EMILY's List celebrates the victory of Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The following is a statement by Ellen R. Malcolm, president and founder of EMILY's List, on the election of Jeanne Shaheen to the U.S. Senate:

“Jeanne Shaheen's proven leadership and vision for a better future for New Hampshire inspired the votes of New Hampshire citizens. EMILY's List has a long, proud history of supporting Jeanne Shaheen and we are so pleased to have worked side-by-side with her as she decided to get into this race, built her team and created her path to victory. EMILY's List ran one of its most extensive WOMEN VOTE! programs this cycle in New Hampshire, working to ensure new voters would vote for Obama, Shaheen, Shea-Porter and other Democratic candidates in the state.”

Facts on Shaheen and EMILY's List in New Hampshire

• Jeanne Shaheen encompasses many firsts for women in politics: not only is she the first woman Senator from New Hampshire, but she is also the first Democratic woman Senator in New England. In 1996, EMILY’s List supported Jeanne Shaheen in her successful campaign to become the first woman elected as Governor of New Hampshire.
• Overall, EMILY’s List members contributed more than $2.3 million to efforts in New Hampshire.
• This cycle, EMILY’s List supported Jeanne Shaheen for Senate and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in NH-01.

EMILY's List Political Opportunity Program in New Hampshire

EMILY’s List also works to recruit, train, and support pro-choice Democratic women running for state legislative, constitutional, and key local offices through our Political Opportunity Program (POP). In the 2007-2008 cycle, EMILY’s List invested more than $2.3 million in helping women win these offices across the country.

EMILY’s List provides training to pro-choice Democratic women, whether they are thinking of running for office for the first time or are incumbent legislators facing tough challenges. EMILY’s List helps candidates build winning campaigns by providing strategic guidance, from advising candidates as they write a campaign plan to helping them develop a voter outreach strategy, and by making contributions to the campaigns of pro-choice Democratic women running in key, targeted races.

• EMILY's List held a POP training in Concord this cycle for women running or thinking of running for office in New Hampshire.
• EMILY's List also helped support the election of 12 pro-choice Democratic women to state Senate Jackie Cilley, Betsi DeVries, Peggy Gilmour, Maggie Hassan, Molly Kelly, Daphne Kenyon, Sylvia Larsen, Bette Lasky, Martha McLeod, Mandy Merrill, Deb Reynolds, and Kathleen Sgambati.

EMILY's List WOMEN VOTE!

In the 2007-2008 cycle, EMILY’s List invested nearly $7 million in its WOMEN VOTE! Program. The nation’s largest voter engagement strategy designed specifically for women voters, WOMEN VOTE! seeks to understand and educate women voters around the country and mobilize them on behalf of Democrats up and down the ballot. EMILY’s List WOMEN VOTE! reaches out to women voters through telephones, radio, direct mail, the Internet and personal door-to-door contact to motivate them to support Democratic candidates.

There were three major components to the WOMEN VOTE! strategy in New Hampshire for this election cycle. First, the WOMEN VOTE! program conducted a modeling project of the New Hampshire voter file, which allowed EMILY's List to target individual voters based on consumer data, vote history, demographics, and census data. The results of the modeling led EMILY's List to send 730,000 pieces of mail to persuadable voters and key segments of the electorate. A recently conducted test mailing showed that the earlier voter modeling and targeted mailing worked! The results proved that the test mailing produced a clear effect on voter turnout and had driven down support for John Sununu. WOMEN VOTE! also conducted a statewide online effort as part of the “Don’t Stop at the Top” campaign, targeting young voters with banner ads that emphasized the team of Obama, Shaheen, Shea-Porter, and Gov. John Lynch, and offered a link to a website with information on all four races. The final push was a massive GOTV effort of over 50 volunteers and staff that knocked on 15,000 doors in the last 96 hours before election day.

About EMILY's List

In the 2007-2008 cycle, EMILY’s List raised more than $43 million to support its mission of recruiting and supporting women candidates, helping them build strong campaigns, and mobilizing women voters to turn out and vote. EMILY’s List and its members directly contributed more than $9 million to EMILY’s List candidates for federal and gubernatorial office. With more than 100,000 members across the country, EMILY’s List is one of the largest political action committees in the nation. Since its founding in 1985 through today, EMILY’s List has worked to elect 71 pro-choice Democratic women to the U.S. House, 13 to the U.S. Senate, eight governors, and hundreds of women to the state legislatures, state constitutional offices, and other key local offices.