Six Emerge Pennsylvania Women Running for Office

Harrisburg – Tuesday marked the filing deadline for this Spring’s Primary and Emerge Pennsylvania is proud to announce that 6 Emerge Pennsylvania women will be appearing on the ballot.  Emerge Pennsylvania is an organization dedicated to recruiting and training Democratic women to run for office in order to increase the number of women in public office.

The Emerge Pennsylvania women on the ballot in 2016 are: 

Mary Ellen Balchunis – 7th Congressional

Carolyn Committa – 156th State House

Barbarann Keffer – 163rd State House

Elaine Schaefer – 165th State House

Diane Cornman-Levy – 168th State House

Movita Johnson-Harrell – 190th State House

“We are so proud to see this first round of Emerge Women on the ballot,” said Emerge PA, Executive Director, Anne Wakabayashi. “Every one of these women are leaders in their communities and are passionate about making Pennsylvania better and they are the beginning of the pipeline of women Emerge Pennsylvania is working to build.”

Since the first Emerge state was launched in 2002 Emerge has trained more than 1,500 Democratic women to run for office to date. Fifty-two percent of Emerge alumnae have run for office or been appointed to local boards or commissions. Of those who have run for office, 70 percent won. Additionally, Emerge has a strong record of diversity – forty percent of alumnae are women of color. Follow Emerge Pennsylvania on Facebook for more updates on the program.

 

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