Show Transcript

Erin Vilardi: Supporting Women in Politics

[00:00:00] Bob Gatty: Donald Trump told supporters the other day that women like him, contrary to what a lot of people say, But that seems to be wishful thinking, because a recent ABC News Ipsos poll shows him trailing Kamala Harris 54 to 41 percent among women for a 13 point lead. Now just a month ago, that lead was only 6 points.

[00:00:22] So whatever Trump's doing to woo women doesn't seem to be working. Now, today we'll look at women voters and candidates with Erin Vilardi, founder and CEO of Vote Run Lead and Vote Run Lead Action. Vote Run Lead is a non profit training powerhouse focused on improving women's representation in state legislatures across the country.

[00:00:45] While Vote Run Lead Action is a 501c4 sister organization focused on the ideals of democracy, anti racism, and intersectional feminism, The organization envisions a future where women and gender expansive individuals hold the majority of us legislative seats. We'll check with Erin to see how those initiatives are going and what they're doing now to support female candidates ahead of the November election.

[00:01:17] Erin first launched the candidate training program as vice president of program and communications at the white house project. Aaron, welcome to Lean to the Left. 

[00:01:28] Erin Vilardi: Thanks, Bob. I'm happy to be here. 

[00:01:30] Bob Gatty: We're going to take a deep dive into vote run lead and what you guys are up to. But first I have to ask you about Trump's comment and how you feel about that and about Harris's chances against him.

[00:01:43] Erin Vilardi: There are so many comments. It is hard to keep track. What to say, 

[00:01:48] Bob Gatty: right? 

[00:01:49] Erin Vilardi: One of the comments and Bob, I'm really happy we're starting with this because I do think there is truly something to this conversation of the girl boy election without, but with more nuance with a little bit more of a deeper dive.

[00:02:04] The comment that he does well with women was quickly followed by a comment asked by one of our leading feminists, Rasmus Shaujani about childcare, where he commented dopely, dopishly, Childcare is childcare. Then there was the comment of the woman that he wouldn't grope because she wasn't pretty enough as another woman came forward, 

[00:02:23] A common and, now three dozen or so, women with similar allegations.

[00:02:29] He can continue to say things that he wishes to be true. I think he will always have a subset of women, and I do think that's part of this girl boy election, right? A subset of women who, there's women at Trump rallies, there's women voting for Trump who they are versus I think, not versus, but in contrast to what is a growing, a more multicultural, multiracial coalition of women who are really working to see a different kind of future.

[00:02:58] Bob Gatty: When you mentioned that about women being at his rallies, at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he supposedly was shot there was a woman who was interviewed by someone from one of the news, I think it was ABC News, and she said attending Trump rallies just made her feel good.

[00:03:20] I just don't understand that. Do you understand that? 

[00:03:25] Erin Vilardi: I think I do understand that. I think there are a lot of competing narratives, some from the past, some from the future, some from right now, where notions of security, notions of safety can ring true for certain generations in a way they don't ring true for others.

[00:03:41] I think there is a lot of what might be like, to white folks themselves, a lot of invisible white supremacy within their own thinking that they're not sure, not, they're not really maybe totally aware of where, I, I've been doing this work for over 20 years. And I, when I first got into this work, the research that the organization I was a part of did was dial testing as part of their focus groups, women and men would come on screen.

[00:04:07] And both women and men would dial down when they saw women on screen and both women and men would dial up when they saw men on screen. Now they had the same exact script. They even had similar names. And while this was 20 years ago, I think that we are, we are of our time. We are of our generation.

[00:04:22] And I do think there are folks who still have some of that bias baked in. There's folks who are young folks that have that bias baked in. And there are folks who are working on a worldview right now, where that, women's subservience to men is their worldview and, that, that sort of constellation of people are supporting, are more likely to support a conservative candidate, more likely to support a Trump candidacy.

[00:04:47] Bob Gatty: Okay. Now you attended the Democratic National Convention, right? 

[00:04:52] Erin Vilardi: Yeah, we had a blast. 

[00:04:54] Bob Gatty: Did you? What was your overall take on that and Harris selection of Tim Walz as their running mate? 

[00:05:02] Erin Vilardi: Absolutely. So one of the most fun things for me to watch, Bob, was Men of all ages of all stripes hooting and hollering for, whether it was Gretchen Whitmer or Elizabeth Warren or chatting, chanting AOC and the kind of enthusiasm that I saw from the men sitting in front of me in the rows and rows of bleachers that filled The stadium, 

[00:05:24] Bob Gatty: just 

[00:05:24] Erin Vilardi: so enthusiastic and so unabashedly enthusiastic.

