Stephanie Schriock

Stephanie Schriock, 39, was just a tween when EMILY’s List was founded in 1985, but the future president of the organization – which raises money for pro-choice female Democratic candidates – was already formulating her political views. A copper company shut down the mine in her hometown of Butte, Montana, after a union strike in the early ‘80s, and “the town just started to die,” she says. “I couldn’t understand why the big corporation was hurting families. Really, it was that simple to me. It didn’t take long for me to realize I was a Democrat.”

Schriock got involved in politics and her church, volunteering for a campaign during high school and honing a political strategy to win the election for student body president. (No Tracy Flick tricks here — she just focused on freshmen and sophomores, who hadn’t already developed an allegiance to another candidate.) Schriock’s first paying job in politics was for an EMILY’s List candidate, and she also managed Senate races for Jon Tester of Montana and Al Franken of Minnesota (and SNL) and worked as Howard Dean’s finance director. Now, at EMILY’s List, she’s working to increase the number of women in office across the country. The organization recruits female candidates, trains them, and then supports their campaigns and fundraising efforts. (EMILY stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast). “We have a long way to go. Right now, women make up just 17 percent of Congress,” Schriock says. “There’s a chance we have only one Democratic woman in a governor’s seat after this election — and if Maggie Hassan doesn’t win in New Hampshire, we’ll have none at all.” Having more women in office is critical, she notes, because it “would change the tone, the discussion, the focus — literally, the priorities of the nation. Do you think, in 2012, we’d be talking about birth control if Congress was 50 or 51 percent women? Do you think perhaps the focus would be on the economy and on education, instead?”

Schriock urges young women to get involved in whatever way they can — volunteering with a candidate or a community service organization, or even just playing sports. “Politics is essentially about community — so take care of yours, build it, find your place within it,” she says. Meanwhile, she said she’s going to keep working to make EMILY’s List stronger by bringing in more candidates and supporting talented staff. “We have such amazing folks working so hard at EMILY’s List — I want to make sure they’re set up to have the same kind of career that I did. Because this is so important — the stakes are so high for women and families all over the country,” she says. “Mostly, I just want to make a difference.”


Photo: Courtesy of EMILY'S List