Speaker 1: Folks. I am so excited to welcome to wok F
Speaker 1: Daily for the very first time Lauren bare who is
Speaker 1: a managing partner at Arena, which is an organization that
Speaker 1: is working to train a pipeline of Democrats in order
Speaker 1: to be able to run for office, to run campaigns,
Speaker 1: to do all of the things that we need them
Speaker 1: to do in order to battle against Republicans. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like Republicans do a much better job of
Speaker 1: building a pipeline. And let me be clear, their candidates
Speaker 1: are crap. So it's amazing to me that they have
Speaker 1: such an incredible infrastructure that their folks can rely on
Speaker 1: churning out candidates after candidates. Talk to us about Arena
Speaker 1: and why you think that it was important to get
Speaker 1: to this place. Why is it important for us to
Speaker 1: have this kind of organization and infrastructure. We have a
Speaker 1: few what is it that makes this one different? Well, well,
Speaker 1: first of all, Danielle, thank you so much for having
Speaker 1: me here today to talk about these really important issues.
Speaker 1: So arenas an organization and whose mission is to convene,
Speaker 1: train and support the next generation of Democratic candidates and
Speaker 1: campaign staff, and we were born out of the twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen election, but also out of a realization of precisely
Speaker 1: what you're pointing out, which is that Republicans for decades
Speaker 1: have invested in infrastructure, in im party infrastructure, in organizing infrastructure,
Speaker 1: and infrastructure that is enduring year over year, cycle over cycle,
Speaker 1: and Democrats simply have not. On our side. In some ways,
Speaker 1: we focused on candidates running really care asmatic people for office.
Speaker 1: But candidates don't win elections on their own. They require
Speaker 1: really strong, robust, well trained teams around them, and teams
Speaker 1: who represent the diversity of the country and the communities
Speaker 1: that they are running to represent. And so Arena exists
Speaker 1: really to try to fill that gap on the Democratic side,
Speaker 1: and we do it through four different ways. We do
Speaker 1: it by running training programs. We have a flagship program
Speaker 1: called Arena Academy, which trains individuals how to be campaign staff,
Speaker 1: how to run campaigns, everything from being a campaign manager
Speaker 1: to doing data, digital communications, fundraising. We have a careers
Speaker 1: team that works to place everyone we've trained on a
Speaker 1: campaign or working with a Democratic or progressive organization and
Speaker 1: then make sure that those people stay in the business
Speaker 1: cycle over cycle, year over year. We've got a suite
Speaker 1: of free downloadable tools our Arena toolbox so that candidates
Speaker 1: and campaign staff can have the knowledge that for so
Speaker 1: long was held by an exclusive handful of people, to
Speaker 1: be honest, you know, mostly white men who had worked
Speaker 1: in politics for some time. And then on top of
Speaker 1: all of that infrastructure building work, we also support candidates
Speaker 1: financially and by providing them with staff. And the kind
Speaker 1: of candidates that Arena supports are those who are bringing new,
Speaker 1: fresh voices to the party, new perspectives, who are really
Speaker 1: running on a premise of generational change and making our
Speaker 1: party and our politics more reflective of the country as
Speaker 1: a whole. I love all the all of the different
Speaker 1: parts that Arena brings to the table, and I will
Speaker 1: want to talk for a minute, you know, particularly about
Speaker 1: campaign staff and why that's important. I think for too
Speaker 1: long we rely on passion right to get people in
Speaker 1: stid and wanting to work on campaigns. It's usually younger folks,
Speaker 1: right that have the passion, have the energy, you know,
Speaker 1: are going to live on the road pre covid that
Speaker 1: was you know, that was the case. In terms of campaigning,
Speaker 1: how do you get people interested? How do you draw
Speaker 1: people in to say we need you? Because when folks
Speaker 1: think about You know, I get asked the question all
Speaker 1: the time, Danielle, what can I do? Right? Like we're losing?
Speaker 1: What can I do? And I tell them volunteer, I
Speaker 1: say donate. You know, it depends on your capacity. So
Speaker 1: for those people that say what can I do, and
Speaker 1: they want to do more than just volunteer, they want
Speaker 1: to do more than just write a check, how do
Speaker 1: you connect those folks to these campaigns? Yeah, well, what
Speaker 1: you're saying, Danielle is so right, because, like I said before,
Speaker 1: campaigns don't just run themselves. And I know this firsthand.
