Speaker 1: Hi, This is Annie, and this is Pridget, and you're
Speaker 1: listening to stuff mom never told you, and we have
Speaker 1: an update for you today on the Year of the Woman.
Speaker 1: Year of the Woman. It's actually good news this time.
Speaker 1: Oh good. That's always fun. Women are winning big in
Speaker 1: primaries all over the country. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: too soon to actually declare this the Year of the Woman,
Speaker 1: but it's looking pretty good. Of the ninety two women
Speaker 1: who participated in the eight primaries back in early June,
Speaker 1: at least thirty six of them have emerged victorious. Women
Speaker 1: are likely to be elected as governor for the first
Speaker 1: time in Iowa and South Dakota, and for the first
Speaker 1: time in nearly five decades in Alabama, according to gender
Speaker 1: Watch two eighteen, a project of the Center for American
Speaker 1: Women in Politics at Rutgers University. Women are also poised
Speaker 1: to make significant progress in house races. Iowa, for example,
Speaker 1: mayle like its first ever congresswoman, and New Mexico mail
Speaker 1: like the country's first Native American congresswoman, Deb Holland. More
Speaker 1: than five women have so far filed to run for
Speaker 1: office and primaries this year, according to the Center for
Speaker 1: American Women in Politics and that number represents a jump
Speaker 1: from most of the women running our Democrats, although one
Speaker 1: third of Republican women running have also won their races.
Speaker 1: And here are just a few. Stacy Abrams won her
Speaker 1: primary for Georgia governor, besting Stacy Evans. If she went,
Speaker 1: she'll be the first black female governor in the United States. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had another great person to mention this, Alexandra Occacio Cortes.
Speaker 1: So just less than a year ago, the twenty eight
Speaker 1: year old was working at a bar in New York,
Speaker 1: actually above the of OZ Human Rights organization offices, and
Speaker 1: my friend would go there all the time and see her,
Speaker 1: so shout after her working in the bar below of
Speaker 1: OZ um. But she was just twenty eight working in
Speaker 1: a bar, had never run for public office before, and
Speaker 1: she ran and won her primary in New York Sporting District.
Speaker 1: She took down longtime Rep. Joe Crowley, who had not
Speaker 1: had a primary challenger in fourteen years. So that is huge.
Speaker 1: I mean that's a big deal. Yeah, he played a
Speaker 1: Bruce Sperence. He is born to run such an interesting
Speaker 1: he was born to lose. Was just kidding, just kidding.
Speaker 1: She's the first woman of color to run in the district,
Speaker 1: which encompasses parts of Queens and the Bronx, and she
Speaker 1: also won in a landslide. She won fifty seven point
Speaker 1: five percent of the vote, while Crowley had just forty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's kind of a rad lady. She's a socialist, and
Speaker 1: she has a super progressive platform, including medicare for all
Speaker 1: and canceling all student debt. And I wanted to include
Speaker 1: her because I think, if you're thinking you want to
Speaker 1: run for office, but you don't have the experience, the money, whatever,
Speaker 1: think about Alex She was working in a bar less
Speaker 1: than a year ago and had no experience running for office,
Speaker 1: and she ran on a real lefty progressive platform and
Speaker 1: she won her primary. Yeah, so she can do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can do It's inspiring stuff. Let's hope that this
Speaker 1: does prove to be the Year of the Women, and
Speaker 1: we have many more stories like this to tell in
Speaker 1: the future, but in the meantime, we thought we'd give
Speaker 1: you this update. And today I am so excited to
Speaker 1: ask a prediction question as we look at the new
Speaker 1: year we're rolling out before us, will especially the election cycle,
Speaker 1: produce another so called Year of the Woman. That's the
Speaker 1: compelling question we want to dare I say unpack today
Speaker 1: and we're gonna be joined by a friend of mine,
Speaker 1: a really awesome guest too, you'll hear from later this episode.
Speaker 1: But first, let's talk about what that means. The Year
Speaker 1: of the Woman. What is that? Perhaps you've heard this
Speaker 1: term thrown around and perhaps you know that it refers
Speaker 1: to nineteen two women trip hold their numbers in the Senate,
Speaker 1: which sounds awesome until you look at the fact that
Speaker 1: we went from having to senators as women serving out
Speaker 1: of one U S senators to a whopping six and
Speaker 1: actually Barbara Boxer Pennant op ed for USA today that
Speaker 1: kind of looked back almost sheepishly on nine two being
Speaker 1: called the Year of the Woman. I mean, she was
Speaker 1: part of the Year of the Woman in ninety two
Speaker 1: when she and Haanne Feinstein became the first two female
Speaker 1: senators elected for many one state. And yes, she acknowledges
Speaker 1: they triple their numbers in the Senate, but going from
Speaker 1: two to six out of hundred is not exactly something
Speaker 1: to brag about. Looking back on it, she says, calling
Speaker 1: ninety two the Year of the Woman was an overstatement
Speaker 1: and after much hype, everyone focused on other things. I
Speaker 1: can see how you would be really really excited thinking, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were going to do this, this is our time,
Speaker 1: and then being like, what happened, y'all? I thought this
Speaker 1: was our year? Like we went from a small number
Speaker 1: to another small number, and so of feeling a little
Speaker 1: bit underwhelmed. That's why I really really hope that actually
Speaker 1: will be a resurgence of the Year of the Woman.
