Elect Women: Laphonza Butler
March 16th, 2023
“Running for office… is an incredible demonstration of civic participation.”
Laphonza Butler is President of Emily’s List, an organization that aims to help elect pro-choice democratic women to office. We're inspired by the organization's motto to "reject apathy and the status quo. Repeat daily." We discuss how women bring the challenges and dreams of their community to the policymaking table.
Running for office is perhaps the ultimate form of civic participation. Bringing more women to policy making discussions is crucial, but it takes women to be asked at least seven times before they choose to run for office. In addition, we have to pay extra attention to women as voters. We need to ask and answer the question of whether women will elect women to office.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guest: Laphonza Butler
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
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Laphonza Butler Transcript
Mila Atmos: [00:00:00] Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight. Shopify is a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs like myself the resources once reserved for big business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/hopeful. All lowercase.
Welcome to Future Hindsight, a podcast that takes big ideas about civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for you and me. I'm Mila Atmos. Here where I'm talking to you from in New York City, it's that time of year when the green shoots of new life come just in time. Just when we needed more daylight and a little bit of warmth, spring starts to creep out from under the slush and mud. So I'm thinking about renewal and how we bring new energy to long struggles. And I wanted to have all that in mind as we speak to today's guest.
Laphonza Butler is president of Emily's List, an organization that aims to help elect pro- choice Democratic women to office. I was reading the organization's website, and it had a slogan that I want to share with you "Reject apathy and the status quo. Repeat daily." And that really chimes with what we are trying to do here at Future Hindsight.
So welcome to the show, Laphonza Butler. Thank you for joining us.
Laphonza Butler: [00:01:32] Thank you so much, Mila, for having me. Excited to be here.
Mila Atmos: [00:01:36] I'm thinking about renewal, in part because Emily's List has been going since 1985, and I'm thinking about how much the political landscape has changed in that time and how much your organization has changed. Why is it important to elect Democratic pro-choice women to office?
Laphonza Butler: [00:01:55] It's a really important question, and I appreciate so much how you're grounding the conversation in the spirit of renewal. As a almost 38-year old organization who has been driving forward such an important mission of electing Democratic pro-choice women for that length of time. One always has to think about renewal and how we stay relevant and current in the Democratic politics space, but
most importantly, in this space of civic engagement. And so you ask, why is it important to elect Democratic pro-choice women? And I'd give you a couple of answers. One is that representation matters. And ensuring that the voices and journeys of women who share the values set with the majority of this country relative to being pro-choice is an important voice that needs to be present, that needs to be brought to all tables of decision-making at every level of government. The second is women make up a majority of the electorate in this country. And, you know, when our voice is missing from issues that are relevant to our lives, it is both the missed opportunity of how studies have shown that women lead and bring a different type of leadership. But it also is missing the opportunity to bring those the diversity of our country to the table of those decision making opportunities. And so representation is key and women lead differently. And we think it's an incredibly important voice to be brought to every table.
Mila Atmos: [00:03:32] Right. Right. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of Emily's List? I mentioned its founding in 1985. You said you've been organizing for 38 years, but the importance of electing pro-choice women wasn't always embraced by the Democratic Party. Talk about the work that brought about that change.