[00:05:28] And that is now my, I think my fourth or fifth convention. If you don't count the fourth one, I think if you don't count the virtual convention and I've been attending both Republican and national conventions that this year did not attend the RNC, nor did I in 2020 digitally for my own sanity, I think.

[00:05:42] Where that was very different from the 2016 Hillary reception. There was a lot of quiet, hushed, not so quiet, but more hushed conversations of Can she make it? Is she, is she the right one? Up until past the, her nomination process. I did not hear that. There, I did not hear that same kind of chatter about Harris.

[00:06:01] It really was, an unbridled enthusiasm. I, I know I had a one in six chance, but I was pulling for Walz. We do a ton of work in Minnesota. I've been working in Minnesota for also two decades and had the pleasure of knowing women like Peggy Flanagan, had the pleasure of knowing and have on my board , former state Senator Patricia Torres Ray, who was the first Latina in the state Senate there.

[00:06:22] There have been a lot of powerhouse women in the Minnesota legislature and the Minnesota state government. So I was hearing lots of positive things about Walz from them. I saw his write up, I read his write up in the New York Times a couple of months ago where he had such a powerhouse legislative session.

[00:06:39] I, of course, credit to that, number of vote run lead alumni and the number of women that moved up in the legislature in the last few years. But, I think there were really good signs that he was somebody who was willing to do the work with women. And I thought that was going to be the over the sort of the larger narrative that she really needed, that she needed somebody to stand by her where there wasn't even a, an inch of, Oh, does he want her job or does he really support her?

[00:07:06] And I think she fully gets that with him. So I was very happy to be right on that one because I feel like my political predictions in the past decade of I don't count on them as much anymore. 

[00:07:17] Bob Gatty: I have to tell you that as a, as an old white dude, I was thrilled too to see all of that. And I love the white dudes for Kamala movement that's out there.

[00:07:30] Yeah. And I think that's really cool. So anyway now tell me about Vote Run Lead and Vote Run Lead Action and what you guys are up to. 

[00:07:41] Erin Vilardi: Absolutely. Vote Run Lead has been around a long time. We'll be celebrating our 10 year anniversary. I was just reading that first email we sent out in September of 2014.

[00:07:50] So we are this month kicking off our 10 year anniversary and just thrilled about it. We have been training women to run for political office for a long time. It was actually a political program of another organization called the White House Project. That, that organization was started in 99 and had since folded.

[00:08:05] Vote Run Lead came out of that. It's pretty remarkable my life's work to see 25 years after the White House project and 10 years of my own organization, the very, the second, but very real possibility of a woman in the White House and a woman of color at that, because one of the things we've been trying to do at Vote Run Lead is Change the narrative, normalize women running for office, normalize that these women are not your typical college educated, pearl wearing, read the newspaper every day, dad was in politics, right?

[00:08:35] Bob Gatty: Pearl wearing? 

[00:08:36] Erin Vilardi: Yeah, which was when I started very much. The uniform, if you will that you had often if you saw women in politics, they had a parent who most likely their father who was involved many of the women in Congress. first were actually wives of congressmen that had maybe passed, right?

[00:08:53] These are all things that have only happened in just the past few decades. To, fast forward 2016, the ability to be ready to receive that wave of women who put their hands up and said no, I'm going to be running. If this guy can be the president, I, sure as heck can be on my city council.

[00:09:08] And at that point had, we had, online resources for women to attend to. We were training all over the country, ultimately ending in a culminating in a 20 city training across I think it was 18 states, 20 cities and another thousand women online. So we're really experts at how to run for office.

[00:09:24] Vote run lead action has come about just in the last few years because the natural progression of those women winning. Our win rates are fantastic. And we ended up with a lot of women through our outreach, through our community partnerships with women's funds and foundations that didn't look like those pearl wearing women, a lot of women of color, a lot of rural women, a lot of young women a lot of women that maybe had high school diplomas or, community college degrees.

[00:09:48] And we knew that we needed to help hold their hand and get them across the finish line. So vote run lead action allows us to advocate for the conditions. that make, on the democracy work, on the anti racism work, on the feminism work. But it also helps us work with candidates that have declared.

[00:10:04] And that's that's the sort of one two punch of how we're going to achieve 51 percent women's representation in our statehouses. 

[00:10:10] Bob Gatty: All right. So why are you focusing on statehouses rather than Congress, for example? 

[00:10:17] Erin Vilardi: A couple of years ago, I, Really had the opportunity to say, they had the opportunity to pause.

