Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to ok F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: I'm starting off this week and just I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know why I'm shocked, but on some culture news
Speaker 1: and first and not any political news as of yet.
Speaker 1: But you'll know if you follow me, you know that
Speaker 1: I love Beyonce right. Not only do I think that
Speaker 1: Beyonce is one of the most innovative, creative, brilliant artists
Speaker 1: of our time, I think that she is a genre shifter,
Speaker 1: bender and an expansionist. Whenever you see someone who starts
Speaker 1: in one art form kind of boxed in as this
Speaker 1: pop star when she was younger, and then you know,
Speaker 1: moves through the evolution of Destiny's Child and then becomes
Speaker 1: a solo artist and then from the Beyonce album to Lemonade,
Speaker 1: you know, to what we have in this moment of
Speaker 1: Cowboy Carter. Not to mention, you know, obviously just the
Speaker 1: other Boundless albums. To not be recognized when you are
Speaker 1: the most brilliant star out there at the CMAS, to me,
Speaker 1: is just like the racism at the Country Music Awards
Speaker 1: is on another level. Let me be clear, I'm not
Speaker 1: a fan of country music. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: when anybody ever asked me, like, what is your favorite
Speaker 1: genre of music, I'll say I like all music except
Speaker 1: for country music. And the reason that I always had
Speaker 1: that response is because country music, to me, was steeped
Speaker 1: in racism and misogyny in a way that like, I
Speaker 1: didn't vibe with. And I will be honest with you
Speaker 1: that Beyonce's Cowboy Carter usually her albums when they drop, like,
Speaker 1: I will just ingest them as quickly as I possibly can,
Speaker 1: because I've written essays on Beyonce's work, I've gone on
Speaker 1: television to talk about the politics of her work. But
Speaker 1: Cowboy Corter was like, you know, she doing country, so okay,
Speaker 1: you know, like not my vibe. Not everything is for everybody.
Speaker 1: When I listen to that album from start to finish
Speaker 1: on a train ride, I was in tears. I had
Speaker 1: never felt more patriotic and connected to the roots of
Speaker 1: this country tree more than listening to that album. And
Speaker 1: I am not being hyperbolic. Folks have to understand that
Speaker 1: while I was born in the United States, my family
Speaker 1: is from Jamaica. So the roots of black American history
Speaker 1: is something that I have learned, not necessarily something that
Speaker 1: I have experienced, right, It is a very different experience
Speaker 1: in America when your family are immigrants to the country,
Speaker 1: And I've learned that over the years. There is a
Speaker 1: difference experience that my Black American friends have, right, whose
Speaker 1: families are from you know, this country, versus my friends
Speaker 1: who were born here but their families are from the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: or their families are from different countries in Africa. We
Speaker 1: have very different experiences. While White America may see us
Speaker 1: all one way, we definitely do not see our selves
Speaker 1: all one way, nor do we have the same experiences
Speaker 1: outside of racism. But I'm talking about like our familiar experiences.
