EMILYs List Blasts Ed Turanchik for Diminishing Jane Castor’s Credentials, Attributing Her Support

For Immediate Release
February 12, 2019

EMILY's List Blasts Ed Turanchik for Diminishing Jane Castor's Credentials, Attributing Her Support Exclusively to Her Being a Woman

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a statement to Florida Politics, Tampa mayoral candidate Ed Turanchik declared that “women have an advantage” in the current political climate, saying Jane Castor has gotten a “bigger bounce” due to her gender. Christina Reynolds, vice president of communications for EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“Mr. Turanchik insults and diminishes Jane Castor's 30 years of experience and service as a manager and chief of police, reducing her campaign's strong support to her gender instead of her impressive credentials. At EMILY's List, we support women who are far and away the best candidates for the job. Clearly, we made the right choice by endorsing Jane Castor for Tampa mayor.”

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $600 million to elect pro-choice Democratic women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect 150 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and nearly 1,100 women to state and local office. Nearly 40 percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. During the historic 2017-2018 cycle, EMILYs List raised a record-breaking $110 million dollars and launched a record independent expenditure campaign. We helped elect 34 new women to the House, including 24 red-to-blue victories; enough seats to have delivered the U.S. House majority alone. Since the 2016 election, more than 40,000 women have reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state and national offices.