Q&A with Emily's List President Stephanie Schriock

Emily's List is an organization dedicated to electing pro-abortion rights, Democratic women to political office for 31 years. Stephanie Schriock has been the organization's president since 2010 and was campaigning for Hillary Clinton in North Carolina on Saturday.

State & National Editor Benji Schwartz spoke with Schriock about the 2016 election and the goals of Emily's List. 

Daily Tar Heel: Emily’s List’s goal is to get pro-choice women into office, and their method is partially from the name — early money is like yeast. Earlier, the group had to be more strategic in its decisions but now it’s a larger organization, with nearly three million members. So what’s different now? What do you look for now in choosing candidates to support?

Stephanie Schriock: We’ve always based our decisions on very strategic information — just two things have happened over 31 years. One, we’ve convinced more women to run for office. And two because of our membership growth we have additional resources to support those women. But when we’re looking at a candidate, we start at a simple three for three — you have to be pro-choice, a democrat, and a woman. That’s the bar. At that point what we do is work with women who meet that criteria. 

Often we’re recruiting them to begin with and sitting at their kitchen table and urging them to run for office, and then hopefully they say yes and then we really help with finding staff, working with the budgets, helping with the campaign plans. And then we sort of see how they do, to be honest. There’s a little bit of “let’s see if you are ready to take on what it takes to be a candidate.” And once we see that and it’s in a state or a district we believe is viable for a democrat to run in, that’s when we endorse and put that candidate in front of our membership. 

So it’s a little bit of a process, but we’re very careful about who we endorse — we do not endorse every pro-choice democratic woman, and because we’ve been doing this for 31 years we’ve been able to build relationships with women who continue to move up through the pipeline of elected offices.

DTH: It has been brought up that gaining support from the younger generation has changed — have your strategies changed alongside this difference? Do you look for different staff, or different qualities?

SS: On the staffing side, I would say that still the vast majority of folks who are coming in and working on campaigns, because the lifestyle can be one that’s difficult when you’ve settled as a family, are young women and men, who we train to work on campaigns and Emily’s List. But the thing that we’re really also trying to engage at Emily’s List is we want more young women to run for office. 

When Emily’s List started in 1985 really the women that were running were often women whose families had grown up because the kids had graduated from high school and they started their political careers then. Even if you think of Nancy Pelosi, she didn’t run for the United States house of Representatives until her fifth child was in high school. That’s when she started, which is great, we need women of that age too. 

But the truth is we have major issues in this country around college affordability, college debt, equal pay, paid leave, paid maternity leave, and we hardly have any women under the age of, frankly, 35 sitting at our decision making tables and it’s not that we have a lot of young men either, but we are particularly short on young women. And we need more young women to step up and run and we really encourage everyone to think about when elected service might be the right time.

DTH: You've said you’re supporting Deborah Ross and that she has a high chance of winning, but just this past week the Senate Leadership Fund pumped $8.2 million into advertising for incumbent Sen. Burr. What’s Emily’s List’s next step to deal with this?

SS: Well the (Senate Leadership Fund) coming in with that kind of money is precisely why I think we have a really good shot of winning this race because they just realized that their incumbent, who is supposed to be safe is in big trouble. And Richard Burr is in big trouble for a variety of reasons, most of which is that he isn’t connected with the voters of the state anymore and he really has been looking out for special interests over the needs of North Carolinians. 

Deborah Ross, to her incredible credit has put together a very strong organization on the ground here, but also a vision that ties to Hillary Clinton’s vision, for this country, which is an economy that works for everyone and is family-focused. We’ve been talking about equal pay and paid leave and affordable child care is such an important part when I think about our opportunity after this election in next year’s Congress. If we do our job here in North Carolina and we elect Hillary Clinton as president and Deborah Ross as United States Senator, women and families are going to see real change in their daily lives and their economic security.