Speaker 1: And there's reason to draw a parallel there as well.
Speaker 1: Despite its modesty, the Year of the One in ninety
Speaker 1: two was still historic. And what's interesting in terms of
Speaker 1: looking at the parallels of today is that it followed
Speaker 1: Professor Anita Hill going public with her story of humiliation
Speaker 1: and verbal abuse at the hands of her then boss,
Speaker 1: Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings to become a sitting
Speaker 1: member of our Supreme Court, and looking at movements like
Speaker 1: me too, it does seem like a similar trajectory where
Speaker 1: we are following this wave of women speaking out about
Speaker 1: their experiences with sexual misconducts and men in powerful positions,
Speaker 1: and if you look at the last primary and election cycle,
Speaker 1: it does seem mike a little bit of a hopeful
Speaker 1: moment for a reckoning power. It's like a powder kick.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting is today the hash a me two
Speaker 1: is demonstrating that we are actually listening to and believing
Speaker 1: women who are speaking out about this stuff, as opposed
Speaker 1: to Anita Hill's case, which did lead to the confirmation
Speaker 1: of Clarence Thomas being a member of our Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: almost like the commander in chief of ours that we
Speaker 1: have at the moment being ushered into the halls of
Speaker 1: power just by bragging about sexual assault and back into
Speaker 1: the senators who were grilling Professor Hill and really producing
Speaker 1: kind of a character assassination. During the Clarence Thomas trials,
Speaker 1: they prohibited three other women from testifying who would have
Speaker 1: corroborated Anita's story and treated her with disrespect from both
Speaker 1: sides of the aisle. That led to understandable outrage and
Speaker 1: anger on behalf of a lot of women on a country,
Speaker 1: which led to that historic, though modest doubling in. And
Speaker 1: doesn't that feel like the powder keg and the moment
Speaker 1: of reckoning that we're in right now, of righteous anger
Speaker 1: provoking revolution. God, I hope so, because we've been waiting
Speaker 1: for long enough. I'm really hoping this is the moment
Speaker 1: that women all stand up and use our powerful voices,
Speaker 1: and those voices are heard and believed and listened to exactly. Sadly,
Speaker 1: the number of women who have been holding public office
Speaker 1: is held pretty steady in recent years, barely breaking the
Speaker 1: mark even though we represent obviously fifty plus percent of
Speaker 1: the US population. But a lot of experts agree that
Speaker 1: the conditions are ripe for a significant increase in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen, especially as more politicians are forced to
Speaker 1: step down or retire amid the growing me too movement.
Speaker 1: We've already seen four congressmen announced plans to retire or
Speaker 1: not seek reelection following allegations, and that doesn't even include
Speaker 1: Senator Al Franken, who immediately stepped down whether or not
Speaker 1: he really wanted to write. Yeah, What this really says
Speaker 1: to me is something I've been getting on my high
Speaker 1: horse about on the show a lot, which is that
Speaker 1: we need more women and less men to have these
Speaker 1: kinds of things be combated. And I really hope that
Speaker 1: this is the reckoning a moment where more women start saying, hey,
Speaker 1: maybe give us a chance for a while to see
Speaker 1: if we can do a better job of running the stuff,
Speaker 1: because all these men can't seem to keep it in
Speaker 1: their pants long enough to even get the chance to
Speaker 1: a lot of experts are seeing more women throther hat
Speaker 1: into the ring and plan to run for office this
Speaker 1: year than ever before. And it's not just Democrats that
Speaker 1: we're talking about here. First time Republican and Libertarian women
Speaker 1: candidates are also jumping into the mix. In fact, Republicans
Speaker 1: launched an effort back in two thousand twelve that's focused
Speaker 1: on specifically electing more women. It's called the Right Women,
Speaker 1: Right Now Program, and since the initiative was started, three
Speaker 1: GOP women have been elected. So we know that the
Speaker 1: numbers are far imbalanced when it comes to women's equal
Speaker 1: representation in this country and looting. On the local level,
Speaker 1: only of state legislators are women. So we want to
Speaker 1: take a closer look at not only how the conditions
Speaker 1: are even better now than they were in ninety two
Speaker 1: for more women to get elected on the local and
Speaker 1: federal level, but some of the organizations behind equipping women
Speaker 1: with the skills to run for public office and win.
Speaker 1: And we're going to talk to our good friend Aaron
Speaker 1: Valarti from Vote Run Lead after this quick break and
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsors and We're back and we
Speaker 1: are so excited to be joined by Aaron Valarti, the founder, CEO,
Speaker 1: and executive director of Vote Run Lead, a national nonprofit
Speaker 1: leveraging technology and training to accelerate the number of women
Speaker 1: across the political spectrum in civic and political leadership. Aaron,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us for today's conversation.