Speaker 1: So to be introduced to like the roots of country music,
Speaker 1: to understand like terms like cowboy and where that came from,
Speaker 1: to really get what I believe that her album offered,
Speaker 1: which was a tutorial, if you will, a masterclass into Americana,
Speaker 1: right music, and to say that like this is our music, right,
Speaker 1: this is black people's music, this is black people's culture,
Speaker 1: was extraordinary. So is it a shock that then the
Speaker 1: Country Music Awards would like give the ultimate snub to
Speaker 1: the number one country album of the year. It's not
Speaker 1: a shock. I mean, look what they did to the
Speaker 1: Dixie Chicks, right, we're now the Chicks, right, Look what
Speaker 1: they did the only time that Beyonce was on the
Speaker 1: CMS and performing with the Chicks, they completely erased her
Speaker 1: performance whatsoever from their social media. Like, is anyone who
Speaker 1: is black or a person of color shocked by this? No,
Speaker 1: But I think that it just draws into our vision
Speaker 1: that it doesn't matter if you are a billionaire, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you are the most talented, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Racism will always exist and will always hit in any
Speaker 1: way that it can. But the reality is is that
Speaker 1: they hit and miss because Beyonce gonna stay, Beyonce gonna
Speaker 1: stay rising, gonna stay having a conversation like who knows
Speaker 1: who else was nominated? We know who wasn't nominated, and
Speaker 1: that's what's running the conversation on social So you know,
Speaker 1: she stays starting converse station, you know, and that's power,
Speaker 1: that's power. I have to give that nod because I'm
Speaker 1: just I was annoyed so much, but again, like not shocked,
Speaker 1: but you know, annoyed. Nonetheless, in today's episode, I'm excited
Speaker 1: to bring back to the show the managing partner at Arena,
Speaker 1: Lauren Bear, to discuss their recent get out the Vote
Speaker 1: workshop series that they are doing. And you know, as
Speaker 1: we get closer and closer to the election, it is
Speaker 1: really important that we continue to lift up the different
Speaker 1: ballot measures that are up for vote in states, as
Speaker 1: well as the down ballot tickets. It is really important, folks,
Speaker 1: that we deliver in this election in so many different ways.
Speaker 1: So Lauren and I get into really good conversation about
Speaker 1: the great work that Arena is doing, you know, with
Speaker 1: less than sixty days to go, So that conversation is
Speaker 1: coming up next, folks. I am happy to welcome back
Speaker 1: to WOKF Daily the managing partner at Arena, Lauren Bayer,
Speaker 1: to talk to us about all things get out the vote,
Speaker 1: and frankly, there's been a change since we last spoke
Speaker 1: Lauren understatement of the century, understayment of the Century, I've
Speaker 1: been calling it a seismic shift that happened at the
Speaker 1: end of July. We are now at the end of
Speaker 1: August at the time of this taping. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about how you are feeling personally about the shift at
Speaker 1: the top of the ticket and how your organization has
Speaker 1: adapted to the change at the top of the ticket certainly.
Speaker 2: And first, fal Danielle, thanks for having me back again.
Speaker 2: So to frame all of this, I'll just remind folks
Speaker 2: that I'm the managing partner at Arena, where we build
Speaker 2: the teams that power democratic victories, and so we're in
Speaker 2: the business of recruiting and training campaign staff and deploying
Speaker 2: them to critical races up and down the ballot across
Speaker 2: the country. And just six eight weeks ago, I would
Speaker 2: say the overwhelming feeling was exhaustion, perhaps despair, a lot
Speaker 2: of concern. People definitely recognized the stakes, they knew what
Speaker 2: was on the line in this election, but there was
Speaker 2: a lot of concern about how we were going to
Speaker 2: jump over that hurdle and put a Democrat in the
Speaker 2: White House again. And I think what we saw after
Speaker 2: Biden made that truly historic and selfless decision to step
Speaker 2: aside was a collective exhaling. First, I talked to so
Speaker 2: many people, myself included, the overwhelming feeling was relief, and
Speaker 2: then quickly followed by this excitement and this joy and
Speaker 2: this coalescing around Kamala Harris and then Tim Walls and
Speaker 2: what that has meant for us at Arena is figuring
Speaker 2: out how to take all of that joy, all of
Speaker 2: that enthusiasm, all that excitement that we.
Speaker 3: Have seen in the past six weeks, and translate.
Speaker 2: It into action, because one thing we know super well
Speaker 2: is good vibes don't win elections, votes votes. With elections,
Speaker 2: we are in the business now of training and deploying
Speaker 2: all of the folks that we need the boots on
Speaker 2: the ground, we need to get voter polls in November.
Speaker 1: I think that for me, and I've stated this so
Speaker 1: many times on the show since the shift, that people
Speaker 1: listen to wooke af and they know that I am
Speaker 1: no stranger to rage, that I am no stranger to
Speaker 1: anger and finding ways in which to articulate that. But
Speaker 1: I will say Lauren that I did not truly realize
Speaker 1: how devoid of possibility and joy I was until this
Speaker 1: shift happened. I did not realize how much I was
Speaker 1: just like kind of hanging on for dear life in
Speaker 1: the hopes that us articulating the stakes of this election,
Speaker 1: we're going to be enough to get people engaged. And
Speaker 1: so talk to us about how the engagement has shifted.
