In a grand ballroom turned political power center, EMILY’s List marked 40 years of electing pro-choice Democratic women with an evening of celebration, strategy, and unapologetic truth-telling, headlined by Delaware U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride.
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Held at The Anthem along the water on a beautiful spring evening in Washington, D.C., the gala drew political heavyweights, donors, and grassroots organizers to reflect on the organization’s legacy and renew its mission ahead of a high-stakes election year. Guests dined on radish and apple salad with hibiscus, olive bread, chicken breast with farro and grilled asparagus, and sipped from a curated wine selection as the program got underway.
McBride, the first out transgender member of Congress, confronted the political climate she now works in. “Thanks to EMILY’s List, I am able to stand before you tonight as both my authentic self and as a member of the United States House of Representatives,” she said.
We are EMILY event in Washington, D.C.Christopher Wiggins for The Advocate
Greeted with a lengthy standing ovation, she didn’t hold back. “I had hoped to be entering a Congress where we were guaranteeing health care, providing affordable child care, passing paid leave, and enshrining reproductive freedom. But that is not the Congress I have entered,” she said. “I have entered a Congress ready—eager even—to bend a knee to the man in the White House.”
McBride skewered what she called “the utter shitshow of Republicans in power,” warning that far-right lawmakers are using trans people as pawns to distract from economic sabotage. “Every single time they say the word ‘trans,’ look at what they’re doing with their grubby hands,” she said. “They’re trying to pick the pocket of American workers.”
With razor-sharp humor, she described a recent incident in which Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace burst into a Capitol restroom after spotting someone they mistook for her. “These people are so incompetent they can’t even police the one bathroom with one trans person in Congress correctly,” she said, prompting laughter and applause.
But her message was ultimately one of clarity and resolve: “I’m not going to let them bait me into a fight that simply rewards their attempt at 15 minutes of fame. I’m not going to let them distract the American people from the crisis they’re creating.”
Earlier in the evening, guests heard from former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who offered an emotional message of perseverance following her recovery from a 2011 assassination attempt. “Progress is possible,” she said. “But it doesn’t happen overnight, and we can’t do it alone.”
Ellen R. Malcolm, founder of EMILY's List speaks to the crowd.Christopher Wiggins for The Advocate
Virginia Del. Adele McClure, a rising Democratic leader and new mother, electrified the room with a deeply personal speech tying her cancer survival and Medicaid access as a teen to her fight for reproductive justice. “I’m not just calling you for help,” she said. “I’m calling you into battle.”
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, the junior U.S. senator from Maryland, also took the stage to honor EMILY’s List founder Ellen R. Malcolm, recalling how Malcolm’s early vision helped shape her own political path and those of thousands of women. “Forty years ago, even though you didn’t know me, you saw me,” Alsobrooks said.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who introduced Malcolm and presented her with the We Are Emily Award, praised the organization’s transformative impact on American politics. Malcolm, now chair emerita, founded EMILY’s List in 1985 to help elect pro-choice Democratic women when none were independently serving in the U.S. Senate. Former California Sen. Laphonza Butler, the first Black lesbian to serve in the U.S. Senate, briefly took the stage as the organization’s past president.
“Every time I look at the day’s news, I cycle through a horrible range of emotions—shock, harm, depression, fear, powerlessness, anger, determination, doubt,” Malcolm said. “It’s exhausting and I’m sick of it. And I bet you are too.” But, she added, “In great EMILY’s List tradition, I’m going to suggest a plan to stop this nightmare.”
That plan: send a “lethal shock wave through MAGA world” by electing enough pro-choice Democratic women in 2026 to take back the House and turn local and state races into national upsets. “We’ll be smart, strategic, innovative, and unrelenting,” she said. Her prescription was as practical as it was symbolic: “Every time a Trump headline enrages you, put $10 in a cookie jar—and send it to EMILY’s List.”
As the formal program concluded, guests moved into a lighter mood, posing in a robo-photo booth and enjoying signature cocktails and dessert pastries. But the evening’s message remained clear: this is no time for complacency.
“We can beat back the bullshit,” McBride told the crowd. “We can win back power.”