Speaker 1: Thank you. So As Bridge and I are looking at eighteen,
Speaker 1: we are asking ourselves, is this going to be another
Speaker 1: Year of the woman? Alaho allah Post, Anita Hill, how
Speaker 1: do you think this year is shaping up in terms
Speaker 1: of the women you're training to run for office and
Speaker 1: get more engaged in politics. I think the Year of
Speaker 1: the Woman has a lot of similarities to what we're
Speaker 1: going to see in eighteen, but I think there's some
Speaker 1: unique comparisons that we also need to be aware of.
Speaker 1: One of the first things that happened was that there
Speaker 1: were tons and tons of open seats, meaning that women
Speaker 1: weren't running against incumbents. They were actually running against, you know,
Speaker 1: someone who was also probably running for that seat for
Speaker 1: the first time. So there's a huge advantage there and
Speaker 1: that's something we need to really look at closely in
Speaker 1: our democracy. How many actually open seats are there going
Speaker 1: to be. Now, jerrymandering and redistricting is critically important because
Speaker 1: that has actually made seats really safe. We're in incumbents
Speaker 1: are getting reelected over and over again, and an incumbent
Speaker 1: is someone who's just sitting in that seat and as
Speaker 1: eligible to run again. So that's one of the things
Speaker 1: that's a big differentiator is that they're likely aren't going
Speaker 1: to be the same number of open seats. So you
Speaker 1: are beginning to see some serious retirements happen UM, and
Speaker 1: that will help. So you know, I've been kind of
Speaker 1: hilariously doing a national call to men to retire, so
Speaker 1: they can go right ahead and retire. That'd be really great.
Speaker 1: It will really help us with repeat. But in the
Speaker 1: you know a lot of similarities in the sense that
Speaker 1: women are piste off and they're looking around and going,
Speaker 1: how did we get these systems this way in which
Speaker 1: you know, we're not able to get justice, in which
Speaker 1: people are getting away with things that um are slowing down,
Speaker 1: our careers, are keeping us under you know, a thumb.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to public policy, and they're seeing
Speaker 1: power UM and they're looking at politics again in a
Speaker 1: way that says, hey, I can do that, UM, And
Speaker 1: that's I think what saw. So you won't see the
Speaker 1: same jumps which were like doubling and tripling doubling in
Speaker 1: the Senate, but that was only like something like to
Speaker 1: six or eight, right, so you're not going to go
Speaker 1: to forty. UM, so you won't see the same kind
Speaker 1: of percentage jumps, but you will, I think see UM
Speaker 1: a larger increase also in the number of women of
Speaker 1: color who are running for Congress and UM. You know
Speaker 1: that was something that was a positive coming out of
Speaker 1: the elections, was also the number of women of color
Speaker 1: and in Congress and in the Senate. I'm curious, why
Speaker 1: do you think that is. I've been so so excited
Speaker 1: to see more women of color and what feels like
Speaker 1: a more inclusive political climate. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 1: Why do you think that's been part of this moment?
Speaker 1: Two reasons. I think that women of color are stepping
Speaker 1: up in a way that UM. One, the March was
Speaker 1: a very visible, um and honest assessment where the leadership
Speaker 1: of the women's movement like skipped a generation. So we
Speaker 1: went from the sort of you know, glorious dynam era
Speaker 1: to all of a sudden we had women in their
Speaker 1: twenties and thirties running this movement, women like Todd of
Speaker 1: the digital team for the March on Washington, the Women's
Speaker 1: March last year, And the generational stuff is huge, Like
Speaker 1: the the younger women just get it in a different way. Um.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's because, you know, we were raised by different moms.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just culturally we've seen a lot more like
Speaker 1: women and women of color and TV and films. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's a lot of reasons for it,
Speaker 1: but like we are just coming at this like, yep,
Speaker 1: we got this, trust us, we can do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we know it's going to be hard, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring along this like diverse coalition with me.
Speaker 1: So I think there's really something about that generational shift
Speaker 1: where we kind of miss that in like feminist literature
Speaker 1: about young women, and we know this about millennials. You
Speaker 1: we're much we have much more diverse groups of friends,
Speaker 1: were open to you know, more much more open to
Speaker 1: gay marriage before our you know, older counterparts. Um. And
Speaker 1: I think women's organizations are also getting a good kick
Speaker 1: in the butt to say nope, you know you have
Speaker 1: I've got to see a diverse board. I've got to
Speaker 1: see a diverse team around inclusion of women of color.