Speaker 1: Because while we say and folks are saying like, oh,
Speaker 1: vibes are not votes, But what I realize now is
Speaker 1: that vibes are necessary to get votes possible. People need
Speaker 1: to feel good. It is not enough for people to
Speaker 1: have a sense of dread and to be fearful to
Speaker 1: get them to the polls. Honestly, I think that that
Speaker 1: level of fearfulness will just keep you complacent. What have
Speaker 1: you seen in terms of your folks on the ground.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I mean the first thing I want to
Speaker 2: acknowledge is that there were people who were doing the
Speaker 2: hard work before this shift. You know, we have trained
Speaker 2: a couple thousand people this election cycle. We were in
Speaker 2: Georgia and a role and did a massive in person
Speaker 2: training with more than five hundred people there.
Speaker 3: And the groups who stood to lose.
Speaker 2: The most under a second Trump term, women, people of color,
Speaker 2: members of the LGBTQ plus community. These folks were showing
Speaker 2: up and ready to put in the hard work then,
Speaker 2: and I don't want to undermine or discount that. I
Speaker 2: think what we have seen in the past six weeks
Speaker 2: is a broaderingly of that coalition who's willing to get
Speaker 2: up and do the work, and like you said, individuals
Speaker 2: who are motivated not just by fear, but by possibility.
Speaker 2: Something that I have heard over and over again over
Speaker 2: the last eight years is do Democrats have an answer
Speaker 2: to maga? What is it that we can put on
Speaker 2: a hat and tell the electorate that we're going to
Speaker 2: provide for them? And all of a sudden it struck
Speaker 2: me that we have an answer with what Kamala is
Speaker 2: doing when she talks about how we're not going back right,
Speaker 2: that simple refrain is the answer to making America great again,
Speaker 2: which is a backward looking perspective that's really regressive in
Speaker 2: so many ways because we know what Trump means is
Speaker 2: a restriction on our rights, lessening of our freedoms, and
Speaker 2: so at Arena, what we're really doing is saying, Okay,
Speaker 2: we've got these good vibes. Now we've got this energy.
Speaker 2: How do we take people and give them tangible skills
Speaker 2: that can actually translate those good vibes into votes.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about what folks can expect inside of
Speaker 1: those workshops and how if they are not connected with Arena, like,
Speaker 1: why it's important to actually get this level of training.
Speaker 2: Sure, so, first of all, one thing I will say
Speaker 2: is it takes skills to run a campaign. I think
Speaker 2: so many people out there think that all you need
Speaker 2: is some of your buddies, some volunteers, and you can
Speaker 2: send out a team of people with no background or experience.
Speaker 2: But campaigning is just as much of a skilled profession
Speaker 2: as is anything else, so we treat it really seriously.
Speaker 3: In the arena world.
Speaker 2: Getting out the vote is one of the most important
Speaker 2: times of an electoral cycle. It's the few weeks before
Speaker 2: election day when we're taking those folks who we've identified
Speaker 2: as voters on our side and we're mobilizing them to
Speaker 2: get to the polls. And so what we're doing at
Speaker 2: these training sessions is taking individuals who are going to
Speaker 2: be participating in GOOTV programs or running them themselves, and
Speaker 2: teaching them how to run the most effective and efficient programs,
Speaker 2: whether that's how to develop your GOOTV plan, how to
Speaker 2: develop your GOOTV budget, how to strategically target voters with
Speaker 2: the best data available, how to choose the tech stack
Speaker 2: that your campaign is using. These are really nitty gritty
Speaker 2: things that most individuals who work on campaigns never have
Speaker 2: the experience or the opportunity to have delivered to them
Speaker 2: in an interactive classroom setting. And so that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: How do they vary from I should say, do they
Speaker 1: vary from state to state? Like, is what you're teaching
Speaker 1: folks that may be in Georgia, let's say, different than
Speaker 1: what you would teach people that are in New York.
