Stephanie Schriock is a career political strategist and nonprofit executive who has worked for numerous Democratic Party campaigns and left-of-center activist causes. Schriock was the president of EMILY’s List, which together with its subordinate groups has spent more than $90 million to help win elections for Democratic candidates, specifically, women favoring the legalization and expansion of abortion access. As president, she worked to expand the group’s online presence, activism training, and candidate recruitment. Schriock has also worked for several prominent Democratic politicians, most notably 2004 presidential candidate Howard Dean and former U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) including during the contentious legal battle and ballot recount which followed his 2008 election. She also worked as the campaign manager and later the chief of staff for Senator Jon Tester (D-MT).

Schriock is widely considered a major influencer in left-of-center politics and has been identified by publications such as ELLE magazine as one of the “most powerful women in Washington.” She works as a senior advisor at the Strategic Victory Fund, a project of the Democracy Alliance which was launched in 2020 to campaign against President Donald Trump and other Republican politicians, and which, like its parent organization, does not disclose its donors. ¹

Early Career

Stephanie Shcriock has been involved in Democratic Party campaigns since the 1990s, including a stint from 1999 to 2002 with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. ² During the 2004 presidential election cycle, Schriock was the national finance director for former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (D) and his unsuccessful primary campaign. She was the campaign manager for Jon Tester (D-MT) during his 2006 run for Senate and has continued to promote him and endorse his policymaking efforts since his election that year. ^{3 4}

2008 Al Franken Senate Campaign

Schriock was the campaign manager for Al Franken (D-MN) during his 2008 run for Senate against then-Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). She was also involved in the subsequent legal disputes and vote recounts: Franken was controversially declared the winner some six months later by a contested victory margin of just 312 votes. In July 2010, the U.S. News and World Report and the Wall Street Journal published articles claiming that nearly 400 convicted felons had cast ballots illegally for Franken, citing voter record analysis by the right-of-center election watchdog organization Minnesota Majority. ^{5 6} According to MinnPost, part of Schriock’s work as campaign manager had involved preparing for a recount even before Election Day—as early as September, according to sources involved with the campaign. ⁷

By August 2012, the organization had identified nearly 1,100 felons who had voted in the election, and 177 people had been convicted of voting illegally, with more than 60 still on trial, as reported by the New York Post. Nonetheless, Franken’s legal action had succeeded and he had taken office, which had given the Democratic Party a majority in the Senate and led to the passage of the pivotal and controversial Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare.” ⁸

In 2017, Franken announced his resignation following accusations from multiple women that he had sexually assaulted them. Shriock, who was still the president of Emily’s List at the time, issued a statement when he left office in 2018 in which she said that Franken had done the “right thing” by resigning, but also praised him for allegedly doing “incredibly well” as a senator. ⁹ Later that year, Schriock said she was “heartbroken” that Franken was pressured into resigning, calling the incident “incredibly frustrating” and describing the accusations against him as a “perfect storm.” ¹⁰

A MinnPost profile of Schriock gave her credit for Franken’s win, citing her management skills, pre-election preparation, and experience with a close race as Tester’s campaign manager. ¹¹

Abortion Activism

EMILY’s List

Stephanie Schriock was the president of EMILY’s List, a leading pro-abortion political action committee (PAC) which backs female Democratic candidates. The organization was created by Ellen Malcolm, an heir to one of the founders of Industrial Business Machines (IBM). Future Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and future Texas governor Ann Richards, also a Democrat, were also involved in the organization’s launch. Since its founding, EMILY’s List has directed more than $45 million to Democratic campaigns, and its Super PAC spin-off Women Vote has spent more than $50 million on supporting and attacking candidates. The organization claims to have helped elect more than 130 senators and congresswomen. ¹²

During Schriock’s tenure, EMILY’s List expanded its political expenditures significantly. In the 2012 election cycle, the group received less than $4.3 million in contributions and spent less than $7.8 million. By 2020, this had grown to more than $7.7 million in donations and $38 million in campaign spending. ¹³

As president, Schriock launched the “Run to Win” campaign, which recruited pro-abortion female activists to run for office. She later wrote a book with the same title intended as a leadership manual for women working in left-of-center organizations. EMILY’s List raised more than $460 million, and Schriock claims that her leadership led to nearly 1,000 Democratic candidates getting elected. She also claims that the organization trained more than 14,000 activists while she was president. ¹⁴

Personal Activism

In addition to her work with EMILY’s List, Schriock has endorsed the work of other leading feminist and pro-abortion groups, including the NARAL Pro-Choice America (formerly the National Abortion Rights Action League) and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She also attacked the Supreme Court for overturning the Roe v. Wade decision in June 2022 and ending the right to abortion at the federal level, calling abortion “a freedom so callously taken away from us.” ¹⁵ Schriock supports using taxpayer-funded foreign aid to pay for abortion facilities around the world; in January 2021, she praised the Biden administration for reversing a move by the Trump administration to restrict the practice. ¹⁶

