Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Celebrates Massive Victory as Marie Newman Unseats Anti-Choice Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District Primary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, March 17, 2020
CONTACT: [email protected]
NARAL Pro-Choice America Celebrates Massive Victory as Marie Newman Unseats Anti-Choice Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District Primary
NARAL Pro-Choice America congratulates Marie Newman on winning her landmark bid to unseat Rep. Dan Lipinski, one of the last remaining anti-choice Democrats in Congress, in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary. Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, released the following statement in response to the election results:
“The voters of Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District have spoken loud and clear, rejecting Rep. Dan Lipinski’s anti-choice, anti-equality, and anti-worker agenda. They have a champion in Marie Newman and soon will have a representative in Congress who shares their values and priorities. Marie Newman’s victory is the culmination of years of work to unseat an entrenched incumbent and proves that voters across the country are in no mind to stand by as their elected officials throw women and families under the bus.
In times of crisis, fundamental freedoms and rights matter, and those of women are hanging on by a thread in this country. Women voters know it. Threats to Roe rank high on their list of electoral decisions. The results in IL-03 fit in with a broader pattern showing that abortion rights cannot be up for debate if we want to win big in 2020. NARAL and its members are proud to support Marie Newman and to have mobilized on her behalf throughout both of her primaries and will continue to do so for her and all of our pro-choice champions on the ballot this fall.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America endorsed Marie Newman’s bid to unseat Rep. Dan Lipinski in May 2019 alongside a coalition of leading progressive organizations, including EMILY’s List, MoveOn, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), and Democracy for America (DFA). In February, NARAL joined SEIU, EMILY’s List’s independent expenditure arm WOMEN VOTE!, Indivisible, Planned Parenthood Votes, and Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) in launching a $1.4 million investment in an independent expenditure program in the district to expose Lipinski’s extreme and out-of-touch record, which includes co-sponsoring 54 measures restricting reproductive freedom, opposing the life-saving Affordable Care Act, and signing onto an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. The program included direct mail, television ad buys, and digital persuasion ads. After some polling locations changed in as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic precautionary measures, NARAL ran digital ads to help residents of IL-03 find where they should go to vote.
NARAL Pro-Choice America deployed a full-time organizer for the final stretch of the campaign, knocked on nearly 1,200 doors, engaged our members and volunteers across the country to make approximately 25,000 calls to voters in the district, and engaged over 2,300 NARAL members in the district through digital communications such as email and text. As the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in June Medical Services LLC v. Russo earlier this month, NARAL Pro-Choice America members held an action outside of Lipinski’s office to hold him accountable for his anti-choice record and for calling to overturn Roe.
NARAL was also among the first organizations to endorse Newman’s 2018 challenge against Lipinski, recognizing that the congressman’s agenda was dangerously out-of-line with both the Democratic Party and his constituents. After endorsing Newman in November 2017, NARAL ran its first TV ad in the race just days later. NARAL also launched a Super PAC in February 2018 with progressive allies to support Newman, spending more than $1.6 million on the race and helping Newman to come within striking distance when she won nearly 50% of the vote.
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NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all. For more than 50 years, NARAL has worked to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. Since 1969, NARAL has made history, grown to over 2 million members, and met the moments that have defined this fight with action, power, and freedom. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”