Speaker 3: I'll give you two answers to your questions.
Speaker 2: The first thing I will say is we are set
Speaker 2: teaching a set of skills and best practices that are
Speaker 2: applicable anywhere.
Speaker 3: And we have.
Speaker 2: Individuals who are working on campaigns everything from small city
Speaker 2: council and state legislative races to the abortion ballot amendment
Speaker 2: in Florida all the way up to the Harris Walls
Speaker 2: campaign itself. So we were teaching broadly ap pickable skills.
Speaker 2: But we also tell everyone that you've got to take
Speaker 2: these skills and apply them to the particular nuances and
Speaker 2: set of circumstances in your district that you're running in.
Speaker 3: So nothing is cookie cutter. You can't take.
Speaker 2: Something that is, you know, a campaign plan that's going
Speaker 2: to work in rural Nebraska, try to apply it in
Speaker 2: South Florida.
Speaker 3: But if you do have those skills that teach you
Speaker 3: how to.
Speaker 2: Develop a plan, you can tailor to the context that
Speaker 2: you're in.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, like, in terms of your
Speaker 1: evaluation of how you saw the Biden ticket, the Biden
Speaker 1: Harris ticket working versus what you've noticed has changed with
Speaker 1: the Harris Walls ticket.
Speaker 2: So one thing that I find so fascinating is, on
Speaker 2: the one hand, not much has changed, right, so many
Speaker 2: of the people who are working for Harris are the
Speaker 2: same people who were working for Biden. But on the
Speaker 2: other hand, everything has changed. The campaign has a fundamentally
Speaker 2: different feeling. And what I think that speaks to is
Speaker 2: really the importance of the principle on the campaign, who
Speaker 2: is the candidate at the top of the ticket. Kamala
Speaker 2: was an excellent running mate for Joe Biden, but he
Speaker 2: was leading with his approach to politics and his way
Speaker 2: of being in Washington and way of being with voters.
Speaker 2: Hers is is fundamentally different for any number of reasons,
Speaker 2: due to her background, due to her age, due to
Speaker 2: her particular experience that she brings to the race. And
Speaker 2: what I think she's really done is empowered this incredibly
Speaker 2: talented group of people who are already on that campaign
Speaker 2: to do their very best work. So you're not seeing
Speaker 2: the product of an entirely new digital team. What you're
Speaker 2: seeing is the product of a digital team that has
Speaker 2: been really unleashed and allowed to effectively communicate on behalf
Speaker 2: of a candidate who is resonating with so many Americans.
Speaker 2: And I think that's a really cool thing and also
Speaker 2: just really a testament to the importance of those folks
Speaker 2: who are working behind the scene, whose work isn't often noticed.
Speaker 1: What I have seen is a difference too, between these
Speaker 1: two campaigns. While the people are not different, you know,
Speaker 1: we both recognize that the end energy is different. And
Speaker 1: I think that there is an authenticity to what I'm seeing,
Speaker 1: just as it relates to messaging that we didn't see before. Right,
Speaker 1: So when you open up and you talk about what
Speaker 1: is the slogan that we're going to put on a
Speaker 1: hat in the way that make America great again works
Speaker 1: and it's like we're not going back. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden's slogan was like, we're saving the soulovan you know,
Speaker 1: a soul of a nation. It don't roll off the
Speaker 1: tongue in the same way. And I think that we
Speaker 1: live inside of a very commodified culture that, like I
Speaker 1: need to want to wear it. I need to want
Speaker 1: to slap it on a hat, on a sticker, on
Speaker 1: a T shirt and for better or for worse, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's kind of the way that our society works. So
Speaker 1: when you're looking at this re energized campaign and you're
Speaker 1: looking at like even the way that the Twitter feed
Speaker 1: operates as opposed to how Biden's Twitter feed was operating,
Speaker 1: what are some of the standout points for you there?
