Be the change
With record numbers of newly elected candidates, political careers are opening up
WHEN Harlem resident Erin Vilardi launched VoteRunLead in 2014 as part of the White House Project, she worked diligently to persuade women to apply their skills and talents to pursue political roles.
Since its inception, VoteRunLead, an organization helping women to run for office, has trained more than 33,000 women to run for office.
“We [used to spend] two-thirds of our time doing outreach, recruiting women to attend, and that’s really flipped on its head,” says CEO and founder Vilardi. “Post-2016, we have this demand, where we had to create demand in the past.”
Women saw President Trump triumph without any political or military experience, which was a “major game changer” since they previously viewed themselves as underqualified.
“Now, they say, ‘I can run for city council if this guy can be president!’ ” says Vilardi. Before, women couldn’t see themselves succeeding because of lacking “some magic formula. . . or because you’re not in the old boys’ network. That was one of the biggest things we saw.”
At in-person training, typically 30 to 80 people tackle topics such as motivation and leadership style. There are also personal storytelling elements during communications training. “It’s about how you talk about being a single mom as an asset and what you’ve had to overcome,” Vilardi says. “The transitional skills of nontraditional candidates help them tell stories in the political realm.”
Electives are also available online to dive into topics such as campaign finance plans and participants also bond in its private Facebook group. “There’s a lot of encouragement, sisterhood that’s happening,” says Vilardi.
The events-focused organization holds a monthly event around the country and holds an annual tour including a Nov. 12 Town Hall held in WeWork in Times Square.
Vilardi says, “The great thing about politics and government is that anyone can run. Any career path can lead to a run for office. Former professional athletes, actors, farmers, educators, stay-at-home moms, educators, nurses and doctors have found their way into political office. What empowers anyone to run is a commitment to make their community better.”
The midterm elections saw record-breaking results revealing at least 35 first-time women House members for a total of at least 125 women in the 116th Congress.
“The genie’s out of the bottle,” says Vilardi, speaking before the historic vote. “This is the first wave in an ocean of women who are excited and ready and believe in themselves that they are capable of changing democracy.”
In fact, historic midterm results marked many firsts, with more than 100 LGBTQ candidates also scoring at the polls. Yet running for office and subsequently legislating aren’t the only ways to be immersed in the field.
Former political reporter Jeff Guillot, partner and cofounder of political consulting firm Millennial Strategies, primarily handles campaign and strategic communications for clients. The Babylon, LI, resident says his job is “incredibly invigorating” because no two days are the same.
“You never know what will happen when you roll out of bed in the morning,” he says. “There’s always a plot twist you didn’t expect.”
Guillot embraces the intense, long hours: “From two weeks before primary day until 3 a.m. on election night, people like me go nonstop. You work every single day, you have to be communicating and operating at every single moment in time. If you snooze, you lose.”
Even when it’s not “crazy busy,” there’s typically steady work — from polls to fundraising — making it a year-round endeavor. Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, keeps busy not only as a pollster but also by assisting faculty and students with their research products and teaching students how to use tools.
To succeed in polling, interest goes beyond politics. “Statistics only get you so far to create the framework to conduct a valid survey, but you need to understand how politics work, how people think about politics,” says Murray. “This involves sociology and psychology and really a good grounding in what’s going on out there.”
Murray’s department conducts polls as a public service, providing results to the media.
“That’s a huge reward because we’re contributing to a greater understanding of what people want from government,” says Murray.
To get your foot in the door, Kristin Brackemyre, senior manager at the Public Affairs Council in Washington, DC, an association of publicaffairs executives, suggests volunteering for a candidate you support or finding issues that you care about.
“Many politicians or public-affairs professionals got their start by volunteering for a campaign, running for their local school board or working for an elected official. It certainly helps to be passionate about politics, but passion in other forms leads people to careers in public affairs as well, whether you are passionate about a specific cause or advocating on behalf of an underserved community or group.”
An increased interest in the field is also felt on campus. Diane J. Heith, Ph.D., professor in the department of government and politics at St. John’s University, has seen an uptick in students wanting to major, minor or take electives in political science, spurred on by the current political climate. Yet while getting a master’s degree can offer a conduit to switch paths, soft skills are also important.
“The successful candidate needs a friendly demeanor, patience and the ability to problem solve,” says Heith. “I would also suggest that the ability to work well with those whose ideology differs from your own is a skill in short supply in our current environment.”
Patience is a key ingredient, as it may take years for an issue you’re working on to take center stage. “Often the passion has to be channeled into picking a side,” says Heith. “It would be very difficult to be a campaign manager or speech writer if you did not share the same political persuasion as your candidate. It is possible but unlikely that a politician would trust an individual to work in their office or on their campaign if they were not a member of their party.”
Consultants have more opportunities to remain neutral. “An individual less willing to take a partisan stand would want to work for nonpartisan organizations like commercial polling organizations or at-large lobbying firms with a slew of clients.”
Skills that set you up for success include “high energy, being a strong communicator and team player, and a willingness to work long hours with a high level of unpredictability,” she says.
There is one risk in this field, however: job loss. “You can be out of a job overnight if your boss loses his or her election,” says Brackemyre. “There is a high level of unpredictability. It can be very rewarding to work on behalf of an elected official or cause you believe in, but. . . the political winds can change rapidly.”