February Update
We hope you are doing well and enjoying your start to 2024. Over the last few months, Project 50 has been ramping up our efforts and preparing for a consequential and busy election year!
In this newsletter, we will highlight the following:
New Project 50 Political Director, Marlou Svenson!
2024 Kick-Off Events with Project 50 Board member Kathleen Sebelius, former Governor of Kansas and Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services
Chicago’s Patti Vasquez Radio Show, featuring Project 50 Executive Director Bryan Howard & Senior Advisor Terry Cosgrove
Successful event for Our Choice Coalition, Project 50’s partner in Indiana
We hope you will review the exciting updates below and consider supporting our work at Project 50!
This year, we are committed to collaborating with our state partners in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and South Carolina to ensure they have the resources necessary to establish a sustainable process to identify pro-choice candidates, recruit and train them to win elections, and then, finally, hold them accountable on abortion rights legislation once they are in office.
Your support is crucial to advancing this important cause in the upcoming 2024 cycle.
New Project 50 Political Director, Marlou Svenson!
Project 50 is thrilled to announce the official hiring of our Political Director, Marlou Svenson! Marlou is an accomplished leader in political campaigns and policy with a track record of working in diverse communities to advance equity and protect human rights. Marlou was selected out of over 250 applicants through an extensive nationwide search that began in September 2023.
As Project 50’s Political Director, Marlou Svenson oversees Project 50’s collaboration with and support for state PACs and political organizations that are working to build political power for reproductive rights. She works with state leaders to craft state-specific organizational development programs, timelines and budgets, as well as voter communication strategies.
Prior to joining Project 50, Marlou was the Program Manager for Access to Affordable Care at Doctors for America, developing campaigns to achieve Medicaid expansion in states that have not already done so. Before Doctors for America, Marlou worked with Made to Save, a national education and grassroots campaign advancing COVID-19 vaccine equity and access in communities of color. In the realm of political campaigns, Marlou has held positions with Elizabeth Warren for President, Hillary for America, and national and local Planned Parenthood organizations.
Marlou received her M.P.H. from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in Hanover, NH and her B.A. from Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany.
Welcome to the team, Marlou! We are so excited to collaborate with you in moving Project 50’s work forward!
2024 Kick-Off Events on January 18th
Project 50 recently hosted 2024 Kick-Off Events with Project 50 Board member Kathleen Sebelius, former Governor of Kansas and Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Project 50 was thrilled to bring together a group of intelligent, committed leaders to celebrate our supporters and partners and discuss the fight for reproductive rights in 2024. We heard from Executive Director Bryan Howard and other Board members on the status of our work, partnerships on the ground, and plan for the 2024 election cycle.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of our hosts and guests, Project 50 raised nearly $50,000 to support power-building efforts in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. This includes directly supporting the re-election efforts of the five female state senators in South Carolina who led filibuster efforts to stave off a six-week abortion ban in April 2023. These women are now high-priority targets for anti-choice interest groups in the 2024 election, and it is imperative that reproductive rights advocates support these brave leaders.
We are deeply grateful to all those who contributed and attended, and we are excited to build upon the support and passion generated by the Kick-Off Events!
Pictures of our recent Kick-Off Events!
Check out Project 50’s Bryan Howard & Terry Cosgrove on the Patti Vasquez Show!
Project 50 Executive Director Bryan Howard & Senior Advisor Terry Cosgrove recently spoke on the Patti Vasquez Show! This nightly radio show highlights local leaders and addresses the important issues facing Chicagoans. Bryan and Terry thoroughly enjoyed talking with Patti about Project 50’s work and our unique mission to build a state-based, pro-choice infrastructure.
You can listen to the full conversation online HERE!
Bryan Howard (left) and Terry Cosgrove (middle) pictured with radio host Patti Vasquez (right).
Successful Event for Our Choice Coalition, Project 50’s Partner in Indiana
We are excited to highlight our partner in Indiana, Our Choice Coalition, who recently hosted a successful event with roughly 500 attendees. The January 22, 2024 event honored Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an abortion provider in Indiana, who has been unfairly targeted by anti-choice extremists after providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim.
Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Connie Schultz spoke at the event and engaged Dr. Bernard on the importance of staying in the fight for reproductive rights.
We are thrilled to have partners across the country, like Our Choice Coalition, who are committed to working every day on the ground to re-establish access to abortion.
If you are interested in learning more about Our Choice Coalition and Dr. Caitlin Bernard’s inspiring story, you may do so HERE.
IL Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton (left) honoring Dr. Caitlin Bernard (right) at Our Choice Coalition’s recent event.
We thank you for continuing to engage with and support our work, which we could not do without you!
It is with your generous contributions that Project 50 will grow the influence of our state partners and provide strategic and tactical knowledge, seed financing, and promote opportunities for relationship-building with similarly focused community leaders across the country.
Thank you, once again, for your commitment to Project 50, and we hope to see you soon!
Always in choice,
Bryan Howard
Paid for by Project 50 (project50.net) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.