EMILY’s List President predicts Kavanaugh allegations will motivate women voters

EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock predicted Tuesday that the sexual assault allegations facing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh could compel more women to head to the polls in the 2018 midterm elections.

“Women voters are pretty riled up right now anyway. That being said, a little more gasoline on the fire is probably pretty good,” Schriock said at a National Press Club Headliners luncheon on Sept. 18. “There is a huge energy by women voters and they’re watching this.”

Schriock, whose organization promotes pro-choice Democratic women candidates, appeared at the Club shortly after California-based professor Christine Ford told the Washington Post that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, groped her and tried to remove her clothes when they were both teenagers.

While Kavanaugh has rejected Ford’s account, the Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed a planned confirmation vote and instead scheduled a public hearing for both the nominee and Ford next Monday.

Ford’s presence, however, is still in doubt, since the professor’s attorney has since indicated that they would prefer law enforcement officials to conduct an independent investigation first.

Speaking from the Club’s dais, Schriock described Ford’s allegations as “very, very serious” and emphasized that they need to be fully examined before Kavanaugh’s confirmation proceeds.

Schriock also noted that the decades between the alleged assault and Kavanaugh’s ascension in the judicial branch should not give the nominee a pass, particularly since a seat on the Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment.

“This is a serious bar that a candidate should have to cross over before they get that,” Schriock said. “I think their past actions are important to understand because it also reflects on a lot of their thinking going into how they’re going to handle cases of all sorts of matters that relate to women and to people of color and to every American in this country, so I do think this is as important as …those nominees’ understanding of the law and also their positions.”

Beyond the news of the day, Schriock drew a spotlight to the historic number of women candidates running for office this election cycle, pointing to their strong primary wins in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

EMILY’s List, Schriock added, has been contacted by over 40,000 women considering their own runs for office since the 2016 election.

“Something really big is happening,” Schriock said, casting it is a groundswell prompted by decades of dissatisfaction with conservative politicians.

Schriock suggested that the trend of more women engaging in politics is likely to extend the 2020 election as well, citing four Democratic women serving in the Senate who she said would be worthwhile, diverse presidential candidates: Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).

“They could really bring great policy discussions and vision to this process and I think one to four of them should run,” Schriock said.

Schriock closed with an optimistic forecast for Democrats in the midterms, particularly when it comes to women voters.

“I think it is going to be very surprising. It’s going to be the gender gap: the number of women voters who come out, who vote and are going to vote for Democrats,” Schriock said. “I believe it’s going to be historic and also eye popping.”