Laphonza Butler: [00:03:52] 38 years of grit. Emily's List was founded by a woman named Ellen Malcolm, who, with about 25 of her friends in 1985, got together in the basement of her apartment and brought their Rolodexes, the literal Rolodex, and decided that they were going to form this organization to invite other women that they knew from their Rolodexes to raise money to help women candidates run and win office. You know, it's important for everyone to know that Emily is not the name of a person. EMILY is an acronym. It means "early money is like yeast." It makes the dough rise. And so the premise of the founding of Emily's List has always been about helping to raise the resources for women candidates so that they could be taken seriously so that others across the Democratic ecosystem would know that these women were running serious campaigns and had a real path to victory. And so since that day in Ellen Malcolm's basement to this, we have worked to help elect not only our nation's first woman vice president and vice president, Kamala Harris, but we also have helped to elect more than 1700 women across the country. Whether you're talking about senators -- from the very first Democratic pro-choice senator in Barbara Mikulski that was elected in her own right -- to helping to spearhead the first year of the woman in 1992 and again in 2018 to supporting women who are running for mayor, to women who are
running for governor. And it has been an important journey to really continue to embrace, because what we saw when, for instance, the representation of Senator Barbara Mikulski was brought to the table, she... We all know her to be a champion of legislation like the Affordable Care Act. We all know her to be a champion of legislation like Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal. We all know her to be a champion of maternal health issues in her early years and gun safety. And so it's that kind of representation and that kind of leadership that has been a part of the ethos of Emily's List since its very beginning, from Barbara Mikulski, who was elected in our very early years to this class of freshman leaders in the 118th Congress. Representatives like Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from Texas, or Representative Summer Lee, who was the first black woman ever elected from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Or even just what happened in Virginia, where Jennifer McClellan was elected, the first black woman ever from Virginia. And so it is that kind of continued barrier breaking, but most importantly, the kind of lived experiences that these women bring to the tables of decision making, to champion issues, to find common ground and to make things happen for the American people.
Mila Atmos: [00:07:02] Thank you for laying out exactly how this looks on the legislative side once you elect these women. I'd like to turn to Dobbs after all that organizing over almost four decades and then the Supreme Court hands down a decision that has made it increasingly clear that the overturning of Roe versus Wade was not the end of the matter for abortion opponents. Instead, it was the beginning of a wave of terrifyingly restrictive legal and legislative moves to control women's bodies. And it has been an awakening for many. A little late, unfortunately, but an awakening to how precarious many of our rights could be. What do you think is the key lesson from Dobbs?
Laphonza Butler: [00:07:51] It's a great, great question. You know, the first thing that comes to my mind as a really a key lesson, because there's been so many people in the space of reproductive health advocacy that have been saying that it was the goal of the right to rip to to take away to undermine Roe for decades now. And, you know, the first thing that comes to mind is a lesson is listen to the women. You noted that that it was not a surprise that this court was going to make the decision that it did. There have been so many organizations who really have been ringing the alarm about the persistent attack on reproductive freedom. It didn't just start with the Dobbs decision.
There were states who had for decades been passing laws that were increasingly restrictive to women and people in states across the country and attacking organizations like Planned Parenthood, attacking organizations like independent community clinics that are in communities all over the country who were providing reproductive health care. And so it didn't just start with the Dobbs decision. We saw these attacks happening over decades. And, you know, once there was the opportunity for President Trump to appoint such a conservative majority to the US Supreme Court, we hoped for a different outcome. But we all knew where this was going because of what we had experienced in states all over the country and the repeated attacks and attempted restrictions at the federal level. And so the lesson, I think, is that of fundamentally, really engaging our allies and listening when they are really trying to sound the alarm about what is happening and what's at stake. We all can't know everything, but we do have to trust the people with whom we work to know their space and know their body of work. The second lesson really has to be that of long term planning. We watched the dismantling of this fundamental freedom sort of suffer a death by a thousand cuts for many, many decades. And, you know, now we're in a place where that law has been eroded. It is now up to states across the country. And we've got to make sure, as reproductive health advocates and people who are working to protect this fundamental right, that we now also have that commitment to long term planning, that we have the discipline to stick with winning this fundamental protection back for millions of Americans across the country.
Mila Atmos: [00:10:33] Right. The thing I love about your background is how your work has always been based in economic justice, working for union members, increasing minimum wage and now reproductive freedom, as well as being a matter of bodily autonomy. Do you also see abortion rights as an economic justice issue?
