By Kathy Groob – When Emerge Kentucky launched its female candidate training program for Democratic women in 2009, the state was ranked 45^th in the nation for women in politics and just 15% of the members in the state legislature were women.  On Saturday Emerge Kentucky graduated its second class of 24 women and encourages them to run for public office within five years.

Emerge Kentucky is an affiliate of Emerge America that operates candidate training programs in nine states. Including all of the graduates from this year’s classes, the Emerge organizations will have trained and graduated over 900 women since it was founded in 2002.  Emerge America president Karen Middleton attended the final training session and graduation and told the women “you are part of a movement to change the face of politics in America.”

Kentucky State Auditor Crit Luallen delivered the graduation keynote address and strongly encouraged the new graduates to step up and become leaders in their communities and in Kentucky.  “Women leaders do not separate public policy from the people,” said Luallen.  “We need more women’s leadership abilities in public office to work on the challenges we face.”

Emerge KY graduates, board members and Emerge American President Karen Middleton

Crit Luallen invoked recent failures in government as an inspiration for the women to step up and run for office.  Speaking about the failure of the bi-partisan budget commission’s efforts last week when Congressman Eric Cantor walked out and quit, Luallen stated “If we had more women in Congress, instead of walking out, they would be figuring it out.”

Emerge Kentucky  board chair Jennifer Moore handed the women their graduation certificates and encouraged them to stay involved and hone their skills by working to help candidates in the 2011 elections.  Emerge Kentucky will begin its recruiting efforts for the 2012 program class in the fall. For more information, contact mailto:[email protected].