Speaker 1: I was a candidate for Congress in twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 1: I entered that race with with a ton of passion,
Speaker 1: a ton of desire to serve my community, but no
Speaker 1: understanding of the mechanics of running a campaign, and really
Speaker 1: relied on the team that I was able to build
Speaker 1: around me. But it was hard to recruit that staff.
Speaker 1: And it was doubly hard to recruit a staff that
Speaker 1: I wanted to be diverse, that I wanted to be
Speaker 1: gender balanced, that I wanted to have BIPOC representation, that
Speaker 1: I wanted to have LGBTQ representation, Because the simple fact
Speaker 1: is it's been really hard to break into politics. You know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that you've encouraged people to volunteer, and I
Speaker 1: think that's part of the problem is that, you know,
Speaker 1: political engagement working in politics has been thought up as
Speaker 1: a volunteer job for so long, and then by definition,
Speaker 1: that makes it a job for those individuals who can
Speaker 1: afford to work for free. YEP. At Arena, we're trying
Speaker 1: to up end that because we make politics actually needs
Speaker 1: to be a professional career and it needs to be
Speaker 1: accessible to everyone that the Democratic Party is trying to serve,
Speaker 1: which means it needs to recruit more people of color,
Speaker 1: We need to recruit more working class individuals. We need
Speaker 1: to make politics a career in which you can earn
Speaker 1: a living wage to draw the kind of talent that
Speaker 1: you want to bring to the table in order to win.
Speaker 1: And so what I would encourage, you know, anyone who's motivated,
Speaker 1: who wants to do something really substantive, you know, think
Speaker 1: about going to an Arena academy, spending five days and
Speaker 1: learning what it really takes to run a campaign. We
Speaker 1: make a point of making sure that scholarships are available
Speaker 1: to everyone who needs them, so you're going to not
Speaker 1: be paying a dime if you can't afford to pay
Speaker 1: that tuition for training, and then we work very hard
Speaker 1: with every person we've trained to help place them after words,
Speaker 1: because it can be an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling experience
Speaker 1: to find that candidate who you find inspiring, whether it's
Speaker 1: someone who's running for a school board or mayor, to
Speaker 1: investident and then put in the work to get them
Speaker 1: elected and then bring that talent to the next race,
Speaker 1: and the next one and the next one. So you know,
Speaker 1: if there are people out there listening and that sounds
Speaker 1: inspiring to you, I really encourage you to start thinking
Speaker 1: about this not just as a volunteer opportunity, but as
Speaker 1: a way to make a career path, and we will
Speaker 1: do everything we can to help make that possible for folks.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm so happy that you brought up, you know,
Speaker 1: the pay because I think, you know to one of
Speaker 1: the issues and I feel maybe this is changing in Washington, DC,
Speaker 1: But you know, when I was there as a very
Speaker 1: as a very young person, you know, internships who are unpaid.
Speaker 1: Working on the hill was unpaid, and you know, and
Speaker 1: I love the fact that your organization is making the
Speaker 1: connection between well if you're going to have something that
Speaker 1: is not paid or paid poorly, right, then you're carving
Speaker 1: out a certain group of people that can engage right,
Speaker 1: and that may not be the best people, but to
Speaker 1: understand that for young people in particular, or people that
Speaker 1: are looking for a career change frankly right, that want
Speaker 1: the opportunity to engage in a way that makes them
Speaker 1: feel like they are living and working on purpose. Not
Speaker 1: being able to having to make a decision between a
Speaker 1: low paying job putting food on your table and then
Speaker 1: wanting to do something of purpose. Shouldn't be a decision
Speaker 1: that people have to be forced to choose between. Right
Speaker 1: And So for those BIPOC people in particular and LGBTQ people,
Speaker 1: how do you talk to them about why it's so
Speaker 1: important to have campaigns that look like the country as
Speaker 1: opposed to just looking like the candidate you know that
Speaker 1: they may like, But why is it's so important you think? Look,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, campaigns are really about
Speaker 1: forming a human connection with voters. They are successful when
Speaker 1: that candidate connects with a voter, but they're also successful
Speaker 1: when that team connects with potential voters. And on any campaign,
Speaker 1: your campaign staff is really an extension of the candidate.
