Emerge America

Emerge America is a non-profit national organization based in San Francisco with the purpose of increasing the number of women members of the Democratic Party holding political offices.

Andrea Dew Steele is the president and co-founder. Dew Steele created the original chapter, Emerge California, which was formed in 2002. After initial success, Emerge was expanded to a national organization known as Emerge America, co-founded by Dew Steele and Marya Stark in 2005. Emerge America added chapters in 6 states in its first year and by the 2016 presidential election, it had chapters in 23 states. The organisation's strategy is to have chapters in all 50 states by 2020. Dew Steele says the initial aim is for women to achieve 30% representation for women in government, noting evidence suggests this level passes a critical mass to effectively enact institutional change. According to Dew Steele, Emerge America has had 3,000 graduates, of which 500 have been elected and are currently serving a political office.

Hillary Clinton has praised the group as an organization helping to elect Democrats since the 2016 election by using coaching on public speaking, fundraising, networking, and ethical leadership. A’shanti Gholar, the Political Director, said enrolment has increased across the board since the 2016 presidential election, and some classes have seen attendance almost double. Overall, Emerge has seen a 87% increase in the number of applications since the 2016 election. Gholar notes that at the end of 2017, there were 427 women running for a position in the U.S. Congress, compared to 219 women running at the same time in 2015.

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