As part of our “Women on Wednesdays” series, please join the Women & Politics Institute for a virtual conversation with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairwoman, Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) and Executive Director Lucinda Guinn. WPI Executive Director Betsy Fischer Martin will facilitate the discussion.

After the record-setting “Year of the Women” in 2018, Rep. Cheri Bustos and Lucinda Guinn will discuss their efforts at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to build on the midterm momentum in 2020. They will also highlight some Democratic "women to watch” and talk about the political landscape in some of their most targeted races.

Rep. Cheri Bustos is an American journalist, healthcare executive and politician serving  her fourth term as the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 17th congressional district. She is the first woman elected to Congress from her district, and is the only member of elected Democratic House Leadership from the Midwest. In 2019, Rep. Bustos assumed a leadership position among House Democrats as Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

Rep. Bustos is a founding member of the bi-partisan Reformers Caucus, and serves on the House Appropriations Committee, the House Agriculture Committee, and the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. She also runs a candidate boot-camp called "Build the Bench", which has been billed as a national model for candidate training programs.

Lucinda Guinn, the first Latina to serve as Executive Director of the DCCC, brings years of campaign and management experience to her role. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Campaigns at EMILY’s List where she oversaw the group’s efforts to elect pro-choice Democratic women to local, state and federal office. She worked at the DCCC in the 2008 and 2012 cycles, and has worked on campaigns up and down the ballot throughout her career. As senior advisor to BOLD PAC, she worked closely with CHC members on increasing diversity in the Democratic Caucus.

Betsy Fischer Martin is an Emmy-winning journalist and former TV news executive. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University and a faculty member in the School of Public Affairs, where she teaches courses on campaigns and elections. During her earlier career in television news, she spent 23 years at NBC News serving as the longtime Executive Producer of Meet the Press with Tim Russert and as the Managing Editor of NBC News Political Programming.

"Women on Wednesdays" Election Watch: Democratic Women in 2020 with Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) and Lucinda Guinn