DTH: This election, definitely in the Democratic primary and a little in the Republican primary became a referendum on the influence of big money in politics. Hillary Clinton managed to raise $143 million in the month of August and people are pleased about that, but at the same time she’s campaigning against that happening in the future — where does Emily’s list find itself in the middle of this money issue?

SS: Like Hillary Clinton and Deborah Ross, we really feel like there needs to be a change in how we fund our campaigns in this country. Hillary Clinton has made it clear that we have to get rid of Citizens United and we have to really make sure that there’s transparency. And we can do this if we have the right leaders both in the White House and Congress to get this through. 

That doesn’t mean we won’t play by the rules that are set, because right now, you just asked me what “Emily’s List” is going to do with $8.2 million coming against Deborah Ross. I mean, the truth is she’s going to get outspent. Emily’s List and others are going to find ways to lessen her getting outspent by as much, but the Right has a huge amount of wealth and resources that they are going to drop in these races. What we have to do is try to limit the gap between these amounts and we need people. 

We need people power. We have more voters — we need to get our voters to the polls. And we need folks of all ages, particularly younger voters to get engaged, not just as voters but volunteers, to make sure people get to the polls. That’s how we survive the billion dollars that’s coming in from the Koch brothers. And that’s just the Koch brothers’ billion — there are plenty of other billions coming in. If I were you in North Carolina I would not watch your TV anymore.

DTH: A theme that comes up often is that every election is the most important and different, but this election is especially the most important and different — how much of a risk do you think this election is to pro-choice individuals in this country?

SS: The risk is so incredibly high. Let’s begin with we’ve never had a presidential nominee like Donald Trump, whose rhetoric is dangerous and divisive. It is a racist, sexist rhetoric that is really offending the best of people and it’s just dangerous — dangerous to our country and our standing in the world. We’ll start there. 

Then you look at his policies, what policies he’s actually talking about, which, sadly, is not as much as you’d think a presidential candidate would be talking about. But his policies as they relate to women are draconian. And just listen to his words. He actually said that he thought women should be punished for having an abortion. He has said that if his daughter was sexually harassed in the workplace she would just leave — is that what women are supposed to do? A vast majority of women can’t just leave, it’s not on them, it shouldn’t be happening. This Mad Men era of rhetoric could really hurt the standing of women in the workplace. 

We’ve made so much movement for women — we’ve broken through so many doors and ceilings, so the next generation of women didn’t have to, and this guy, and the Republican Party, wants to put the walls back up and the ceilings back in and the doors back in and to hold us back again so that we have to do it all over? Our mothers and grandmothers are screaming at the top of their lungs, because we weren’t supposed to have to go through it again.

DTH: Beyond not rebuilding the barriers, what progress does Hillary Clinton achieve if elected?

SS: Let’s stick with the conversation on full access to women’s healthcare in the country. The Clinton Campaign has been a champion of Planned Parenthood. She wants to get us out of the conversation of defending Planned Parenthood and actually has said we should expand Planned Parenthood in this country. That would mean so much for millions and millions of women across the country. 

She also has talked about getting rid of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents any federal dollars going to access to abortion for women in this country. We need to have a debate about this and we haven’t had a debate in this country for a very long time. The ability to choose when you’re going to have a family and how you’re going to have a family is at the centerpiece of not just economic success but just happiness and success in this country and if women and their families — their partners or their husbands — don’t have the ability to make a full range of choices, then we are holding that family back.

DTH: A lot of these decisions are not federal right now — they’re state level. After the Supreme Court decision in the Texas case, which opened up for new legislation on TRAP laws, what’s Emily’s List’s role in local and state level fights?

SS: Well Emily’s List’s role is to elect more Democratic women as legislators to prevent that stuff from happening in the first place or to repeal those that have come into place. That’s our role in it. 

But you did bring up an incredibly important role in this election coming up and that is the United States Supreme Court, and all of the courts in this country. We have an opening on our United States Supreme Court. This seat has been open longer than any other seat — why? Because of the pure obstruction of the Republican Senate not doing their job to have a vote. The president did his job. He nominated somebody. Now they’re supposed to do their job. And the other justices could be retiring in the years to come and will be at some point. What kind of leader we want in the White House and what kind of leadership we want in the Senate will determine what that judicial branch looks like. 