Laphonza Butler: [00:10:55] I see abortion rights very much at the intersection of what I refer to -- you'll hear me refer to a lot is -- as freedom. And yes, that is economic freedom. Yes, that is the freedom to have clean water and breathe clean air. It is the freedom to live your life as your whole self, no matter who you love. At the intersection of all of these fights, if you will, or movements, is the fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body. And, you know, you can't travel down the road of economic freedom and pursuing your career of choice if you don't have control over your own body. And and so I think that applies to all the other movements and really
centers at this at this space of reproductive freedom and the freedom to make those decisions. And so, of course, it is an economic issue, whether you're talking about child care or career options. I think it's also very much an environmental issue when you think about population and, you know, even things like housing, things like how many cars are we going to need on our roads in the future? And so it very much is an intersectional issue. And I think the strength of my background in my work in the labor movement and experience having worked across different movement spaces, is that I actually I can see and have engaged very much at this intersection from a different point in the road, but it gives me the ability to be able to see how intersected all of these movements are and what it will take for all of us to together decide that we're going to fight for freedom no matter what it looks like.
Mila Atmos: [00:12:42] You've been fighting for freedom for a long time. How do you keep all of this fresh and find new energy and new allies? I'm thinking a little bit here about the protest placards that read "I can't believe I still have to protest this shit." And that exhaustion, that exhaustion is real, right? What's your antidote?
Laphonza Butler: [00:13:01] It is real. And I you know, I harken back to the words of Coretta Scott King, who said to us that freedom is never truly won, but that it must be earned and won with every generation. And so it is upon those shoulders that we all stand, knowing that we all will have our turn to make this country better. And with every progress that we make, the next generation has the responsibility to make it better for those who are coming after them. And, you know, it is a little bit cliche, but it is, it's what I know to be true, that this country will never be perfect, but we will always be in the process of perfecting it. And that's what keeps me fresh. That is what keeps how we imagine our movements fresh, because we will have the opportunity where leaders transition and we have the opportunity to reset and to reimagine across different ally spaces and across different coalitions. And so it's exciting to me to know that my generation has a responsibility to my daughter's generation and to have that responsibility manifested in my life every single day, is real motivation for me. And I'm sure that that's true for many other leaders across the space.
Mila Atmos: [00:14:18] Well, let's dig into nuts and bolts here. Emily's List has decades of expertise and data around women's voting behavior. What are some of the key insights that inform your work?
Laphonza Butler: [00:14:31] You know, it's interesting. A number of key insights. One is that studies have shown that it takes women to be asked at least seven times before they choose to run for office. Now, we all know we have seen men, white men in particular, who wake up one day and come down a set of stairs and decide that they're ready to be the country's next president. But for women to, you know, even consider running for, you know, their local city council, they have to be asked, and have said no, on average at least seven times. And so that is a real insight for us. It helps us to think about the comprehensive nature of our recruitment program. We also know just through the data in terms of the diversity of women who are running for office, that men are more likely to raise more money than women, and white men in particular are more likely to raise at least three times as much money as women of color who are running for the same level of office. And so that informs us that if we are recruiting in communities that have been traditionally locked out of the political process, we've got to make sure that we are helping to introduce them to how it is that you actually go about fundraising. What's the science of fundraising? Moving past what is a traditional roadblock for women, is to ask other people for money, particularly women from communities of color. Asking other people for money is a real barrier. And so helping them to understand that their network has value, whether their network is, you know, all of the people who they, you know, went to high school with or all of the people who they go to church with. Everyone in their network would be willing to invest in their leadership if they asked. And so the recruitment, the fund raising are really key insights. And then when women are elected, women who Emily's List has endorsed, they not only champion the issue of reproductive health. They also champion the issues that are relevant in their communities. Right? And so it is the example I offered the reference to Barbara Mikulski. But it is, it is the women who bring not only the challenges of their community, but they also bring the dreams of their community to the policymaking table. And I think that's what drives them to actually try to find common ground because they're both trying to solve problems but also create futures. And, you know, what we have seen in the women who have been endorsed and supported by Emily's List over the years is that they are true champions of a progressive agenda that advances their communities in the most authentic way possible, even as they are centering reproductive health.
Mila Atmos: [00:17:29] So you just spoke about how women run and how they center policies. What about the women who vote? Do the women who vote actually recognize these agendas plain as day, or is it... How do women actually elect other women? Or do they not?