Speaker 1: This cannot be just like one of the things that's
Speaker 1: part of your you know, talking points. It's got to
Speaker 1: be deeply ingrained in your strategy. UM. Groups like the
Speaker 1: Miss Foundation are only funding women of color led organizations
Speaker 1: and it's awesome, UM and it makes for we We
Speaker 1: know this from you know, thirty years of research that
Speaker 1: diverse bodies actually make better leadership decisions. And I think
Speaker 1: the women's community is taking that to heart. I love
Speaker 1: that so much, and I just I completely agree. And
Speaker 1: I've been thrilled to see not even just in electoral politics,
Speaker 1: but like you were saying, in the advocacy space, in
Speaker 1: the media space, kind of a willingness to pass the
Speaker 1: mic two younger women, women of color, at trans women.
Speaker 1: I was so so pumped in the last Virginia primary
Speaker 1: Dana Carome the first trans woman to win, Like that
Speaker 1: was a huge, huge thing. And I unders been so
Speaker 1: thrilled to see that this generation a feminist is saying,
Speaker 1: our feminism is inclusive, Our feminism includes women of color,
Speaker 1: Our feminism includes women that have been traditionally marginalized and
Speaker 1: we are going to go forward with a very inclusive
Speaker 1: and diverse coalition and kick some mass I wonder what
Speaker 1: your take is on the Alabama Senate race then, because
Speaker 1: whereas it was exciting to see Roy Moore, basically a
Speaker 1: child molester, accused child molester, go down in a state
Speaker 1: like Alabama despite the full support and endorsement of a
Speaker 1: lot of the Republican infrastructure and are sitting president, but
Speaker 1: when you look at the exit polls, when you look
Speaker 1: at the numbers white women, just like they have supported
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, We're very comfortable, frankly supporting a candidate like
Speaker 1: Roy Moore, And had it not been for women of color,
Speaker 1: that's how that election would have shaken out. So I wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, are we going to see in women as
Speaker 1: any kind of a cohesive voting block across racial lines,
Speaker 1: or is it really white women who are still not
Speaker 1: necessarily um voting based on gender issues at all. I
Speaker 1: think that that second part is true, Emily, that you
Speaker 1: have you still have whole generations and whole groups of
Speaker 1: women who do not see power in womanhood and they
Speaker 1: are they see power in partisan politics. They see power
Speaker 1: in their husband's identities, you know, around his economic well
Speaker 1: being um, the attachment to the family UM. And you know,
Speaker 1: as we we do a lot of work in rural communities.
Speaker 1: And the good news is there's a lot of amazing
Speaker 1: feminist women in rural communities and they are doing this
Speaker 1: really quiet social justice work that is just keeping their
Speaker 1: communities together, which is fantastic. The hard part is is
Speaker 1: that there's no feminist dialogue out there without them like
Speaker 1: cutting new ground. Um. And so you are, you have
Speaker 1: these women who are surrounded by and given tons of
Speaker 1: messages that are like, you know, how dare you vote
Speaker 1: for Hillary Clinton? Your You know, I got emails that
Speaker 1: were like my mom can't tell my dad she's voting
Speaker 1: for Hillary Clinton. UM. That you know, it's just and
Speaker 1: so when you do an assessment of your personal power,
Speaker 1: your woman power is not even making top five. Um.
Speaker 1: And so we've got to figure out how we and
Speaker 1: I think the Me Too movement is part of this.
Speaker 1: It's like, how we really make sure that feminism and
Speaker 1: this movement is including those women, although sometimes we want
Speaker 1: to like shake them right in a way that's like
Speaker 1: what's going on? Um? Because once I think we start
Speaker 1: to put some cracks there, you know, you saw which
Speaker 1: was awesome. The head of the Young Republicans, which is
Speaker 1: a woman, she bowed out pretty quickly about not endorsing
Speaker 1: roy More and that the you know, she could no
Speaker 1: longer she said that publicly. She went out on Twitter
Speaker 1: for that um And so I'm also really curious about
Speaker 1: what would it take to get some younger Republican women's
Speaker 1: and young Republican women of color. I know we're working
Speaker 1: on this, trying to figure out how they, you know,
Speaker 1: reshape the party from the inside out. So we've got
Speaker 1: to make sure that when we're talking about diversity and
Speaker 1: inter sexual illness of this movement, that we're also you know,
Speaker 1: taking a look at some of our conservative sisters and
Speaker 1: saying where can we you know, where can we align
Speaker 1: and where is it that I can help bring you along?
