EMILY’s List launches new ad for Donna Edwards

EMILY’s List released a new television ad on Wednesday, highlighting Rep. Donna Edwards’s (D-Md.) progressive record as she vies for an open seat in the Maryland Senate.

EMILY’s List, which typically backs female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, launched Women Vote! — a $1 million media program that started on Dec. 1 and will run for six weeks.

{mosads}The group, which endorsed Edwards in March, said the program “targets African-American women who vote in Democratic primaries in the Baltimore media market.”

Edwards is running in the Democratic primary for retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-Md.) seat against Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is seen as an establishment favorite. The two have been locked in a heated battle for labor endorsements. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) is still seen as a question mark for this race, though recent reports suggest he won’t run.

The ad, titled “Get Up,” focuses on Edwards’s own life and how her experiences tie into her support for women and families.

“When people get up in the morning, they want to go to a good job, they want to take care of themselves and their children and meet their responsibilities,” Edwards said in the ad. “And we have to make sure that we’re doing the right thing by those families.

“As a single mom who struggled to make ends meet, Democrat Donna Edwards has lived our challenges,” the ad’s narrator said.

The narrator continues, “That’s why she won’t back down to the special interests. Taking on the NRA, refusing Wall Street’s cash, and protecting women’s health.”

The seat is seen as safe for Democrats, though several Republicans have also entered the race, including Maryland State Delegate Kathy Szeliga; Chrys Kefalas, a former aide to Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr.; and former Pentagon official Richard Douglas.