Emerge America

Emerge America is a non-profit national political organization based in San Francisco with the mission to increase the number of Democratic women leaders from diverse background in public office through recruitment, training and providing a powerful network.^[1]

Background[]

Andrea Dew Steele is Emerge America's founder and was their first president, resigning in May 2019.^[2] Steele co-founded the original affiliate, Emerge California,^[3] which was formed in 2002. After initial success, Emerge was expanded to a national organization known as Emerge America by Steele in 2005.^[4] Emerge America added affiliates in 6 states in its first year and by the 2016 presidential election, it had affiliates in 23 states. The organization's strategy is to have affiliates in all 50 states by 2020.^[1][5] Steele says the initial aim is for women to achieve 30% representation for women in government, noting evidence suggests this level passes a critical mass to effectively enact institutional change.^[5] Emerge America has had 4,000 graduates, of which more 690 have been elected and are currently serving a political office, as of October 2018.^[6]

Hillary Clinton has praised the group as an organization helping to elect Democrats since the 2016 election by using coaching on public speaking, fundraising, networking, and ethical leadership.^[7][8][9] , the Political Director, said enrollment has increased across the board since the 2016 presidential election, and some classes have seen attendance almost double.^[10] Overall, Emerge has seen an 87% increase in the number of applications since the 2016 election.^[11] Gholar notes that at the end of 2017, there were 427 women running for a position in the U.S. Congress, compared to 219 women running at the same time in 2015.^[10]

References[]

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