About

Vote Mama envisions a society in which mothers can lead at every level—without choosing between their children and their livelihoods—and a country that sets the global standard for family-friendly policies.

Vote Mama PAC supports bold and dedicated Democratic moms who champion family-friendly policies and are actively balancing caregiving and campaigning—growing a sustained network of power that builds with every election cycle.

Running for office as a mom, especially a mom of young children, is extraordinarily difficult. Many moms choose to wait until their children are older before getting involved in politics—if they even run at all. As a result, we’re missing critical voices in government—people who know what it’s like to raise a family in today’s America, where childcare is more expensive than college, anti-abortion laws have hamstrung maternal healthcare, and kids regularly face lockdowns and school shooting drills, all because politicians fail to act.

If we want to change our policies, we need to change our policymakers and get more Democratic moms into positions of power. That’s where Vote Mama PAC comes in.

We measure our success not just by the number of mamas who get elected, but by the normalization of moms running for and serving in office. Vote Mama PAC endorses Democratic moms from school board to U.S. Senate and provides tailored candidate support so that our mamas don’t run alone. From your first door knock, to your swearing in, and beyond, Vote Mama PAC is by your side.

Liuba Grechen Shirley founded Vote Mama PAC after experiencing firsthand how difficult it was—and still is—to run for office as a mom of two little ones.

While men could rely on the “old boy’s club,” Liuba found barely any support system for a mom of minor kids running for office. She decided to build a Mamas’ Network herself, so that Democratic moms running for the right reasons have a village behind them that understands their struggles and celebrates their successes.

When she ran for Congress in 2018, Liuba discovered that running as a mom came with structural and cultural barriers that didn’t affect men in the same way. She faced difficulties finding and affording childcare, juggling campaign stops with breastfeeding, and navigating the real emotion of being away from her children. On the campaign trail, people would ask “What will happen to your kids if you win?” and tell her to ignore the “women’s issues” (e.g., paid leave and affordable childcare, a.k.a. basic economic building blocks).

In the 2020 election cycle, Liuba had the choice to run for Congress again, in a seat that had now become open. She decided she could make more of a difference building Vote Mama PAC to chip away at a political system built by and for wealthy, white, land-owning men before women even had the right to vote. Since 2019, Vote Mama PAC has supported hundreds of Democratic moms running for office, realizing Liuba’s vision of a Mamas’ Network that lifts women up and delivers for American families.