Speaker 1: They are representing that individual out in the community. They're
Speaker 1: making the case for why to elect them. And the
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is people are more engaged in politics,
Speaker 1: more trusting of people running for office when they can
Speaker 1: see themselves and in some way reflected in the process.
Speaker 1: So if you're going into BIPOC communities, if you've got
Speaker 1: BIPOC staff who can go into those communities, who can
Speaker 1: speak to the issues from a point of having experienced
Speaker 1: themselves in a way that has authenticity, gains trust, that's
Speaker 1: going to take you farther. As a member of the
Speaker 1: LGBTQ community, I can say that the number of folks
Speaker 1: who stepped into my campaign office when I was running
Speaker 1: because they knew I was an openly gay candidate and
Speaker 1: because I had openly gay members of my team and said,
Speaker 1: I've never done anything political. I don't often vote, but
Speaker 1: in you, I see someone for the first time who's
Speaker 1: representing me in politics, and that's what's drawing me in.
Speaker 1: And so I think that's the case to be made,
Speaker 1: is that so many times marginalized communities don't see this
Speaker 1: work as their work because they've been left out of
Speaker 1: the process. But we really have an opportunity to open
Speaker 1: up whole new swots of the electorate and bring people
Speaker 1: in if we have staff and folks on campaigns who
Speaker 1: are more broadly reflective of the community. And you know,
Speaker 1: the one thing I would add to that is he
Speaker 1: said that arena. You know, we have a toolbox which
Speaker 1: teaches you how to build a campaign. But our tools
Speaker 1: aren't just the nuts and bolts of this is how
Speaker 1: you make a finance plan, this is how you buy
Speaker 1: your digital ads. We also have tools in there like
Speaker 1: how to build a racially just an equitable campaign, how
Speaker 1: to think about unionization issues on campaigns, how to think
Speaker 1: about wage issues and health insurance. Because what needs to
Speaker 1: change is the entire mindset that campaigns could somehow be
Speaker 1: run in a way that's different than any other employment
Speaker 1: environment would be run and they still expect to recruit
Speaker 1: top notch, diverse talent. We as a party have to
Speaker 1: live up to our own values in the way that
Speaker 1: we run our campaigns as well as in the way
Speaker 1: that we deliver on policy once we're in office. You know, Lauren,
Speaker 1: many people or the last four plus years have gotten
Speaker 1: such a terrible taste in their mouth with regard to politics. Right,
Speaker 1: we saw through the Trump administration just how vile, how
Speaker 1: cruel our politics can get. What do you say to
Speaker 1: those people that you know because of COVID, Because we're
Speaker 1: all in our homes, we are all paying attention to
Speaker 1: the same thing at the same time, which hasn't happened
Speaker 1: since the advent of social media. Frankly, right, what do
Speaker 1: you say to those people that have a newly recognized
Speaker 1: appreciation for the importance of politics in their lives, but
Speaker 1: are also disgusted by it, are also like this is
Speaker 1: too toxic and and I don't want any part of it.
Speaker 1: What do you say to those folks? Yeah, well, I
Speaker 1: mean the first thing I do is acknowledge that those
Speaker 1: feelings are very real. The last four plus years have
Speaker 1: been a very challenging time to turn on the television,
Speaker 1: to look at the new paper, to ingest what's going on,
Speaker 1: and that that vitriol in that hate, and then feel
Speaker 1: like that's something you want to jump into. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's not unnatural that the instinct is to in
Speaker 1: some ways want to pull back and pull away from that.
Speaker 1: But at a basic level, I think politics can be
Speaker 1: driven by one of two things. It can be driven
Speaker 1: by hope or it can be driven by fear. And
Speaker 1: Donald Trump and the Republican Party have very much leaned
Speaker 1: into this fear based politics, hate mongering, appealing to our
Speaker 1: basis instincts, trying to make people turn against their neighbors
Speaker 1: and think of them as somehow other. And if that's
Speaker 1: not appealing to you, it's only going to change if
Speaker 1: you lean into the alternative, which is a hope based politics.
