Cheri’s mother Lou broke barriers as a university dean and a national leader in her field while raising Cheri. Cheri has worked hard to follow in her mother’s footsteps, earning her law degree, becoming a judge and serving as the first African American woman Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. 

As a working mother, she knows firsthand the challenges women can face in the workplace. As Chief Justice, she took action to establish a family leave policy for court employees to ensure people could take care of their families and be successful in their jobs. 

Cheri will fight to create a federal paid family and medical leave program, ensure equal pay for equal work and strengthen workplace protections for women so that no woman fears retribution for reporting harassment or feels unsafe at work.  She will also fight to expand affordable childcare to address the childcare crisis which has disproportionately impacted women, forcing millions to leave the workforce. Cheri will also fight to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to ensure gender equality under the law. 

With urgent threats to reproductive freedom, and hundreds of laws passed across the country aimed at restricting reproductive freedom, Cheri believes the Senate must take action to protect women’s constitutional rights. In addition to repealing the Hyde Amendment, she supports the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade and protect reproductive rights so that women can get the care they need no matter where they live. That’s why she’s been endorsed by Planned Parenthood Action Fund as the candidate who will take this fight to the U.S. Senate.