Laphonza Butler: [00:17:47] You know, this is one where I think we... Two things, anecdotally, need to delve more into the data and help it tell this story. What we have seen, again, anecdotally, is that this is a conversation that we have to continue to have with women voters, the ability for other women leaders to be just as effective as the tall, handsome, good looking Ivy League guy who has, you know, who has a different journey. And so this is a constant place of education and where we continue to find that in places where women and particularly women of color are running, we have to make sure that we pay extra attention to women as voters. And that's really a part of the next chapter of Emily's List. We pioneered the research on women as voters and helped to ensure that the Democratic Party was paying attention to women as a constituency. And as we continue to evolve in our history and in our own journey, making sure that we are asking and answering the question of will women elect other women? But here's the, here's the truth about just the math. Women alone are able to, in any different community, we need to build coalition. We need women of color. We need men. We need people who don't identify as a particular gender. Right. We have to make sure that we are building that coalition. And that starts with the candidate and their authenticity and their ability to connect with that community. But the women electing other women, voting for other women, I think is a space where we want to continue to dig in and explore.
Mila Atmos: [00:19:34] We're taking a quick break to thank our sponsor.
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And now let's return to my conversation with Laphonza Butler.
Mila Atmos: [00:21:15] So what did the 2022 results tell you about what we can expect in the future for women running for office?
Laphonza Butler: [00:21:23] What it says to me, a couple of things. One, in the midterms, the Dobbs decision was an absolute difference maker in terms of inspiring people to turn out to fight for reproductive freedom. We saw it as a difference maker for young women voters, in particular between the ages of 18 and 29. This was the greatest space of growth in terms of turnout, and they were highly motivated by the overturning of Roe. We also saw moderate Republican independent women actually voting to prioritize their freedom, their reproductive freedom, over the Republican Party. And so choosing candidates who were committed to protecting this right was also a fundamental lesson that we saw on display in 2022. So secondly, I think that we are seeing the courage of our communities and frankly, the coalitions that exist on the ground that is rejecting the hateful language and rhetoric that sort of exist in the meta narrative space. What do I mean? There are 15 new Democrats that were elected to the 118th Congress. We saw a number of women of color win in communities and districts that were not majority communities of color. You take Marie Gluesenkamp Perez from Washington State. You take Andrea Salinas from Washington. You take Yadira Caraveo from Colorado. There's a number of women candidates of color who were incredibly successful. And I think that it is a fundamental rejection of the pursuit to divide communities by race where we are as a country making progress. And I want to note that the progress that is being made in our country relative to the rejection of hate. We have a lot more work to do. We have a lot more work to do in that. But I did want to note the progress. So I think the future is bright for Democratic pro-choice women who are running for office, and that should inspire more women to run in this next cycle.
Mila Atmos: [00:23:42] Well, races can be especially tough for women of color, like you mentioned, and you also mentioned the huge differences earlier in fundraising. You worked on Kamala Harris's campaign. What did you learn from her and from that campaign?
Laphonza Butler: [00:23:56] Mm. Um, I learned authenticity and I learned how it is so critical for candidates to simply be who they are. I had known the vice president for a number of years when she was running for office and serving in office in California. And that experience is what led me to to work with her and her team in her presidential run in 2019. And it is just a place of just pure delight to be able to see and experience the vice president just being who she is, as a woman of color, who is from, you know, northern California, in Oakland and just showing up as her authentic self in places so vastly different, like a small town in South Carolina to a barn in Iowa and see how she not only was able to show up as herself, but how her authentic presentation inspire hired others and brought them in. And that was an incredible lesson for me. You mentioned the resources that it takes to be successful. It is unimaginable what it is, these candidates and women, how much time they are able to squeeze out of a day to ensure that they are making phone calls and building relationships and doing the meetings and doing all of the fundraisers. And so it is, it's incredibly important for an organization like Emily's List and others who help these candidates do the work to raise the money that is so unfortunately important in in our political system. And we all know that it doesn't have to be this way. And when we have the majorities to change the rules, we will. But these are the rules that candidates have to play by today. And the money that it takes to be successful in a statewide race is, is just astronomical. Knowing what it takes to raise the money and understanding how important just being who you are is to your success are really two lessons that I think have been invaluable. And I learned them from working with the vice president.
