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Join us at Lead with Lillian! Each year, we gather our sisterhood in Chapel Hill, where Lillian's List was founded over 20 years ago, to celebrate our progress in changing the face of power in NC and the leadership of the women we have helped elect. Join us this year to honor our elected women like Rep. Deb Butler, who counts speaking out against and defeating the dangerous and misleading "Born Alive" bill earlier this year as one of her proudest leadership moments. We'll hear from Justice...

Why did you decide to run for office? During first campaign I made the decision to run for office because Elna Spaulding and Josephine Clement, two women I admired, were County Commissioners. When Mrs. Clement decided not to seek re-election, I was approached and asked to run for her seat. I was interested in public education, social services, and health, all areas Commissioners influence. I was very interested in children’s issues and saw the role of County Commissioner as an avenue to help...

Because of you, North Carolina is lucky enough to have 29 progressive women who are champions of reproductive freedom serving in the NC General Assembly. We thought we'd take our June newsletter to share some of the amazing legislation they've worked on since session started in January. These are the women working to make our state a great place to be a woman. All of the progressive women in the NCGA cosponsored bills expanding access to Medicaid coverage in North Carolina. It was introduced...

Reflections about my own family and my daughter’s future this Mother’s Day weekend brought to mind a study I saw a few years back about gender parity at the national level.  The report, put out by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research determined that women would not reach parity in Congress until 2121.  That’s 102 years from now.  While this report is dated from 2014, if this holds true, it would mean that when my daughter’s granddaughters run for office, they may be running on a level...

The Threat is Coming from Inside the House and the Senate In mid-April our rights to reproductive healthcare were threatened once again by the Republican majority in the NCGA, but this time they were joined by six Democrats. The conservative legislators who support this SB 359 are claiming it is not about abortion, but they're just playing more of their political games with women. SB 359 compels doctors to save the life of a baby if the baby is born alive, which is already a law and part of a...

Senator Erica Smith is a former School Board member and has served in the NCGA since 2014. She earned her B.S. Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and also has a M.A. in Religious Studies from Howard University School of Divinity. Erica is a former engineer and has also worked as a high school math and Chemistry teacher. Earlier in 2019 Sen. Smith announced she is seeking the Democratic nomination for the US Senate. Devon Roberts: Why did you decide to run for...