Posted on September 8, 2014

Cosmo to Endorse Political Candidates, and No Pro-Lifers Allowed

Susan Berry, Breitbart, September 5, 2014

The editor of Cosmopolitan says that the magazine will begin endorsing political candidates because she wants women to have control over having a child, “not a bunch of old white guys sitting in D.C.”

As Politico reports, Cosmo editor-in-chief Joanna Coles states, “The biggest single decision which will impact your life is when you have a child.”

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Cosmo’s new effort is titled #CosmoVotes and will include candidate endorsements and a social media campaign that hopes to motivate its readers to get to the polls to be part of “the party of the year.”

Additionally, senior political writer Jill Filipovic, a former lawyer and Guardian columnist, will interview candidates and publish political stories.

Endorsements of Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates will be made by a board composed of Cosmopolitan.com editors. Criteria for endorsement will be support for equal pay, abortion, free contraception, and anti-voter I.D. laws.

In an effort to make the political information not “boring and difficult to understand” forCosmo’s readers, Amy Odell, Cosmopolitan.com’s editor and head of the political effort, said the social media campaign will launch with a “Save the Date” for Election Day featuring a photo of Beyoncé with American flag nails.

“We’re using social media in a very big way because our audience is very active on social media and they really engage with us in social in many ways,” Odell said. “We also wanted to have a lot of fun with it and make it feel like a party, obviously there’s a pun to be made with the biggest ‘political party’ of the year.”

The plan is that each week, beginning September 8 and until the November elections, Cosmo editors will endorse from one to three candidates based upon their “established criteria.”

However, multi-faceted candidates who might support equal pay but are also pro-life, for example, would not be eligible for consideration by Cosmo’s editors.

“We’re not going to endorse someone who is pro-life because that’s not in our readers’ best interest,” Odell said. “[P]eople say that’s a liberal thing, but in our minds its not about liberal or conservative, it’s about women having rights, and particularly with health care because that is so important.”

“All young women deserve affordable easy access to health care, and that might include terminating a pregnancy, and that’s OK,” she added.

Coles said political endorsements will primarily feature candidates in swing states and those who strongly support free contraception and gun control.

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