Speaker 1: Because I just think like you will be more powerful
Speaker 1: in this sisterhood. I love it. I love that too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I would like to think that child molestation I'll be
Speaker 1: like the legend. But in my mind I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: what woman could support this? And I remember watching like
Speaker 1: an interview of all these older women saying things like, oh,
Speaker 1: I would have been thrilled if that was my daughter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think comes in the craziest like we
Speaker 1: gotta just let them go, Like there's no we're not
Speaker 1: going to get them. You know, there's a certain percentage
Speaker 1: of folks where you like, no, if we firmly disagree
Speaker 1: on you know, predatory child molestation and behavior, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna have to draw the line there. There's probably not
Speaker 1: a lot of room for us to work together. I
Speaker 1: like that as a tactic, knowing where there's not even
Speaker 1: a reason to sort of expend your energy trying to
Speaker 1: flip these people to get them on our side, knowing
Speaker 1: where it's a lost cause, and saying there actually are
Speaker 1: people on the right that we it's worked it to
Speaker 1: start building some coalitions and some intersections with but then
Speaker 1: also knowing when that is not gonna happen. That's what
Speaker 1: I love about the work you're doing with Vote, Run,
Speaker 1: Lead Right. You are a nonpartisan organization, is that correct? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And and having trained more than twenty six thousand women
Speaker 1: to run for political office, You've got a huge diverse
Speaker 1: program running in urban and rural parts of our country.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a really important perspective to bring
Speaker 1: to this conversation. I want to talk about how you
Speaker 1: teamed up with she should run and Marie Claire tell
Speaker 1: us about the research you did together in serving seven
Speaker 1: and fifty potential women candidates to learn more about what
Speaker 1: they're looking for in reclaiming some of their power in
Speaker 1: in this election cycle. What was really fun when when
Speaker 1: Reclaire approached vote re lead and she should run on
Speaker 1: why women you know, why millennial women want to run
Speaker 1: for office? Is? Um what really actually ran a bunch
Speaker 1: of Twitter ads to make sure that we were getting
Speaker 1: outside of our you know, email lists of women who um,
Speaker 1: you know might already be inclined to run. So close
Speaker 1: to half of the women or I think it's a
Speaker 1: little more than half of the women were thinking about
Speaker 1: running before before the November sixteen election, So there was
Speaker 1: this sort of like inspiration they were thinking about it.
Speaker 1: It was on their mind. Um, they strongly believe that
Speaker 1: more women, that there is a gendered component to leadership,
Speaker 1: that more women make a difference. Um, you know, they're
Speaker 1: they're pretty evenly split around like the motivation, like some
Speaker 1: have been asked to run by others, but they just
Speaker 1: don't like the direction that the country is going in
Speaker 1: and they totally like overwhelming it was close, like just
Speaker 1: hands down field that women are not treated well in
Speaker 1: public life, so they know they're stepping into an environment
Speaker 1: where they're not going to get a fair shake, you know.
Speaker 1: But what I thought was probably the most interesting of
Speaker 1: this was money. Of them said, what's kind of the
Speaker 1: biggest factor for you? Like are you tackling issues? You know?
Speaker 1: Are you concerned about what your platform might be? And
Speaker 1: they said fifty percent of them want to know how
Speaker 1: to make a living, which is something that vote rerun
Speaker 1: LYAD knows a lot about we where we target a
Speaker 1: lot of low income communities and make sure that you know,
Speaker 1: not just a long racial and ethnic lines, but that
Speaker 1: we're making sure that folks can run for office. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't have to be millionaires to do it, um,
Speaker 1: And that's you know, how do I make a living?
Speaker 1: How do I talk to my boss? You know, I
Speaker 1: can't use this campaign finance money for putting food on
Speaker 1: the table, But I've got to leave my job every
Speaker 1: day at three o'clock to go door knock or to
Speaker 1: you know, stand outside the subway at five when rush
Speaker 1: hour starts. So really figuring that out, um, about how
Speaker 1: we do this and incorporating this into our really busy lives.
Speaker 1: So that was one of the more interesting findings for
Speaker 1: me coming out of the Reclaire um and I'm so
Speaker 1: glad to see me Reclaire and Cosmopolitan and in style,
Speaker 1: like all these magazines getting political, which is awesome. We'll
Speaker 1: hear more from Aaron after this quick break Edward back,
Speaker 1: Let's get right back to Aaron. I remember reading somewhere
Speaker 1: that when Trump took office, and I know that y'all
Speaker 1: are a bipartisan organization, but when Trump took office, that
Speaker 1: it didn't matter if you were a fashion magazine or
Speaker 1: a food magazine. All of those things were political now,
Speaker 1: and that we really owe it to ourselves as folks
Speaker 1: and the media to acknowledge that and say it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if you know, you are a food writer, now
Speaker 1: you're a politics writer. And I also think it's important
Speaker 1: to acknowledge something that we talked about in our episode
Speaker 1: around teen Vogue is that women's magazines have really always
Speaker 1: lead the way in fierce political report ng. And it's
Speaker 1: not just now that women's magazines are embracing it, but
Speaker 1: women's magazines have always sort of been at the forefront
Speaker 1: of intersections of you know, not just fashion, glamour, entertainment,
Speaker 1: but real hard hitting journalism around politics and you know, activism.
Speaker 1: I agree, and I think we're seeing things where it
Speaker 1: used to show up in the style section actually showing
Speaker 1: up on the front page. Um. And that shift. You know,
Speaker 1: even though half of the men who have been you know,
Speaker 1: the major players and covering the presidential election turned out
Speaker 1: to all be part of the problem me to perpetrators.
