EMILY’S List promises cash for Alma Adams’ re-election campaign

For a second time, Democratic Rep. Alma Adams of North Carolina on Monday won the endorsement of EMILY’s List, a nationwide women’s abortion-rights group whose fundraising prowess promises a significant infusion of campaign cash as Adams stumps in a radically redrawn congressional district.

In the 2014 election cycle, EMILY’s List said, its network of 3 million members and donors channeled $136,644 to Adams’ campaign.

The political action committee’s independent expenditure arm also spent $156,000 on six targeted mailings to assist Adams in prevailing over a crowded field of Democratic candidates bidding to succeed longtime Democratic Rep. Mel Watt, who took a job overseeing housing for the Obama administration.

“Alma Adams is a tireless champion for North Carolina women and families who otherwise wouldn’t have a voice at the table,” Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’S List, said in a statement this week. “She is a fierce advocate for defending women’s health, protecting voting rights, raising the minimum wage and increasing educational and economic opportunities for all North Carolinians.”

Adams is seeking re-election in a district that was reshaped last month by the Republican-controlled state legislature. Her existing 12th Congressional District, criticized as the most racially gerrymandered in the country, snakes from Charlotte to Greensboro, where she lives, and Winston-Salem.

The new district, still subject to the approval of a three-judge federal panel, is confined to Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. As in the current district, a majority of its registered voters are black.

In formally announcing she will run in the new district, Adams said she had begun moving her residence to Charlotte.

Two state legislators, Democratic Reps. Rodney Moore and Tricia Cotham, have filed for the House of Representatives seat. Cotham recently announced she would not seek re-election to her seat in the state House. Former state Sen. Malcolm Graham also has announced he will challenge Adams.

The endorsement from EMILY’s List appears to give Adams, whose campaign closed 2015 with more than $192,000 in cash, a big fundraising edge over her rivals.

In the 2014 race, the independent arm of EMILY’s List, WOMEN VOTE!, experimented with new analytic technology to determine what message would best resonate with voters and to identify women most likely to be persuaded by that message. Then it sent the mailings describing Adams’ record to 35,000 women in the district.

Sam Spencer, a spokesman for Adams’ campaign, said in a statement that “EMILY’s List was an integral supporter of Congresswoman Adams’ first election to the U.S. House, and we are proud to have them add to the growing momentum behind our campaign.”

Nationally, EMILY’S list raised about $60 million for state and federal candidates in 2014, mainly those running for Congress, and it aims to exceed that number this year, said Rachel Thomas, a spokeswoman for EMILY’s List.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 4:22 PM with the headline "EMILY’S List promises cash for Alma Adams’ re-election campaign."