After EMILY’s List

Stephanie Schrock was approached about two important Democratic Party roles during her time with EMILY’s List, though she ultimately turned them both down. One was a run for the U.S. Senate in 2014 after then-\U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) retired; the other was the position of Democratic National Committee chair in 2016. ^{17 18}

After leaving EMILY’s List, Stephanie Schriock became a senior advisor with the Strategic Victory Fund, a political action committee (PAC) which works to support candidates, ballot measures, and activist causes aligned with the Democratic Party. The organization’s executive director Scott Anderson has placed a particular emphasis on preventing the election of Republican governors in often-contested states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and keeping them from implementing ballot integrity measures which may impact the 2024 presidential election. The Strategic Victory Fund is a project of the Democracy Alliance, a collective of major left-of-center donors which has directed more than $600 million towards Democratic Party-aligned initiatives since its founding in 2005. Like the Fund, the Alliance does not disclose its donors despite many of its funders and operatives having previously criticized the perceived pervasiveness of unaccountable “dark money” in American politics. ¹⁹

1. “Stephanie Schriock.” Precision Strategies. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.precisionstrategies.com/team/stephanie-schriock/
2. Tom Scheck, “Franken hires new campaign manager,” MPR News, May 15, 2008. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/05/15/franken-hires-new-campaign-manager
3. “Stephanie Schriock.” Precision Strategies. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.precisionstrategies.com/team/stephanie-schriock/
4. Stephanie Schriock. Twitter. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://twitter.com/Schriock1
5. “Stephanie Schriock.” Precision Strategies. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.precisionstrategies.com/team/stephanie-schriock/
6. Peter Roff. “Al Franken May Have Won His Senate Seat Through Voter Fraud.” U.S. News & World Report. July 20, 2010. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2010/07/20/al-franken-may-have-won-his-senate-seat-through-voter-fraud
7. Doug Grow. “Thanks to manager, Franken campaign was all poised for massive recount effort even before Election Day.” MinnPost. April 8, 2009. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2009/04/thanks-manager-franken-campaign-was-all-poised-massive-recount-effort-even-e/
8. “Was Al Franken elected by 1000 felons?” New York Post. August 7, 2012. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://nypost.com/2012/08/07/was-al-franken-elected-by-1000-felons/
9. Alexis Simendinger. “EMILY’s List president: Franken did ‘right thing for Minnesota.’” The Hill. January 12, 2023. Accessed June 19, 2023.

   https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/368766-emilys-list-president-franken-did-right-thing-to-resign/

10. Cameron Cawthorne. “EMILY’s List President: ‘I Am Heartbroken’ Al Franken Had To Resign.” The Washington Free Beacon. April 9, 2018. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://freebeacon.com/issues/emilys-list-president-heartbroken-al-franken-resign/
11.  Doug Grow, “Thanks to manager, Franken campaign was all poised for massive recount effort before Election Day,” MinnPost, April 8, 2009. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2009/04/thanks-manager-franken-campaign-was-all-poised-massive-recount-effort-even-e/
12. “Stephanie Schriock.” Precision Strategies. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.precisionstrategies.com/team/stephanie-schriock/
13. ^[1]“EMILY’s List.” OpenSecrets. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/emily-s-list/summary?toprecipcycle=2022&contribcycle=2022&lobcycle=2022&outspendcycle=2022&id=D000000113&topnumcycle=2020
14. ^[1]“Stephanie Schriock.” Precision Strategies. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.precisionstrategies.com/team/stephanie-schriock/
15. Stephanie Schriock. Twitter. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://twitter.com/Schriock1
16. “EMILYs List Statement on Rescinding the Global Gag Rule.” Emily’s List. January 28, 2021. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://emilyslist.org/news/emilys-list-statement-on-rescinding-the-global-gag-rule/
17. Charles S. Johnson. “Another Democrat, Stephanie Schriock, forgoes US Senate race.” The Independent Record. July 31, 2013. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://helenair.com/government-and-politics/another-democrat-stephanie-schriock-forgoes-us-senate-race/article_9c24c7a4-f99f-11e2-82df-001a4bcf887a.html
18. Lisa Belkin. “Is this DNC speaker the next chair of the Democratic Party?” Yahoo News. July 27, 2016. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://news.yahoo.com/is-this-cleveland-speaker-the-next-chair-of-the-democratic-party-232843868.html
19. ^[1]“Stephanie Schriock.” Precision Strategies. Accessed June 19, 2023. https://www.precisionstrategies.com/team/stephanie-schriock/