Speaker 1: Right still, and there's some remarkable women wanted being Rebecca
Speaker 1: Tracer with New York Magazine, who is just writing the
Speaker 1: hardest hitting stuff. I really love her um analysis where
Speaker 1: she's really connecting the dots around UM, people sort of
Speaker 1: coming out and speaking out with a public voice. Um,
Speaker 1: why more women are running for office? You know, the
Speaker 1: connections of all of this around power and that when
Speaker 1: there's a sense of powerlessness, um, you you have nothing
Speaker 1: else to lose. And so yep, I'm going to speak publicly. Yep,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna you know, share with thirty million followers that
Speaker 1: I too was sexually harassed or assaulted. UM. And yes,
Speaker 1: I've decided to run for office, even though this is
Speaker 1: something I never thought I would do in my career.
Speaker 1: It really comes back to owning the power in the
Speaker 1: in women's voices and the and just sort of the
Speaker 1: ability to speak up because people did. People weren't really
Speaker 1: doing that before, right, Like if you if these if
Speaker 1: you had these stories, you maybe didn't feel like you
Speaker 1: could come forward and people that I think in I
Speaker 1: think it's all connected the idea that women are feeling like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I can run for office, I can
Speaker 1: make a change, and feeling empowered in that way. It's
Speaker 1: connected to this whole me too thing. Women are saying,
Speaker 1: you know what, I've got a story to hell and
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell it and people are gonna listen.
Speaker 1: I think they're all interconnected with this idea that women
Speaker 1: are finding their voices and finding their power and speaking
Speaker 1: up and we're being listened to and being heard, and
Speaker 1: we're taking what's ours in a way that we haven't
Speaker 1: in the past. And especially true to me is this
Speaker 1: difference between how Anita Hill was treated leading up to
Speaker 1: with that trial against Clarence Thomas. Right, Anita Hill was
Speaker 1: cast aside. Quite frankly, she was not treated fairly, and
Speaker 1: that was the beginning of sexual assault in the workplace
Speaker 1: in the political domain, being put on the national stage,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it led to a year of the Woman,
Speaker 1: but those numbers were easy to double because they were
Speaker 1: so low. So I wonder given the very powerful difference
Speaker 1: in the public response to women's stories and women sharing
Speaker 1: the reality of the persistent climate of harassment and assault
Speaker 1: that women have to deal with, now that we're actually
Speaker 1: being taken seriously and not cast aside, do you feel
Speaker 1: like we're going to see major differences. Do you feel
Speaker 1: like more women are running because they feel like, hey,
Speaker 1: they have nothing to lose, or be that they're more
Speaker 1: likely to be listened to now than ever before. A
Speaker 1: few things one, more women are definitely going to run,
Speaker 1: but that's also means that more women are going to lose.
Speaker 1: So what we have to remember is that these in
Speaker 1: these crowded primaries, we have to make sure that we're
Speaker 1: not just giving the nomination in a particularly democratic primary
Speaker 1: to some pro aggressive right. So when there's two or
Speaker 1: three really qualified women, Um, I'm thinking of this woman
Speaker 1: Linda Webber in New Jersey who's running, who definitely had
Speaker 1: a crowded primary. I'm not sure people about out since
Speaker 1: I last talk to her, But you know, these young
Speaker 1: I worked on the Obama campaign, I came back home.
Speaker 1: I want to run for office. Crap. Meanwhile, like you know,
Speaker 1: thirty year residents, small business owner, feminist, like definitely most
Speaker 1: qualified person. And then what we see is the local
Speaker 1: parties saying I'm gonna like I'm gonna wait out the primary.
Speaker 1: That's we need to hold the parties accountable to that
Speaker 1: when they are qualified women in a crowded primary. So
Speaker 1: that's one of the things we can do before like
Speaker 1: November elections come up. Um, I think the number of
Speaker 1: donations going to women candidates is going to rise. I
Speaker 1: would you know, I love me some Emily's List, but
Speaker 1: I would be definitely putting that money directly to candidates
Speaker 1: because you know, emilss Lis is also an old dog,
Speaker 1: been around a long time, and they're going to take
Speaker 1: safer bets, and so we have to really be looking
Speaker 1: at long shot candidates and directly contributing to their campaigns. Um,
Speaker 1: And they've been a little slow around some talented women
Speaker 1: of color where you know, I think they're going to
Speaker 1: get better in twenty with putting the money there. So
Speaker 1: if we're smart about um, you know, finding folks, you know,
Speaker 1: states that we care about and making sure that we're
Speaker 1: directly donating to those women. UM. But I think where
Speaker 1: you're going to see huge surge and where vote rerunly
Speaker 1: does specializes is local and state office. I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna see state legislatures have you know, three or four
Speaker 1: maybe six percentage point bumps and the number of women
Speaker 1: who are in those legislatures. UM. I think you're going
Speaker 1: to see more women's commissions in the fifty states, or
Speaker 1: you know, bipartisan commissions. At the state legislative level. I
Speaker 1: think you're going to see more women lead state legislatures
Speaker 1: as you know, majority leader or as Speaker of the
Speaker 1: state House. And that's where you actually get to then
Speaker 1: look at policy and a state like Colorado that has
Speaker 1: something close to fifty women in the legislature. One of
Speaker 1: our alumni is actually the Speaker of the House. Um,
Speaker 1: young Latino lawyer, super dynamics, you should run for higher
Speaker 1: office soon. That's where you see things like paid equity
Speaker 1: getting past. That's where you see you know, this ten
Speaker 1: point legislative plans that are good for women and families.