Speaker 1: And is that something that also so helps other candidates
Speaker 1: say there needs to be like a level of authenticity
Speaker 1: that I'm rolling with that I can insert myself into
Speaker 1: this and not what the focus groups are telling me
Speaker 1: I need to insert into this.
Speaker 2: Two things that I'll point out here, Danielle, because I
Speaker 2: think you're right that authenticity is important. But it's not
Speaker 2: just about authenticity. It's about meeting the particular historic moment
Speaker 2: that were in And I actually do think Joe Biden
Speaker 2: was being very authentic. I think he is one of
Speaker 2: the most authentic politicians I've ever ever interacted with in
Speaker 2: my lifetime. But he met the moment in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: when what we wanted was a quote unquote return to normalcy.
Speaker 2: When I think a lot of the electorates felt that
Speaker 2: we could roll back the clock on Trump and just
Speaker 2: get back to where we were at the end of
Speaker 2: the Obama administration. But what voters made very very clear
Speaker 2: is in twenty twenty four they weren't interested in a
Speaker 2: continuation of status quo. We were no longer looking to
Speaker 2: roll back to any point in time in the past.
Speaker 2: We were looking to move forward. And so what kamalabroad
Speaker 2: is yes authenticity, which is going to look different than
Speaker 2: Joe Biden's authenticity because she's a very different person, but
Speaker 2: also a meeting of the particular moment now in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four where we know the stakes, but we don't
Speaker 2: want just want to know that Democrats are going to
Speaker 2: save democracy. We want to know what they're going to
Speaker 2: deliver for everyday working people.
Speaker 3: We want to know.
Speaker 2: About jobs and the economy, and we want to know
Speaker 2: how they're going to product reproductive freedoms and the rights
Speaker 2: of LGBTQ people, and what they're going to do about
Speaker 2: gun violence prevention, all of these things that she is
Speaker 2: able to speak to with a positive, forward looking agenda,
Speaker 2: in part because she is in the prime of her
Speaker 2: career and not in the sunset days of her career,
Speaker 2: and so you know, Joe Biden was the messenger I
Speaker 2: think we really need it in twenty twenty, and Kamala
Speaker 2: is just meeting the moment right now in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: And what's been interesting to me to see is how
Speaker 2: that has resonated not just with the core Democratic base,
Speaker 2: but also with so many undecided voters, with so many
Speaker 2: swing voters who see in her an alternative to Trump
Speaker 2: that's going to take our country into the future.
Speaker 1: How do you see now the difference of the Trump
Speaker 1: campaign and what had been energizing that group in twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen versus twenty twenty to now, what have you seen
Speaker 1: in terms of if there has been, in your opinion,
Speaker 1: a shift in how they are meeting the electorate at
Speaker 1: these different points of the infinity of this man's run
Speaker 1: for the presidency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, that's right. It seems like it's been going
Speaker 2: on for a lifetime. I think at heart Trump's campaign
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty and now, it's always
Speaker 2: been a grievance campaign, right, It always centers himself. He
Speaker 2: is somehow always wronged, and he taps into feelings very
Speaker 2: much legitimate for some folks that they're somehow losing out
Speaker 2: in today's America. I think what you saw before Biden
Speaker 2: exited the race was individuals who weren't necessarily excited about Trump,
Speaker 2: but just couldn't get on board with another four years
Speaker 2: of Biden, who we're toying with the idea of maybe
Speaker 2: grievance politics is going to deliver for me now. And
Speaker 2: what Kamala really offers as an alternative is not grievance
Speaker 2: but possibility. And so I don't think actually Trump has
Speaker 2: much more to go or much much space to expand
Speaker 2: beyond that grievance caucus. And if you look at American politics,
Speaker 2: if you look at how historically we responded to folks
Speaker 2: like Barack Obama or even Bill Clinton back in the heyday,
Speaker 2: when folks offer a message a positivity and potential, I
Speaker 2: think ultimately that's what most Americans want to believe in.
Speaker 2: So I'm really hopeful that this is as a.
