By Karen Stokes
Kamala Harris
(Photo/The White House)
Vote Run Lead Action is an organization that trains women to run for office and win by “running as they are.”
The White House project served as a precursor to Vote Run Lead Action. The organization is fully run by women, the board is all women, women, or gender extensive, and is primarily headquartered in New York.
“We train candidates and campaign managers. We want to make sure they have the training and resources that they need to serve as they are and be their authentic self,” said Melissa Jackowski, Regional Head, West, Vote Run Lead.
Some notable alumni are Allie Phillips, running for the Tennessee House of Representatives, Lauren Underwood, U.S. Representative from Illinois, and Rosemary Ketchum, the first transgender person elected to political office in West Virginia.
With a woman running for the nation’s highest office, the Vote Run Lead Action has penned an open letter to Kamala Harris to remind her that her strength is to also “run as she is.
Dear Kamala,
Election Day is less than 90 days away. That means you have less than 3 months to run a perfect campaign which could be the difference between democracy and authoritarianism. But hey, no pressure.
You’ll surely have dozens of new polls to scour every day telling you which way voters are leaning. You’ll have carefully crafted, focus-group-approved messages. You’ll have advisors telling you how to speak, how to walk, and how to be presidential. We at Vote Run Lead Action have spent 10 years training tens of thousands of women to run successfully for office. We know what works. And we’re here to say: thank you for running as you are. Thank you for being your authentic self, full of life experiences, with years of dedication to our country.
We train women to run for every level of government without changing who they are or trying to put them through a machine– and it works. That’s because being your authentic self is your campaign’s strongest asset. There’s no better proof that this works than you and your candidacy.
Voters across the country are energized for the election for the first time in a long time because you’re in the race. They are excited by the prospect of our first Black and Asian-American woman president who brings the perspective of so many communities across the country.
So: thank you for running as you are. Thank you for showing all the different sides of your authentic, complex self. Thank you for leading with joy. Be your imperfect perfect self. We need it.
Love,
VOTE RUNLEADACTION
P.S. Don’t let anyone tell you what to wear…but personally, we love your Chucks.
Vote Run Lead Action currently has an incredible 85.81%-win rate for alumni in this year’s primaries!