Getting elected to political office is one thing, but serving in office often requires a different constellation of skills. For newly elected officials at every level, attaining those skills can be tough because the hard work of political leadership begins on day one and never stops.
People For the American Way, the storied liberal advocacy group founded by Normal Lear in the 1980s to counter the Christian Right, started its nonpartisan Young Elected Officials Network (YEO) in 2005 to offer skills training to newly elected candidates to help them be more effective leaders, and fellowship to make the experience less lonely.
While most philanthropic funders approach politics carefully, if at all, it has become increasingly clear to advocacy-focused funders just how important backing politics-adjacent infrastructure can be. And that doesn’t always have to involve tiptoeing around partisan campaigns — it can mean supporting good governance after elections are over.
Today, a number of organizations provide training and other kinds of support for political candidates, and some funders are supporting those efforts. They include 501(c)(3) funding alongside 501(c)(4) efforts. For example, Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures provided seed funding for the Ascend Fund, which is working to create gender parity among state legislators, as my colleague Dawn Wolfe reported; it is also supporting a number of organizations working to build women’s political power. In another example, major funders are supporting the Valiente Fund’s efforts to build Latino civic power, as IP’s Martha Ramirez reported.
The Young Elected Officials Network is similarly positioned — it’s a program of the People For the American Way Foundation, a longtime 501(c)(3) affiliate of People For the American Way, which is a 501(c)(4).
YEO has carved out a unique lane: It works with young leaders after they win office. As the website puts it, “Lots of programs help young candidates get elected. YEO takes over where they leave off — creating a special space for young elected officials 18–40.” YEO’s funders include the Green Family Foundation, Kapor Foundation, Kicking Assets (a Tides Foundation fund), Park Foundation and the Charles and M.R. Shapiro Foundation.
Today, YEO has over 1,200 members and includes young officials at every level — from school boards to the President’s cabinet. YEO members and alumni include Stacy Abrams, who was an early participant,
Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z-er to be elected to the U.S. Congress, Reps. Illan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, and Brandon Scott, the mayor of Baltimore.
“Someone thought she was canvassing for her father”
Even though there are more women in elected office in the U.S. than ever before, their numbers still lag behind. Women hold 25% of the seats in the Senate and 28% in the House; 12 women currently serve as state governors, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.
Women in office, particularly women of color, face considerably more hostility and aggression than their peers, according to a recent report by the Brennan Center. Among its findings: “Women were three to four times as likely as men to experience abuse targeting their gender,” and “Larger shares of women and people of color serving in local elected office experienced abuse related to their families — including their children — than did other officeholders.”
As YEO began to grow, many women who participated in the network found the issues they faced were different from those confronting their male peers. Some of those women began carving out time to meet separately at YEO convenings, first as a small group in a hotel room, and later as a Women’s Caucus. In 2022, People For the American Way started the Jordan-Huerta Women’s Leadership Program. The fellowship was named after Barbara Jordan, who served in the U.S. Congress and cofounded People For the American Way, and labor activist Dolores Huerta, who worked with Cesar Chavez. Funding for the Jordan-Huerta Women’s Leadership Program comes from an anonymous donor.
“What we hear a lot from our elected women is the barriers they face when it comes to doing their jobs,” said Raquel Jones, vice president of campaigns and programs at People For the American Way. “One woman in our last cohort was out knocking doors and someone thought she was canvassing for her father. So there is a lot of sexism. And safety comes up quite a bit for elected women. And women face more issues being taken seriously. I don’t think I’ve heard any of the men in our program say that they’ve been questioned about their seriousness and readiness to lead, but a lot of our women have that experience.” Balancing family and professional demands is another challenge for women elected officials, since women are still the primary caregivers in most families.
“[The Jordan-Huerta Women’s Leadership Program] is a six-month-long program where participants receive peer-to-peer support, and they can build a community with a small cohort of women,” Jones said. “They still participate in YEO programs, but the fellowship allows them to come together multiple times throughout the six months. They have one-on-one trainings with issue experts and communication experts, and workshops on policy, safety, media relations and other topics.”
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Getting their zeal back
The Jordan-Huerta fellowship aims to provide women elected officials with a community of peers who share the same experiences. As Vanessa Joseph, a program fellow, said recently, “When you’re really focused on doing the work of the people, it can be incredibly isolating.”
Joseph is an immigration attorney and was just reelected as the City of North Miami’s city clerk, the youngest and first Black woman to assume that role. She has been a member of YEO since 2019. Joseph said that her participation in YEO and the Jordan-Huerta fellowship has provided concrete skills and helped her feel less isolated.
“It’s great to be able to get ideas and to share in that; it’s also amazing to be in a space of comfort with people who aren’t trying to be competitive,” she said. “They’re not worried about you out-shining or outpacing them. They just want to know, how can we help? What can we do, and how can we support you? It’s been amazing to have people reach out to just offer words of hope or love. That’s something that is not easy to find in the political realm.”
YEO and the Jordan-Huerta Women’s Leadership program are working to increase the diversity of elected officials across the country — and to maintain that diversity. One key challenge there: helping young elected officials stick with it in positions that can often be both demanding and thankless. Jones has seen many young elected officials grow discouraged after entering the meat grinder of politics, particularly in an era of division and growing violence. In fact, at YEO’s national convenings, as many as half of first-time attendees say they have no desire to run for office again, but many change their minds after spending time with their peers.
“Literally at every convening, we have folks who say they were not planning to run again,” Jones said. “But in many cases, after finding this network, they decide that they are going to keep pushing and keep fighting. We’ve found that once you have a network and you realize you’re not alone, you’re not crazy, and that you have this community of support, you feel more empowered.”
Vanessa Joseph observed this happening at the most recent YEO gathering in June. “Some folks were having these really negative feelings, all resulting from isolation,” she said. “You’re trying to get stuff done, but you’re not getting the support, for whatever reason. I was in that space myself. And then, when I went to the convening and had these conversations and heard that I’m not the only one, it’s par for the course, it really lifted me up. That’s when I realized just how special YEO actually is — not just for me, but for everyone. A lot of people are facing challenges that are far more difficult than mine. To see YEO give them their zeal back was really inspiring, and it helped me, too.”
Have progressive funders fallen short?
Svante Myrick was in his 20s and serving his first term as the mayor of Ithaca, New York, when he attended his first YEO gathering. At the time, he had no desire to run again, according to Jones. After joining YEO, he remained in office for over a decade.
Today, Myrick is the president and CEO of People For the American Way. He believes progressive philanthropy has fallen short at providing support for young leaders. As he said in a 2022 article, conservative funders are doing far more to encourage emerging leaders who share their political orientation.
“As someone who cares deeply about nurturing young people, it pains me to see how effectively this has been done by the political right,” Myrick wrote, listing a number of groups that train and support conservative candidates and political leaders. The progressive groups working to do the same — including his own — are doing so with fewer resources. “With annual budgets below 10% of the conservative behemoths, each punches well above its weight. This asymmetry has serious consequences.”
Raquel Jones agreed, pointing to the benefits of reducing that asymmetry. “This is urgent,” she said. “I would love for folks to understand that their investment is long term, not just in an election cycle. We need to ensure that we have elected leaders who understand the issues in their communities and that they feel supported while they’re navigating the governance process. They are the future of our country.”
Editor’s Note (10/1/24): A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Arnold Ventures as a funder of the Young Elected Officials Network.
