About

Vote Mama PAC envisions an America that sets the global standard for family-friendly policies—where starting a family and raising children is not only safe and affordable, but joyful, and where every family has the support they need to thrive.

Running for office as a mother, especially a mother of young children, is extraordinarily difficult and many moms choose to wait until their children are older before getting involved in politics. As a result, we’re missing critical voices in government—people who know what it’s like not to have access to paid family leave; what it’s like to go into medical debt giving birth, or struggle to find affordable childcare. If we want to change our policies, we need to change our policymakers and get more Democratic mothers in positions of power. That’s where we come 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 Senate and provides tailored candidate support to ensure that no mom has to run alone. From the first door knock to your swearing in, and beyond, Vote Mama PAC is by your side.

Liuba Grechen Shirley founded Vote Mama after experiencing firsthand how difficult it is to run for office as a mother of young kids. Whether it was finding and affording childcare, juggling campaign stops with breastfeeding, or navigating the real emotion of being away from her children, Liuba discovered that running as a mom came with barriers that didn’t affect men in the same way. While men could rely on the “old boy’s club,” Liuba found no support system for moms of minor kids running for office. After she lost her race in 2018, she decided she wanted to create that system herself and build a Mamas’ Network to ensure no mom in the future would be forced to run alone.

What does “normalizing moms running for office” really mean? For us, it means that when a mom decides to run, the first question she’s asked isn’t “who will watch your children?” but “Why are you running and how can I help?”

In the United States, moms are 15x more likely than men to be responsible for the majority of childcare. When you add in the other structural barriers moms face like campaigning full-time without a salary, finding reliable childcare, or fearing for your family’s safety, it’s clear that moms aren’t losing at the ballot box, they’re losing before the race even begins. With a 70% win rate for moms running at every level, from school board to U.S. Senate, we prove that when moms run, moms win.