| Chapter 1: | An Introduction to Emily's List |
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In the months that followed, EMILY's List staff and advisers became regulars on MSNBC, Larry King Live, and CNN. By June 2008, EMILY's List had bundled almost half a million dollars to Clinton's presidential campaign and spent untold amounts on “get out the vote” (GOTV) efforts to bring Democratic women to the polls during the primary season.
Given this investment, when Clinton withdrew from the race in June 2008 after a long and sometimes bitter primary battle for the Democratic nomination, some asserted that Clinton's loss, while not the fault of EMILY's List, “calls into question the very core of EMILY's List's strategy” and thus the continued relevance of the organization (Vaida and Skalka 2008). However, Malcolm, while certainly disappointed with the outcome of the Democratic primary, redirected the attention of the organization's members and the public to the battles that remained: “The organization is on track this cycle to raise more than the $46 million in PAC and soft money it took in during the 2006 cycle” (Vaida and Skalka 2008).With those funds, Malcolm and ELIST had work to do, namely helping elect female pro-choice Democratic candidates up and down the ticket and helping elect a Democrat to the White House.
The endorsement of Hillary Clinton marked the organization's first real foray into presidential politics. Since its inception in 1985 as a political action committee (PAC), EMILY's List has focused on helping elect female pro-choice Democratic candidates to Congress and state/local office. In the early years, its activity centered on providing select female candidates with “seed” money, soliciting bundled checks from the organization's membership very early in the electoral cycle (pre-primary) in order to help viable female candidates circumvent well-known fundraising obstacles. Its success in bundling money to its candidates became ELIST's claim to fame, but in subsequent decades, a focus on its