The Iowa Democratic Activist Women's Network (DAWN's List) was born at a gathering organized by Julie Gammack in Boone after the 1992 election. Political activist women including office holders and past candidates gathered to share their experiences and concerns about women's political campaigns in Iowa.

DAWN's List was conceived in the image of the national 'Early Money is Like Yeast' (EMILY's List) campaign. While EMILY's List works to elect Democratic pro-choice women to the U.S. Congress, DAWN's List works to elect Democratic pro-choice women to the Iowa Legislature.

Since 1993, DAWN's List has helped elect 15 women to the State Legislature. It has provided campaign training, mentoring, and support for hundreds of other Iowa women.

DAWN's List is dedicated to strengthening our state by electing pro-choice Democratic women to the State Legislature.

DAWN's List works toward this mission by helping recruit, train and mentor, and financially support pro-choice Democratic women who are running for the State Legislature. Our immediate focus is to help women win today. As we look to the future, we are working to create a strong organization that reaches out to more women across the state to encourage them to become involved and run for political office. We realize that we need women in positions of leadership at all levels of elected and appointed office, and as the organization grows, DAWN's List will work to help more women develop the skills to run for state and local offices.

We believe in the power of women as voters, as contributors, as candidates and campaign workers, and as elected officials to bring about the changes we need in Iowa.

When women are part of the political process, we have a democracy that is truly representative. When women sit at the decision-making tables, the concerns of women and families are not ignored. When women are in positions of leadership, we broaden the scope of possibilities for other women-our daughters, granddaughters, sisters, and friends.

DAWN's List is the ONLY group in the state of Iowa solely dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to the Iowa Legislature. We are a network of women and men across the state of Iowa committed to helping pro-choice Democratic women build effective campaigns and raise the resources to win.

Shamefully, Iowa is one of only two states (the other being Mississippi) that has never elected a woman to either Congress or the governorship. We have only one female Democratic senator (out of 50 seats) and 16 female Democratic representatives (out of 100).

In light of these challenges, we are working to create a strong organization that reaches out to more women across the state to encourage them to become involved and run for political office. DAWN's List regularly collaborates with EMILY's List to present their Political Opportunity Program-a campaign training for women interested in running for local and state office. By training more women to run for political office, we know we'll see more women WIN political office. When we have more women serving at all levels of political office, we will have more women better positioned to successfully run for the State Legislature.

DAWN's List is guided by a Steering Committee of dedicated women. Much of the work of the organization-from recruitment of candidates to endorsement-is conducted by the Steering Committee.