Are You Ready?
In early 2008 I was being shepherded through an abusive relationship by my parents and a very dear friend. When I finally left him in March (those were a very long and very terrible three months) my friend found a new nonprofit on the scene. The White House Project, dedicated to empowering women and giving them the skills to run for public office. My friend said “You’re a woman, you need to be empowered!” and convinced me to sign up for their first ever training specifically for rural women. It was taking place at Fortune Bay Resort & Casino in Tower, Minnesota very near to my birthday in April.
After that, I caught the bug (although I didn’t realize it at the time). Over the course of the next eight years, I ran for and won, Director of Communications and Vice-President of my Student Senate at Mesabi Range College. I ran for and won, an open alternate seat for my region to represent my peers on the LeadMN Governing Council. I ran for treasurer of LeadMN and won. After a hiatus from elected leadership, I ran for a school board seat in my community and won (despite a recount after the election). I have considered running for city council at some point.
Sadly, The White House Project closed its doors just a couple years after I went to my first training. The recession was especially unkind to nonprofits. It exists today as Vote Run Lead, and they have fabulous programming designed to meet women where they are and give them the skills necessary to run for public office. I cannot describe how excited I was when one of my favorite podcasts, Stuff Mom Never Told You, interviewed VRL Executive Director Erin Vilardi (who was a WHP intern at my first training!) about running for office a few weeks ago.
I share all of this because I want you to know that when it comes to running for elected office, I know what’s up. I’ve been in the trenches and know full well that while it can be intimidating running for office is also completely manageable. Serving in elected office is manageable. If I can do it, you can do it too.
2018 is already proving to be The Year of the Woman. Record numbers of us are running for political office on all sides of the aisle. We are running because we care about our families, our communities, and about creating positive change. We want the government to help everyone, not just a few. We are finally angry enough to storm the castle, rush the gates, and start making change at every level.
One thing I learned at my first White House Project training was that it takes at least 3 people to ask a woman before she will put her name on the ballot. Consider this one of your asks. Will you run, will you be a player in the political process to give our nation the healing we all need?
Photo by Nadim Merrikh on Unsplash
This post first appeared on https://rachelahanson.blog/2018/03/16/are-you-ready
Oregon has something like this called NEW Leadership Oregon (NLO), which is a week-long training camp for women who want to be influential professionals. It's geared towards convincing folks to run for office, but alumna of the program have gone on to be badass in all kinds of fields. Above all, it's about mentoring other women to get them into positions of power, whether in city council or in the classroom.
I was in the 2013 cohort, and though I have since decided not to run for office, I still really value the experience, especially the friendships and professional connections I made there. It also really helped boost my confidence, which contributed to all the wins I've had since then (study abroad, applying to the McNair program, applying to grad school).
That's awesome!! I'll say that my experiences being elected have also helped me with other professional "wins" as well.
I'm just not of the right temperament to run for anything, and I've been so busy with school that now is not the time. I'm a fairly solitary person, and struggle with self-promotion (sort of related to a recent post of mine), so running for office has always seemed exhausting to me, but I served in student government in an appointed position, and it definitely was a valuable experience!
That's 100% fair! I think this hearkens to my conversation with @tygertyger below, we need people in all the spaces to make change.
Totally. And I'm gonna be all up in academia, disrupting the dominant paradigm! 😉
I love this post in all the ways. Thank you for sharing your heart and talent.
Thank you! I am so glad to be here sharing with such exceptional people :)
I love that you empowered yourself. But do you really believe that in such a corrupt political system as we have in the U.S that any lasting change can be achieved through the traditional circuit ? I really no longer believe in that . I believe that the change will come from outside our government enforced by the people through untraditional means or not at all .
I very sincerely believe that we need good people within and outside of "the system."
I make no bones at all about the fact that I am a strong believer in the power of community building and grassroots organizing. After all, that's a big part of why I'm here on Steemit!
But I also think that after over 200 years of having a republic and creating laws in this way there need to be people "on the inside" who legitimately listen to their constituents and make decisions based on data and not based on the party line. That's why I am so excited that so many new people are running and that the women who are running (based on what I've seen and read) are developing platforms that are thoughtful, critical of party politics, and seem truly interested in consensus building rather than an us vs. them attitude.
The real reason I think our systems are broken are because they were built on a foundation of compromise and within the last 50-60 years we (okay, men mostly) have decided that compromise is an indication of weakness. If we get past that, and I think women are the people to do it, we have a real possibility of true healing.
your word in the universe's ear
I hope so. I know my views may seem naieve, but I am convinced of their truth.