 competitive U.S. House races alone [and] we’ve got to make sure at EMILY’s List that they’re getting the support that they need.”

A veteran of Democratic political campaigns and fundraising, Schriock has led the organization, whose name is an acronym for “early money is like yeast,” since 2010. Its goal is to elect pro-choice, Democratic female candidates by recruiting and training them, and mobilizing voters to elect them.

Schriock said women’s decisions to run for elective offices are the result of disappointment that a woman did not win the White House in 2016, and opposition to President Trump and GOP control in Washington.

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“The everyday results of a Trump administration and a Trump Republican Party that is stripping away everything that women in this country care about,” Schriock said, is “the reason we’re seeing continued momentum of Democratic women wanting to run for office, women getting engaged in local activities to organize and donations coming in.”

Trump “is scaring everybody,” she argued.

Women this year are focused on issues, including access to health care and provisions of the Affordable Care Act including the birth control mandate, immigration policies and threats to split up families, as well as jobs and wages, she continued.

“It’s all driving momentum right now, and this is why Democrats are in a great position — we’ve got a long way to go, but a great position — sitting here in January 2018, but it’s all being led by women candidates and women voters who are ready to take action,” Schriock said.

Power Politics, hosted by The Hill’s Alexis Simendinger, airs Saturday mornings.