Speaker 1: Politics you know of the nature of an Obama or
Speaker 1: Biden or any number of the inspiring individuals who run
Speaker 1: for House or Senate or city city council in the
Speaker 1: past four years, and you offer an alternative vision that
Speaker 1: is truer to the values on which our country is
Speaker 1: founded and truer to the direction that we hope our
Speaker 1: country will will go. So, you know, that's what I
Speaker 1: try to say is to you know, lean into that hope.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing that I would say to
Speaker 1: folks is, you know, in a previous life, back during
Speaker 1: the Obama administration, I spent six years working as a
Speaker 1: foreign policy official at the State Department, and I focused
Speaker 1: on democracy in human rights, and part of what my
Speaker 1: job was was looking at democratic backsliding in other countries
Speaker 1: around the world, pointing out to our own government when
Speaker 1: there were red flags being raised that countries that were
Speaker 1: democratic were actually headed in the direction because we know
Speaker 1: democracy is in a one way street. Just because you
Speaker 1: got there doesn't mean you stay there, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you're becoming democrat more democratic every single day. And
Speaker 1: it was terrifying to me post twenty sixteen to start
Speaker 1: to see those same red flags that I'd seen in
Speaker 1: other countries in my own country. I never imagined I
Speaker 1: would be confronted with that. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we saved ourselves from the brink with the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: election in getting Trump out of office, but the work
Speaker 1: is not over yet. Our democracy is still incredibly unstable,
Speaker 1: and you just need to look at voter suppression laws,
Speaker 1: restrictions on civil rights, environmental black sliding to know that
Speaker 1: what we have right now is very fragile. And so
Speaker 1: what I would also say to people is that if
Speaker 1: you care about our country and care about it living
Speaker 1: up to its best ideals, then in some way, engagement
Speaker 1: is not a choice. It's a necessity. I love them
Speaker 1: that you have to do to save the vision of
Speaker 1: the country that you believe in. You know, I love
Speaker 1: that you said that engagement is not a choice. I
Speaker 1: think that we too often pose it right post politics,
Speaker 1: as in something that you can choose to opt in
Speaker 1: or opt out of. And I hope you know one
Speaker 1: I have said on WOKA for the longest time that
Speaker 1: I do believe that all we did was hit pause
Speaker 1: on our sliding into authoritarianism. I do not think that
Speaker 1: the election hit stop. But what I am hopeful of
Speaker 1: is that the historic turnout that we saw in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: the historic turnout that brought us the Biden Harris administration,
Speaker 1: will again folks recognize that if I stay home right,
Speaker 1: those Trumpers, those people that are working over time to
Speaker 1: gas slide us into believing the exceptionalism of this country
Speaker 1: without the analysis that are trying to take away every
Speaker 1: single right that women, LGBTQ people, black folks and brown
Speaker 1: folks have fought for since the beginning of time. That
Speaker 1: without their engagement right, we will remain on the brink
Speaker 1: and there may not be an opportunity for us to
Speaker 1: be pulled back right. And what happens then, And I
Speaker 1: don't you know, I am not a fearmongerer at all,
Speaker 1: But I believe myself to be a realist, which is
Speaker 1: all you have to do is see the news. One
Speaker 1: of the questions, one of the last questions I want
Speaker 1: to ask you, Lauren, is this. You know you ran
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen in Florida, which is an incredibly complicated
Speaker 1: and place of great contradictions. What are some of the
Speaker 1: things that you learned in that run that has informed
Speaker 1: the work that you're doing now and can inform others
Speaker 1: that are interested in either throwing their hat in to
Speaker 1: be candidate or deciding that they want to run campaigns.
Speaker 1: The first thing that I learned is that if you
Speaker 1: are an individual who feels the inclination to get involved
Speaker 1: in politics, whether that's putting your own name on the
Speaker 1: ballot or joining a campaign as a member of staff,
Speaker 1: don't wait for an invitation because people might not invite you.
