Emerge Louisiana chooses 25 Democratic women that will train on how to run for political office. They come from across the state and will get 70 hours of in depth education over six months. Executive Director Melanie Oubre says these women are looking at several different offices.
Districts will be redrawn following the 2020 census. Oubre says it will be a great time to have newly graduated women starting to create their new active roles in government, increasing the amount of female Democrats in office.
Since the program started in other states, more than 150 Emerge America alums have been elected to office. Oubre says some nine women have been enrolled in this class before and plan to run again.