And we already know that Trump and Pence have made it clear that they’re not going to put in a justice that stands for Roe v. Wade. Which is court precedent. So this is the kind of justices they’re talking about putting in — radical, right-wing justices that are going to roll back not just access to reproductive rights in this country, but I believe voting rights and civil rights and economic rights will fall along with it.

DTH: What’s your stance on Merrick Garland as the nominee? If Clinton is elected what would you like her to do? Before his nomination there were talks of a black woman justice or Indian woman justice being nominated. If Clinton is elected president would you like to see her present a more diverse judge? 

SS: At Emily’s List we trust our leader’s decisions. We trust that President Obama and a President Hillary Clinton will make the best choices for this country. That’s why personally I’m so supportive of Hillary Clinton. I have no doubts in her desire to ensure that this country is protected and well-run and that it is about good government: by the people, for the people — for all the people. She believes that, and that’s not what we’re hearing out of Donald Trump, nor any of the Republicans who are running.

DTH: We’ve seen a polarization among candidate preference based on sex — most men support Donald Trump and most women support Hillary Clinton. Part of the reason to focus on electing women is to normalize it so voting wouldn’t be based on sex. Is this election a step back in this regard?

SS: What we know in Emily’s List is women don’t vote for women because they’re women. That doesn’t happen. What we know is women vote for candidates who are committed to supporting women and families and are advancing policies that are supporting women and families. So what you’re seeing in this gender divide with women supporting Hillary Clinton is not dissimilar from the greatest gender gap we’ve ever seen — for Barack Obama in 2012. 

It’s about candidates who support policies that advance economic security for women and families. And we’re seeing a greater divide now because Hillary has such an incredible forward-looking set of policies, and a five-point plan, economically speaking, for her first hundred days, that could absolutely change the trajectory of women and families in this country, versus Donald Trump, who doesn’t support any of those plans and throws out rhetoric that is incredibly offensive to women.

DTH: Where does the Madeleine Albright line, “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support women,” fit into that?

SS: All I can say is I know women voters are looking for candidates, as with all voters, are looking for candidates who support them. And I love Madeleine Albright, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I agree with everything that she says.

DTH: Where does Tim Kaine figure into Emily’s List’s decision because while he says he would never outlaw abortion, he supports a number of ideas that would restrict its use?

SS: Well first Emily’s List only endorses women, so we’ve endorsed Hillary Clinton and support her in her choices. Let me just say that Sen. Kaine has really become an incredible champion for Planned Parenthood and for women, and enjoys the support of Planned Parenthood, not just in his reelection but currently as well. He is someone who has really stood up and fought for women and access to the full range of health care that we need.

DTH: Looking ahead, are you preparing for reapportionment in 2020?

SS: We rolled out a program recently in Emily’s List called apportionment 2020. That’s a 14-state targeted process to look at legislatures and very specifically, specific seats in legislatures that we would like to swing before the 2020 census for the 2021 redistricting. And you can believe that North Carolina is one of those states. So you will see Emily’s List is not just here for Deborah Ross and Hillary Clinton, but you’re going to see Emily’s List for a long time.

DTH: Is there anything that you’d like to add?

SS: Just one quick thing on why Hillary Clinton’s success is so important. She is someone who is very thoughtful and who’s really considered what we need to do to help everybody. Whether it’s women, or men, or the elderly, or those who have more success in this country. And she’s laid out an extraordinary set of ideas that I know she can enact into policy. That goes from debt free college and free community college to ensuring that women get equal pay and every family has paid leave. These are not small things. These are things that are going to drive more dollars into our communities and advance the security of all of our communities. And if we’re thinking about this particularly if someone who is in college or just coming out of college, having these opportunities and the leveling of the playing field could change everything. And I really believe she’s the one who can get this done.

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