Mila Atmos: [00:26:09] Well, it sounds like both those things together are actually very difficult to pull off, right. Do to the fundraising. Do the calls. And also still be authentic and do the, you know, pressing of the flesh and all that. I wanted to return to that slogan, "Reject apathy and the status quo. Repeat daily." How do you do it and what does that look like in practice?
Laphonza Butler: [00:26:30] You know, it is always questioning the why. In order to reject apathy, I think we have to continuously interrogate purpose and mission in every single day asking ourselves at Emily's List and for me personally in my life. What does it matter? What does it matter that I get up out of bed every single day and do the work that I do? What does it matter that I take time to make this extra phone call or I take time to send this extra email? What does it matter? To be clear about the importance of diversity in the recruitment work that we do. And every single day we have to, in order to reject apathy as a part of Emily's List, we have to continue to ask ourselves, "what does it matter?" And then we have to choose. Then we absolutely have to make a choice, but with clarity of purpose and intention.
Mila Atmos: [00:27:25] So how do you motivate others to do the same? Because I can see that you're doing this, but how can you compel others to interrogate themselves like this and do the work?
Laphonza Butler: [00:27:36] I think we all have our own at work to find our own purpose through our lives. And you know someone who does that level of self- interrogation in terms of finding their purpose and knowing what their talents are and how they can best utilize their talents are already on the path to rejecting apathy. And so for me, the way that I think about inspiring others is one through example and being a part of conversations like this to talk about the importance of mission of an organization like Emily's List. But also I try to, you know, make sure that I am leading the team at Emily's List, not only by example, but also by winning. Right? Like there's no inspiration that you can sort of touch or that's more tactile than just winning and making that proof point that what we do every day matters.
Mila Atmos: [00:28:32] Yeah, well, let's talk about winning. Let's celebrate some wins. What are the biggest recent wins for you and for Emily's List?
Laphonza Butler: [00:28:40] I think some big recent wins that we all should be celebrating from the midterms for sure was just the incredible success in a state like Michigan where we were all successful in not only the re-election of constitutional officers in that state governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state. But now, for the first time in 40 years, we have a Democratic majority in both chambers of the legislature. The ability to now be able to improve the lives of Michiganders is
fundamentally changed. And so that is an incredible success, the work that Emily's List did, but so many other organizations to hel to elect Karen Bass, to be the first woman of color, to be the mayor of the second largest city in the country in Los Angeles, is a big, big win for all of us. And continuing to elevate the leadership of women in executive office, I think is a real space of of celebration. Thinking now that we have after the midterms, record number of women in 20 legislative chambers across the country, in places like Arizona, but also in places like California, where one wouldn't have thought that we were breaking representation records in a state like California. And so those are all real victories. And frankly, those are victories that have been fought for election cycle after election cycle. And we have really worked to stay disciplined, have a strategy, and wake up every day and ask ourselves, "why does it matter?"
Mila Atmos: [00:30:21] Right. Right. Well, I want to turn to renewal again. Here we are in the spring of 2023, and 2024 is already looming large. But it's also utterly unwritten. What are you thinking about? What are you gearing up for when you look ahead to the next year?
