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 has worked to elect Democratic pro-choice women to the Iowa Legislature.

Since 1993, DAWN's List has helped elect 19 women to the State Legislature. DAWN has provided campaign training, mentoring, and support for hundreds of other Iowa women.

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

DAWN's List works toward this mission by helping recruit, train and mentor, and financially support progressive Democratic women who are running for the State Legislature or local elected office. 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. We encourage Iowa women to become involved and to run for political office. DAWN believes that Iowa is best served by progressive women in positions of leadership at all levels of elected and appointed office. DAWN's List works 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 progressive Democratic women to the Iowa Legislature and local elected offices. We are a network of women and men across the state of Iowa committed to helping progressive 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. In the state legislature, we have only only four female Democratic senators (out of 50 seats) and 19 women 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, statewide office, and Congress.

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. The Steering Committee is open to any woman interested in working on the DAWN's List mission.