Speaker 3: Real turning point in the election. The polls are starting.
Speaker 2: To show that, and frankly, Trump is also showing his cards.
Speaker 2: He's been caught pretty flat footed because he doesn't know
Speaker 2: how to respond now to a campaign that is bringing
Speaker 2: out so much enthusiasm and excitement and enjoy in the electorate.
Speaker 1: How do you see the vice president's campaign different than
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton? Hillary Clinton? And it was something that I
Speaker 1: noticed that convention. Right One, I think that Hillary Clinton
Speaker 1: still remains in her prime. I think that she has
Speaker 1: been one of the best surrogates thus far of the
Speaker 1: vice president's campaign. And I remember going to convention in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, and we didn't have a convention in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: and then going just this last week, and I wonder,
Speaker 1: like what you see in terms of this difference, because
Speaker 1: it's history still. It's a woman still, but it's history
Speaker 1: in a different way and a different type and a
Speaker 1: different generation of women.
Speaker 2: One thing I've heard a number of folks say, which
Speaker 2: I think is very true, is is Kamala doesn't have
Speaker 2: to announce her difference. Her difference is present every time
Speaker 2: she steps on stage, every time she speaks, and so
Speaker 2: the mere sight and sound of Kamala announces that it's
Speaker 2: a change, that it's a step forward for our country.
Speaker 2: And I think that's very exciting for people. And something
Speaker 2: else that I think is different, frankly from twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: is in twenty sixteen, there was I believe a sense
Speaker 2: of inevitability to Clinton being elected. There was certainly the
Speaker 2: feeling in Washington, where I was working at the time
Speaker 2: that we were going to follow on the election of
Speaker 2: America's first black president with the first female president, and
Speaker 2: we were sort of inexorably marching towards progress. No one
Speaker 2: is under that false illusion now, and so I think
Speaker 2: what Kamala's campaign is able to project is both possibility
Speaker 2: and the real weightiness of this election, of the moment,
Speaker 2: the significance of it, the fact that it's not only
Speaker 2: something it's not something that we inevitably will happen, but
Speaker 2: that we have to make happen. I think is Michelle
Speaker 2: Obama made so clear in her beautiful convention speech, we
Speaker 2: have to do something, each and every one of us
Speaker 2: if we want to see her in the White House.
Speaker 2: And so I really think, you know, Kama's beautifully navigating
Speaker 2: this moment as fraud and consequential as it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that that's right. I think that the
Speaker 1: inevitability of Clinton perpetuated the complacency that people had, like
Speaker 1: I don't really need to do the work because this
Speaker 1: is just, you know, part of the Clinton dynasty. And
Speaker 1: I do think that there is a deep sense of
Speaker 1: regret that a lot of people have and not wanting
Speaker 1: to make that same mistake again. Lauren, tell folks you
Speaker 1: know how they can get connected with Arena, because I
Speaker 1: think we have at the time of this taping sixteen
Speaker 1: nine days until the election. So tell folks how they
Speaker 1: can get engaged and stay connected.
Speaker 2: So we would love for you to get involved this cycle.
Speaker 3: You can visit.
Speaker 2: Arena dot run that will give you information about how
Speaker 2: to register for our trainings. If you were looking to
Speaker 2: work on a campaign, We've got our job bank there
Speaker 2: where there are thousands of campaign jobs listed that you
Speaker 2: can apply for. You can upload your resume into our
Speaker 2: active job seeker database so campaign hiring managers can start
Speaker 2: to reach out to you and also visit us on
Speaker 2: all of the various social media channels at Arena Summit.
Speaker 2: We are really excited to help you find your place
Speaker 2: in politics and together to help the Harris Waltz campaign
Speaker 2: make history in November.
Speaker 1: Yes, we need to run through the tape on this one. Lauren,
Speaker 1: thank you so much as always for making the time
Speaker 1: to join wok F really appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me again.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today. Dear friends on wok
Speaker 1: f as always, power to the people and to all
Speaker 1: the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.