[00:10:24] I think as, executive directors or leaders of nonprofits, we don't often get the opportunity to pause had the opportunity to pause and essentially write up quite a bit of what the, what was my 100 million idea and to do some big thinking and really, Why I got into this work is for two reasons.

[00:10:40] One, I believe that the world would be a better place if more women were in charge. But two, I also believe that, democracy is of, for, and by the people, and that simply we did not have a kind of representative democracy. We with women as the majority at 51 percent of the population, We should be 51 percent of its leaders.

[00:10:57] And I looked at two offices. One was the school boards and one was the state houses. There's about 90, 000 seats in the school boards. We're closer there where I think a little over 40 percent women. But the state legislature is the power center. We now see it very much with all the SCOTUS decisions coming down.

[00:11:13] It's the farm team for Congress. It's where we can test out bills that, we're going nowhere in just a few years, continue to go nowhere with the hyper partisanship that we have. And it's very feasible number. So just over 7, 000 seats. And we could really do these little laboratories of democracy across the states and turn some levers and see what works to accelerate the number of women really moving to 51 percent and see how fast we can get there.

[00:11:39] Bob Gatty: Okay. We were happy to have, not long ago, Sabrina Shulman, your chief political officer on this podcast and you guys if you have a chance, you might go back and take a look at that episode. Sabrina did a great job. Now I'm happy to follow up here with Erin and learn more about what's going on with Vote Run Lead and Vote Run Lead Action because I really believe that their program is just awesome and is badly needed. And I have to say, I agree with you, Aaron. If more women were in charge, this place would be, we'd be at a better place in this country. I really do. 

[00:12:21] Erin Vilardi: And most polling says that we believe that as generally as a population, we believe that.

[00:12:27] Bob Gatty: Yeah. 

[00:12:27] Erin Vilardi: And we believe in a more representative democracy. And we want those kind of role models, not just for our young girls, but also for our young boys to see more women in leadership and normalize that. 

[00:12:36] Bob Gatty: Okay. So what strategies is Vote Run Lead Action implementing to ensure more women, especially from Underrepresented communities are stepping up to run for office.

[00:12:48] Erin Vilardi: Absolutely. We at Vote Run Lead and Vote Run Lead Action, we make it a priority to ensure that women of color are the majority of our trainees at our training programs and have long done that through our partnerships with, I talked about the women's funds community through our Our peer to peer network that 20 city training I was talking to you back in 2019 was 80 percent of the women heard about it from a friend.

[00:13:12] Bob Gatty: So 

[00:13:12] Erin Vilardi: we have a strong at this point in our tenure, we have a strong validation if you will, that, the work that we're doing is helping real women take the kind of leap that they need. Now, as we've opened up early in action, we are providing more tailored, trainings and offerings for the state where our state directors live and going deeper on the state legislative race particularly.

[00:13:34] So you'll see things like rundowns that are, how to do well at the caucusing, right? That are just deeper dives and the things that are critical for that particular state. We also offer a coaching program where we're really doing that one on one where you might get stuck on something and I can give you a broad Piece of training on vrlhq. org where it's here's how you. Raise. Here's how to dial for dollars, all that stuff. But you actually get a coach on the phone. You're like, here's where I'm, hitting my head up against the wall. Or, I've maxed out this circle of donors. How do I move on? What's the next strategy for me?

[00:14:08] We've really fine tuned some of that on the C three side. I'm really proud of The campaign manager program that we've built and the way that we are training campaign managers to run more equitable and sustainable campaigns. So both of those things, I think, on the sort of campaign team support, as well as the ability to go deeper on top of our tried and true trainings are really how we're making a difference.

[00:14:32] Bob Gatty: Okay how have you done in terms of recruiting and supporting women candidates in this election cycle? 

[00:14:37] Erin Vilardi: I think we've got something like I think we had over 400 go through the primaries. I think we're a little over 60 percent are making it through. There's something like an 81 percent win rate, but I know some of that is inflated by some of our incumbents through the primaries who didn't actually have their full, didn't have challengers per se.

[00:14:55] Over 60 percent when we're used for women of color in the primaries, we have state legislative candidates in over 25 states across the country. And we think we're going to have some remarkable firsts as well. Some women who continue to break barriers in the offices that they're running for.

[00:15:11] Bob Gatty: Excellent. What speaking of barriers, what are some of the biggest barriers that prevent women from entering politics and how can they be overcome? 

[00:15:22] Erin Vilardi: The good news is they can be overcome, right? I think some of it still is just the general socialization that there, there isn't as many of us as there are men who are running for these positions.

[00:15:33] Bob Gatty: Right. 