Laphonza Butler: [00:30:41] I think what we have to do, Mila, is think about renewal. Yes, spring is a season that happens annually, and I think renewal is a space that is continuous. Again, it's sort of the notion of perfecting our country from one generation to the next. And so what I think about is in the context of renewal and looking forward to 2023, 2024 and beyond, is how are we poised to win the decade with women? And it is as much about the number of women that we work to elect at Emily's List at every level of government, knowing the difference that they make, but how do we also address the fact that we are in a sort of perilous moment in our country where people are weary in their activism, where people probably are weary in their in their giving, where people just are feeling a little bit dejected in their in their day to day lives because the cost of eggs is through the roof. Right. I, I take into consideration that what families are, what voters in my, based in my experience are looking for. Not just the Band-Aid solution that might come in next year's spring, but they are looking for long term solutions that help to position their families for a brighter future. And I think the election of women, the representation of women is a fundamental part of of that because of how they lead. And I'm not shirking the question. What I... And I say, I say that to say Virginia is a state that in 2023 is going to have their state legislature up for re-election. And it is an incredibly important place for us to turn our attention to ensure that a state like Virginia doesn't go
backwards in the restriction of reproductive freedom, doesn't go backwards in the restriction of voting access. And there are Democratic candidates up and down the ticket in Virginia who we will all be, I think, working to support. I think in 2023, you look at a state like Wisconsin, where there is a state Supreme Court race and not a lot of people think about or even pay attention to the fact that their state Supreme Court might be elected. But in Wisconsin, these are roles that are elected and these are positions that have incredible impact, again, not just on reproductive freedom, but the gerrymandering that exists in terms of ensuring the marginalization of voices and communities all across the state of Wisconsin. And so we are excited about what is possible with the election of a state Supreme Court justice who shares values and wants to see a fair and just Wisconsin. So we are very much focused in 2023, in the kind of future.That we can help to create in laces like that and legislation that really is is being considered and fundamentally matter.
Mila Atmos: [00:33:58] Yeah. Yeah, important races in the odd years, for sure. Virginia and Wisconsin. So one of the reasons we wanted to speak to you was thanks to a shout out from the inimitable Cecile Richards. And we love to keep passing the ball forward in terms of shouting out amazing folks that do vital work. Anyone you want to highlight right now?
Laphonza Butler: [00:34:20] Oh goodness, There's so many. Cecile's successor over at Planned Parenthood is fantastic, Alexis McGill Johnson on the frontlines of doing some really incredible work. My other partner in the reproductive freedom space is Mini Timmaraju, who is the leader of NARAL Pro-Choice America. I would be remiss if I didn't shout out the courageous Maya Wiley, who offered herself to be mayor of the City of New York and now is leading the Leadership Conference that works to bring organizations together to find spaces of solutions and spaces of justice. I think there's just so, so many women who are just doing incredible work that I think are just leading the way in so many ways. You think of Glynda Carr, who is leading Higher Heights Organization, a sister organization to Emily's List, but that is focused on the election and support of black women in particular. And so, you know,
Mila Atmos: [00:35:19] We've had her on the show.
Laphonza Butler: [00:35:20] There are so many folks who are doing great, great work. I so appreciate that question. And I want to shout all of those amazing women out. And for all of those that I didn't that I didn't shout out, forgive me.
Mila Atmos: [00:35:32] There are so many like, you said. So Future Hindsight is a civic engagement podcast. So we always ask this question, which is what are two things an everyday citizen can do to advance your issue, in this case to elect pro-choice Democratic women to office or even, let's say, if they want to run for office. What's your advice?
Laphonza Butler: [00:35:55] Yeah, You know, you took the first one, right? Like the first one, first piece of advice I would offer to everyday people is to to run. Your lived experience isn't a part of the discussion any other, any other way. And so making sure that if you've ever thought about running for office, just do it. There are organizations out here to support you. You can go on Emilyslist.org. You'll see all of the resources and training materials to to support you and get you started. But just running for office, I think is an incredible demonstration of civic participation, whether that's city council or sheriff or, you know, whatever, you know, alderperson, whatever, is the office that speaks to your passion and is clear about your purpose. Like, really lean into that. And the other is make a plan to show up. And I mean that in the broadest way possible. Not everybody has the disposable income to give, but everybody has some time to serve. And doing it in a way where that organization or that person, that entity knows that they can count on you. So it's not just showing up one day and sort of saying," oh, you know, I did my community service for the week or for a year, and, you know, I can scratch that off my list." But making sure that if you have the capacity to give, give consistently, make sure that that organization knows that they can count on your support. And if you have the the time to show up in person and do a thing, make a commitment that you're going to do that consistently over the next period of time and make sure that that organization knows that that they can count on you. So the two things that I would say to people, to listeners, where they can take action is to actually run for office and decide to show up. There are organizations out there, locally in your communities, as well as national organizations like Emily's List that are here to support you. Just do it.