Speaker 1: Because there's a tipping point when you see more women
Speaker 1: at the local level, and that's where we're going to
Speaker 1: get to innovate. So I would also encourage folks to
Speaker 1: look at who's running for your state, ledge who's running
Speaker 1: for your city council, and making sure that you're giving
Speaker 1: them the ten bucks you donations too. I love it.
Speaker 1: So let's say you have a listener out there who
Speaker 1: is listening she's so fed up how things are going
Speaker 1: down in her community, she wants to run for office.
Speaker 1: What would you tell her? Sure, one, go to vote
Speaker 1: Run Lead dot org. The UM we have something called
Speaker 1: the ninety Day Challenge, which if you've never been in
Speaker 1: politics before, or even if you have a little bit
Speaker 1: of you know, civic experience. The ninety Challenge was written
Speaker 1: by local elected officials and the Vote Run Lead Network,
Speaker 1: and it gives you thirty actions to take in ninety days.
Speaker 1: So it's like getting out and meeting your community, having
Speaker 1: a conversation with um you know, political people, starting your
Speaker 1: own Twitter account, coming researching what your top issues are,
Speaker 1: and if you can tackle like two thirds of that list,
Speaker 1: you are going to build your political capital within your
Speaker 1: community by you know, letting folks know you're interested in running.
Speaker 1: Or you can also write an email that says I'm
Speaker 1: interested in public service. Can I have a coffee with you.
Speaker 1: So it's a it's a roadmap for I r L
Speaker 1: like politics is in real life. So this ninety challenge
Speaker 1: is free on our website if you don't know what
Speaker 1: you're going to run for yet, We've got also more
Speaker 1: local elected to talking about what office should I run for?
Speaker 1: So if this is what I care about, these are
Speaker 1: the issues that are important to me, where do those
Speaker 1: issues get legislated? You know, it might be that you
Speaker 1: want to be on a commission and get an appointment
Speaker 1: because of your you know, you're looking at your life
Speaker 1: and you're kind of busy, um, and you can't make
Speaker 1: it back and forth to the capital, you know, whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. So we've got to think about two
Speaker 1: workshops that are free online, What office should I run for?
Speaker 1: And the nine D D Challenge that are great for
Speaker 1: people who want to just get their brain moving and say, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about running and thinking about running. Um, if
Speaker 1: you know you're running and you want to runeen, we've
Speaker 1: got like campaign plans for running in ten that maps
Speaker 1: out of timeline for you. You know, what's a campaign
Speaker 1: finance plan, which is kind of the thing that trips
Speaker 1: up a lot of folks. That's where this legal stuff happens.
Speaker 1: So both of those resources are also available, and everything's
Speaker 1: up boat really dot org, backslash learn awesome. And you've
Speaker 1: got an event coming up this month, right in on
Speaker 1: the anniversary of the Women's March. Am I remembering that correctly?
Speaker 1: That's right January. We're going to be in New York
Speaker 1: City with hopefully a couple hundred women and just that
Speaker 1: for women who want to run as well as women
Speaker 1: who want to support other women. And we're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about sex, politics and power and this connection between
Speaker 1: the mood to movement and political participation, and um, hopefully
Speaker 1: Senator Gillibrand will be there, Rebecca Treyster will be there.