[00:15:33] Erin Vilardi: One of those things and how we can accelerate that is really looking at the open seats of particularly for us, of course, the state legislature. We looked at that for 2020, I think it was 2020, not 2022. And there were something like 1300 seats that were ran on the post.

[00:15:49] It was a really large number and men run for open seats something like 93 percent of the time, women run for open seats, 67 percent of the time. So they're just in the sheer number of women running for open seats. We, there's not enough of us running for those seats when they do come available. And why we want to target that is because women do very well in an open seat.

[00:16:11] They tend to win by a couple of percentage points. Just enough to make the marginal difference. So the fastest way to actually accelerate that is to get more women to consider open seats. Now. Being a challenger can be super fun too, right? Incumbency power, I think, as you might guess is, it's still very strong, but I do think it's releasing some of its grip.

[00:16:30] And those, so really being strategic about where we're running and increasing those pipeline numbers. Now, women tend to have smaller networks than men, we tend to make less money over our lifetime. So there are some of those, systemic barriers of just raising more money. We know that donors don't max out as much to women candidates as they do to the male counterparts.

[00:16:48] So you've got to really push people who do have the funds to give you the full amount. And if you're a woman coming from a more low income background, your first ring of fundraising is not going to be your friends and family. So making sure that our resources are intersectional in that way, right?

[00:17:03] If you're, the first in your family to go to college and you're sending money back home, your family is not the, that they're not your first bullseye, if you will, on that fundraising chart. So really offering some ways in which women can think differently about how they do raise money.

[00:17:17] But on the public speaking and all that, like, all the things that we think are barriers, Bob, are actually what make these women awesome, right? And that's the kind of thing we're trying to do a mind shift of through our methodology and our mantra, which is run as you are. The things that you might think are a skeleton in the closet are very likely to be hyper relatable to people in your district.

[00:17:37] And they show a sense of vulnerability. They also show that you're able to overcome that you've dealt with hardship, that you know how to, you get yourself out of these situations. And I think those are the things that, for us, really make the training of Vote Run Lead and the work of Vote Run Lead Action really different from some of our counterparts.

[00:17:53] We really do lean into those, perceived negatives, if you will. 

[00:17:57] Bob Gatty: Okay. So what advice would you give to women who are considering running for office but are hesitant? How can they get started and what kind of support do you guys provide? 

[00:18:08] Erin Vilardi: I would head over right now to vrlhq. org. VRLHQ is our online headquarters.

[00:18:14] It's an amazing set of resources from everything. So there's one thing that's 10 ways to think, 10 things to think about when you're thinking about running all the way to, your field program, voter outreach, voter contact, in deep in the weeds of And painting.

[00:18:30] So VRL HQ is really a one stop shop. I would really ask yourself, then this is one of the things we do in some of our trainings is ask yourself, who are some people that I admire? Then ask yourself, what are the leadership qualities in those people that, for me, really resonates, right? It might be integrity, it might be boldness.

[00:18:50] And then actually sit down with a pen and paper and begin to write about times in your life where you demonstrated those leadership qualities.

[00:18:57] And then we want you to name a time where you have demonstrated those qualities, when you have demonstrated boldness, when you have shown integrity, and start to dig into the stories about yourself. Where you have shown up as a leader because that's how you talk about yourself. You talk about yourself in story.

[00:19:14] You, you show, not tell if you will the kind of leader that you're going to be based on the things that you've done on the past. 

[00:19:21] Bob Gatty: Okay. All right. Voter suppression and harassment are ongoing issues, especially in marginalized communities. What are some of the most common forms of voter intimidation that you're seeing and how can the average person help protect voting rights on election day?

[00:19:41] It is really critical that we know our legal rights. So that's one of the first things to do to be able to de escalate the situation.

[00:19:50] Erin Vilardi: Most of our resources, Bob, are going to be for campaign managers and the candidates themselves on the BRL HQ is a whole section on campaign safety. So while we don't necessarily focus on the broad voter suppression, we are making sure that our Candidates and the campaigns that our folks are working on are asking themselves really critical questions in this time to protect themselves, to make sure they're still able to get their message out while being safe and to understand the skills and tools and resources that they have at their disposal.

[00:20:22] Bob Gatty: Okay. What's your take on efforts by Trump and the Heritage Foundation and other Republican leaders to constantly warn that the November 5th election will be rife with fraud and that it'll be rigged against Trump? What's your take on that? 

[00:20:39] Erin Vilardi: Let's just remember that the 2020 election was both the largest and the safest election the United States of America has ever had.

