At Georgia’s WIN List, we know it is unprecedented for our state’s voters to have a choice between two highly qualified women who are currently campaigning and fundraising for Georgia Governor in 2018.

Both women – Rep. Stacey Abrams and Rep. Stacey Evans – served on the Georgia’s WIN List board, with Rep. Evans serving two years as board chair, before running as WIN List Endorsed candidates for House seats. We have featured each of them on programs and celebrated as Stacey Abrams became Minority Leader and Stacey Evans became Minority Caucus Chair.

A victory for either candidate would give Georgia its first woman governor. Both women are brilliant attorneys and strong advocates for the protection of reproductive freedom and equality for women. They are each skilled orators whether delivering speeches on the floor of the house, explaining complicated legislation in a media interview or rousing a crowd. We expect a robust Democratic primary and look forward to following the will of Georgia citizens and forcefully promoting the primary winner against a Republican opponent in November 2018.

We know our donors and supporters will carefully consider the difficult decision about which of these two women to personally support during the coming months. As a board, with both Rep. Abrams and Rep. Evans in the race, we will not endorse one over the other. We know both women are highly qualified and strong advocates for reproductive freedom. We pledge our full resources to support either of them as Democratic nominee in November 2018.

We affirm the higher goal which first brought WIN List founders together: a desire to change the face of power in Georgia during a time when Republicans would like nothing better than to see Democratic women voters sharply divided. It is past time for Georgia women to be represented as never before at the tables of power where policies, which directly affect our lives and those of our families, are hammered out. WIN List is pleased to have contributed to driving the political trajectory which now gives two women the opportunity to shatter Georgia’s gubernatorial glass ceiling for the first time in 2018.

Having two women so well qualified for leading our state is proof positive we have succeeded in building a strong bench of women leaders since our beginnings in 2000. Georgia’s WIN List has helped elect and re-elect 55 women to the Georgia General Assembly, 31 of whom still serve. Georgia has the highest percentage of women legislators for any state in the South and even more importantly, a higher percentage of those women are progressive Democrats thanks to our efforts and the support of our generous donors over the years.

As both Rep. Abrams and Rep. Evans travel the state reaching out to voters, we at WIN List will be working to recruit and train strong women candidates for other statewide seats and a dozen or more newly competitive — “flippable” — legislative seats. The national political climate has inspired renewed interest in politics — particularly for women, many of whom have become involved as never before.

This interest has lead to our largest and most geographically diverse ever WIN Leadership Academy class of 80 for 2017. Further, we have trained a record setting 200 women earlier this year. We are in communication with more than a dozen women who are giving serious consideration to seeking office in 2018. Some have already established kitchen cabinets, put campaign managers on retainer and started fundraising. We anticipate announcing our first early endorsements for key races soon.

WIN List has a strong plan in place to “Grab ‘em by the Midterms” in 2018. We look forward to the historic first of having a WINning woman as Georgia’s 2018 Democratic nominee.