Speaker 1: Um and you know, just giving folks after the probably
Speaker 1: very cold march. Yeah, giving folks. You know, come have
Speaker 1: a glass of wine, some hot chocolate, get warm, get
Speaker 1: some food, and get connected to other remarkable women in
Speaker 1: your network. You know, this reminds me a lot of
Speaker 1: my time as a community organizer working on behalf of
Speaker 1: the Obama administration back in two thousand nine. After really
Speaker 1: being trained by Obama's campaign and getting some training from
Speaker 1: martial gans, we were able to and really equipped with
Speaker 1: the skills to create power structures, to create power structures
Speaker 1: and community organizations that would outlast us. And one of
Speaker 1: the things I will remember the most about my time
Speaker 1: about two years I spent organizing across the state of
Speaker 1: Rhode Island is that when I left, some of my
Speaker 1: neighborhood team leaders women mind you, ran for office on
Speaker 1: the local level and one upsetting an incumbent Democrat in
Speaker 1: the process, and one of my other neighborhood team leaders
Speaker 1: ran her campaign. And there is nothing like that ripple
Speaker 1: effect of seeing women in male dominated spaces harnessing their power,
Speaker 1: growing their power and influence, and making that connection between
Speaker 1: the issues that they want to make progress on and
Speaker 1: their ability to grow their power and be a part
Speaker 1: of that change. So I'm so excited and so motivated
Speaker 1: to hear of all the work that Vote Run Leader
Speaker 1: is doing on the local level, especially UM and I
Speaker 1: can attest to the resources you provide UM as being
Speaker 1: some of the best that's out there. So thanks for
Speaker 1: the work you're doing on this front, er, and it's awesome,
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, And I want to let you
Speaker 1: guys in on a little secret. It's not that hard
Speaker 1: to run prop I used to say that the talent
Speaker 1: pool is shallow. Yeah, and there's the reality, right like
Speaker 1: amateur Hour. If you don't show up, if if if
Speaker 1: the right people don't show up, someone will Totally. That
Speaker 1: reminds me. One of my favorite stories out of the
Speaker 1: last election cycle was the story of a woman who's
Speaker 1: elected official had made a joke about the women's march
Speaker 1: and he said something like, oh, are they walking to
Speaker 1: make me a sandwich? Or these women can sure you
Speaker 1: used a walk to lose some weight, and that that
Speaker 1: one joke angered her so much that she ran against
Speaker 1: him and one so these stories of the small little
Speaker 1: thing where you know, it's just that one crystallizing moment
Speaker 1: where you're like, I'm gonna unset maybe you could. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, Actually, Bennett from Jersey right exactly.
Speaker 1: So such a that was my favorite story of That's
Speaker 1: one of the best stories. It really is so good. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me. You both are
Speaker 1: doing awesome work and I'm really excited to be part
Speaker 1: of this podcast. Thank you so much, Aaron. And for
Speaker 1: folks who want to keep up with your Twitter feed,
Speaker 1: where might they find you on the twitters at Aaron
Speaker 1: Ballardi and at Vote Rerun Lead, we are so fired
Speaker 1: up and ready to run basically or at least ready
Speaker 1: to donate to your campaign's mindy listener, if you're running
Speaker 1: for office in your community this year, there is good
Speaker 1: reason to be optimistic, to be fired up, and to
Speaker 1: make this the year of the Woman, and perhaps the
Speaker 1: year of you the woman, to run for office or
Speaker 1: support your local girl gang and doing so. I actually
Speaker 1: want to close this out. In the words of Barbara
Speaker 1: Boxer herself, who's since retired from the Senate, but pen
Speaker 1: this excellent op ed for USA Today in comparing two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen to the nine to iteration of the Year
Speaker 1: of the Woman. Here's what she writes, quote, So why
Speaker 1: am I hopeful that this time may be different? Because
Speaker 1: it feels different, mainly because the majority of Americans believe
Speaker 1: the victims the Senate race in Alabama were Democrats, Republicans
Speaker 1: and independent voters said no to an accused molester sent
Speaker 1: shock waves through the body politic. The firing of many
Speaker 1: private sector powerful men in the news and entertainment industries
Speaker 1: is more proof. The resignation of politicians is even more proof.
Speaker 1: She goes on to say it is time to end
Speaker 1: this epidemic that has been hurting people for far too long.
Speaker 1: We can do this. As Martin Luther King Jr. Said
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three, the ultimate measure of a man
Speaker 1: is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
Speaker 1: but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Speaker 1: And this is one of those times. Two thousand and eighteen,
Speaker 1: we have a choice to make as a country. We
Speaker 1: have a choice as women in this country as to
Speaker 1: whether we can tolerate sitting on the sidelines one more time.
Speaker 1: I don't know if any of y'all have buyer's remorse
Speaker 1: after last election cycle, but I certainly do. And I
Speaker 1: want to be a more active member of my community,
Speaker 1: whether it's getting out and organizing and knocking on way
Speaker 1: more doors, donating to campaigns of local women who are running,
Speaker 1: or running myself someday. Who knows, But I want to
Speaker 1: see this community get out vote at a minimum, or
Speaker 1: really make sure that women are being elected in the
Speaker 1: highest offices of the land and are very backyard local
Speaker 1: offices too. I couldn't agree more. I hope that somebody
Speaker 1: out there listening is called to action because we need y'all.
Speaker 1: If anyone's ever told you you know you should run
Speaker 1: for office, I hope that this really speaks to you
Speaker 1: and makes you think, yeah, maybe I should, because just
Speaker 1: like Aaron said, maybe it turns out it's a lot
Speaker 1: more easy than you might be thinking. Maybe there's actually
Speaker 1: tool kids and support for you out there. And if
Speaker 1: you're thinking that way, we really want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Let us know. Will you be running for office? Have
Speaker 1: you always wanted to run for office? Is there a
Speaker 1: woman in your life that you wish would run for
Speaker 1: office because you'd make a really good public office holder.
Speaker 1: Let us know on Instagram at stuff I've Never Told You,
Speaker 1: on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, or a good old
Speaker 1: fashioned email at mom stuff at how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com