[00:20:45] So one, we just need to remember that we literally pulled off in the pandemic, the most secure federal election of our lives. Now, I think my take is similar to the other folks that, Sewing mistrust, particularly when the momentum is not at his back, is a pattern of behavior that he demonstrated, a little bit in 2016 again, of course, in 2020 and that he is demonstrating now that when he is losing, if you will, or losing the momentum, the rhetoric goes up about The false claims of, major voter suppression in this country.

[00:21:22] I think we have to continue to hold all him and all the people around him accountable for this long after the election. 

[00:21:28] Bob Gatty: Okay, so how can people learn more about vote run lead and vote run lead action Aaron? 

[00:21:34] Erin Vilardi: Okay, for the third time, Bob, I'm going to plug the vrlhq. org, because it's really fantastic.

[00:21:39] And from there, you can toggle back and forth to both the C4 website of Vote, Run, Lead Action, as well as the C3 website that has a lot of fantastic research on it. On the C4 site, Vote, Run, Lead Action, you are going to find all of our upcoming events, including that bystander intervention. Also email us at info at Vote Run Lead Action.

[00:21:57] A real human will get back to you. Tell us that you're running. Also on VoteRunLeadAction. org, you can see Women to Watch in our key states. We have, I think, I want to say it's about a hundred, a little over a hundred, if not more, Women to Watch in the election. And you can see all of our primary wins.

[00:22:15] We have a beautiful red banner over the women that have made it through on each of the key states. So those are some of the ways for you to get involved. And, while we are a candidate organization and a pipeline organization at heart working to Build the reflective democracy we want.

[00:22:29] There are great groups like Women Count has all of these slates where you can donate, a hundred bucks and it will go to a slate of black women running for the legislature. You can donate fifty bucks to the women in New Mexico who are very close to getting to be fifty one percent.

[00:22:45] They're, that's the state we're looking at to be the next women's majority. So while I have a majority, a slight majority of women in the House they don't have enough in the Senate and there are a couple of women there that, where your 25 dollar donation goes really far.

[00:23:00] Bob Gatty: What are you doing in states that are really red? I live in South Carolina and I think there's Two women in the state Senate, if that, 

[00:23:13] Erin Vilardi: so I'm looking for somebody who wants to give me a lot of money to go into the red states, partly because, have to be in red states for the long haul.

[00:23:24] And unfortunately, the way the sort of nonprofit philanthropic sector runs, it doesn't have 5, 10 years. runway to it, right? So I would love to go in a state like South Carolina, those women who they ended up winning the Kennedy Courage Award, the six women who stood up to at least try to filibuster these deeply anti reproductive rights, anti abortion bills that came through the South Carolina legislature that it cost them dearly.

[00:23:49] All of those women lost their all those Republican women end up losing those elections. There are great groups on the ground there that are trying to get it done, but it is an uphill battle. And of course, Those kind of resources require the long term investment but in the meantime, we are really making sure that we're helping out those organizations.

[00:24:05] We have a partnerships director, Sabrina, who you met is in contact, of course, with our South Carolina partners, but how we work in partnership with them while we don't have those deep resources is the question we continue to ask ourselves and continue to act on. 

[00:24:18] Bob Gatty: Okay, I want to put a little plug in for there's a group of women here in South Carolina that have created a new version of the Helen Reddy I Am Woman anthem.

[00:24:31] And it is a beautiful job. And it, there's a video attached to the song where a number of women speak up and talk about what they're planning, what they're doing. And, I'd just like to bring that to your attention Erin. Matter of fact, if you're interested, I'll send you a link to it so you can I would love that.

[00:24:54] Take a look. It's a beautiful job. They really did. The person that was really in charge of it is a transplant from Maryland, who was in the state legislature before she retired in Maryland. Okay. Okay. And she moved down here to South Carolina and she's so frustrated with all the Republicans that surround her.

[00:25:18] And and I share that. I live in a neighborhood where it's just rife with Trump banners and Trump signs and people running around with let's go Brandon crap on their pickup trucks. Anyway I'll send you that info and hopefully you can maybe you might even want to reach out and I would love 

[00:25:37] Erin Vilardi: that.

[00:25:37] Absolutely. Yeah. 

[00:25:38] Bob Gatty: Okay. All right. Listen, do you have anything else you'd like to add before we sign off?

[00:25:42] Erin Vilardi: I just want to encourage women to, you step outside their comfort zone in this election, finding that local woman candidate, if it is the presidential election.

[00:25:52] And really flex your political muscle in a way that you haven't before. This is a critical time to do it. Okay. 

[00:25:58] Bob Gatty: All right. Thank you so much, Erin. I really appreciate you coming on with us and enjoy talking to you very much. 

[00:26:03] Erin Vilardi: Thank you.