Mila Atmos: [00:37:57] Good advice. Tell us a little bit more about the training that you run just so that people can maybe be more confident to decide to run.
Laphonza Butler: [00:38:07] That's right. It really is about helping to create that confidence. Right. And so it's all of the 101s. How do you decide which office to run for? Which one is best suited for you? How do you get started in setting up a campaign? What are the essential staff that you might need, or roles that you could ask your friends or family to play to get your campaign started? that the sense of finding the value in your network, what we call Rolodexing, right? Going through your contacts and your in your phone and figuring out how much you could ask them for. All of these are sort of some 101 level trainings that really are there on the website and free for everyone to go and sort of check out is... I can guarantee you if you have the curiosity to go there and click. You'll stay. You'll wind up staying for a couple of hours. And that's how you know you should be running for office.
Mila Atmos: [00:39:03] Ah! Right. Well, that's good advice. Definitely. Check it out. Go to Emilyslist.org. So here's my final question. Looking into the future, what makes you hopeful?
Laphonza Butler: [00:39:15] Mhm. Such a great question. What makes me hopeful? You know, I noted to you that I had an eight year old daughter. Her name is Nyla, and she asked to make me to make sure that I say her name as I was coming to talk to you today. And I say that all because she is a part of what makes me hopeful. She is the kindest kid, the most thoughtful, and also the most self-centered in a way that is as contradictory as that sounds. She is hopeful to me because she is fully embracing who she is and knows that she matters and wants everybody else to know that she matters. At the same time, she never forgets that there are people around her who matter too. One of the reasons that I took this job here at Emily's List is, I was listening to her kindergarten class do their mock election in 2020, and she was the only kid who voted for the turtle. And, you know, I was like, "well, who else was running? How did this work? Why did you vote for the turtle?" She said, "Well, there was a wolf that was running and there was a snake that was running." And it was like, "Well, so why did you vote for the turtle?" She said, "Because the turtle promised that it would leave no one behind." And I was like, "okay. And you took the loss. Took the L to vote your values." And I just so appreciate that about her. And that is a signal to me that this next generation, the next few generations coming up, are going to be, I think, unrelenting on their quest for kindness and fairness and justice. And we just have to hold this great
democracy together so that when it's their turn, they are fighting for that next set of that next set of freedoms.
Mila Atmos: [00:41:14] Hear, hear. Well, thank you very much, Laphonza, for joining us on Future Hindsight. It was really a pleasure to have you on.
Laphonza Butler: [00:41:21] Thank you so much for having me, Mila. It has been a great conversation and I look forward to seeing you all again.
Mila Atmos: [00:41:29] Laphonza Butler is president of Emily's List, an organization that aims to help elect pro-choice Democratic women to office.
Next week on Future Hindsight, we are joined by Joanna Schwartz. She's a professor of law at UCLA and the author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.
Joanna Schwartz: [00:41:51] No one is immune from police violence. And I tell stories in the book of people who are Black, who are white, who are Latino, who are indigenous, people who are rich and poor, people who have never been arrested before, people with long criminal histories, people around the country. And I do that very intentionally to make clear that policing is a problem that we should all be concerned about and we should all be invested in making work better than it does.
Mila Atmos: [00:42:20] That's next time on Future Hindsight.
And before I go, first of all, thanks for listening. You must really like the show if you're still here. We have an ask of you. Could you rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts? It seems like a small thing, but it can make a huge difference for an independent show like ours. It's the main way other people can find out about the show. We really appreciate your help. Thank you.
This episode was produced by Zack Travis and Sara Burningham. Until next time, stay engaged.
The Democracy Group: [00:43:02] This podcast is part of the Democracy Group.