Speaker 1: It takes gut, it takes will, But if you've got
Speaker 1: that fire in your belly, go on and put yourself
Speaker 1: out there. Deciding to run was one of the most
Speaker 1: frightening things that I've ever done, and ultimately probably the
Speaker 1: most deeply rewarding and impactful things I have ever done,
Speaker 1: and no one was asking me to do it. I
Speaker 1: decided to run for office when I was home with
Speaker 1: a tiny, infant baby girl and struggling with the realization
Speaker 1: that she was born into a very different world than
Speaker 1: the one I wanted her to be born into. And
Speaker 1: I ultimately decided, what am I going to do to
Speaker 1: make my daughter proud? How am I going to answer
Speaker 1: her ten or fifteen years ago when she asks me
Speaker 1: what I was doing at that dark low point in
Speaker 1: our country's history. And I had to take the leap
Speaker 1: on my own and decide that putting myself in the
Speaker 1: arena was the right thing to do. So the first
Speaker 1: big lesson is, if you want to get involved, just
Speaker 1: do it. Just go for it. And if you don't
Speaker 1: know how, come to arena. We will help you out,
Speaker 1: you know. The second thing I would say that I
Speaker 1: learned is that it is still incredibly, incredibly challenging to
Speaker 1: run for office if you are in some way different
Speaker 1: than the majority of people that we have elected throughout
Speaker 1: the history of the United States, and let's be honest,
Speaker 1: they are almost exclusively white, straight, sysgendered men. Yep, that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, but what it also
Speaker 1: means is that we collectively as a democratic community need
Speaker 1: to think really hard about what are the structural barriers
Speaker 1: that have prevented us from running and electing more individuals
Speaker 1: who are representative of our country as a whole. Are
Speaker 1: those economic and class based barriers? Because it actually costs
Speaker 1: a great deal of money to run for the office,
Speaker 1: It's a full time job. You can't be working. Are
Speaker 1: there other forms of discrimination that are affecting BIPOC candidates
Speaker 1: or LGBT two candidates or female candidates from fundraising and
Speaker 1: bringing in as much money as others? And so one
Speaker 1: of the lessons I took away was that is very
Speaker 1: fortunate to be able to do what I did, but
Speaker 1: that also involved a responsibility to in turn break down
Speaker 1: barriers to other individuals who ought to be running so
Speaker 1: that our politics could be more inclusive as a whole.
Speaker 1: And the final thing I would say I learned is
Speaker 1: that you know, as important as the candidate is, the
Speaker 1: team they build around them is equally as important. And
Speaker 1: that is why I'm so happy to have found a
Speaker 1: post candidacy home in Arena, which is a community that
Speaker 1: I think in an organization that is really working to
Speaker 1: break down those barriers to running for office, to break
Speaker 1: down those barriers for being a member of campaign staff,
Speaker 1: and to make our politics as a whole more equitable,
Speaker 1: more inclusive, more representative of this country. Lauren, I love it,
Speaker 1: and you're providing this very cynical political with some hope
Speaker 1: that there are folks that are putting together the teams
Speaker 1: that are necessary for us to win. Tell everyone how
Speaker 1: they can follow you, find Arena, get more information so
Speaker 1: that they can opt in instead of opting out. Wonderful well.
Speaker 1: You can find Arena on Twitter at Arena Summit. You
Speaker 1: can find me at Lauren there and if you were
Speaker 1: interested in attending one of our programs, go to Arena
Speaker 1: dot run Slash Academy. Applications are actually open now for
Speaker 1: our next Arena Academy in September, and we would love
Speaker 1: anyone and everyone who is interested about finding their way
Speaker 1: into politics as a profession to fill out that application form,
Speaker 1: join us for five days and start their political journey.
Speaker 1: I love it, Lauren. Thank you so much for making
Speaker 1: the time to join woke f and I hope that
Speaker 1: you will come back to us in the fall with
Speaker 1: some of some of your folks, some of your new
Speaker 1: cohort to discuss what they are learning and how we're
Speaker 1: preparing to head into midterms. I would love nothing more.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. That is it
Speaker 1: for Today's Woke, a f daily podcast. To hear more
Speaker 1: from me, including five full hour long shows every single week,
Speaker 1: exclusive guest interviews, and more. Support me on Patreon at
Speaker 1: Patreon dot com. Slash Woke a F Power to the
Speaker 1: people and to all the people power, get woke and
Speaker 1: stay woke as fuck.