Turnout everywhere exceeded expectations earlier this month when people across the country took to the streets to tell Trump & Gang “hands off” our liberties, our bodies, our democracy.
Now the question is whether Trump’s actions might prompt those shouting “hands off” to become “hands on” by running for elected office.
According to Beth Bazley, King County Democratic chair, it’s already happening. She’s been actively recruiting candidates for local school boards in response to intensified efforts to ban books, sanitize curriculum, and dismantle numerous public education initiatives.
“I am seeing a lot of interest for first time candidates to step up to defend our schools,” says Bazley. “It’s fueled by this off the charts horrible clamping down of opportunity coming from the White House. They know they can’t win the fight to save USAID, but they know that they can directly affect the experience their child and all their neighborhood children are having by participating as a leader in their school district.
“It’s really impressive the number of people stepping up to run,” adds Bazley. “I’ve been crediting it to a backlash against the Trump administration.”
That backlash is starting to play out in races across the country. Run for Something, a national organization that recruits young progressives to run, reports that since it launched in 2017 it has recruited nearly 100,000 candidates for state or local office across all 50 states. In the short span since Trump’s reelection in November, the organization says another 20,000 have responded to its outreach. It anticipates that federal workers fired by the DOGE-led efforts will be among the new wave of first-time candidates.
“Can confirm: @runforsomething.net has seen a *huge* spike in people signing up to run for office since Trump & Elon started illegally firing public servants,” Amanda Litman, the group’s cofounder, said in a post on BlueSky.
She later told Politico: “I expect we will see some candidates this year and next year who will talk about how Donald Trump and Elon Musk fired them while they were working for the American people. It’s a pretty compelling campaign message.”
In addition to the fired federal workers, there is a growing number of federal employees resigning rather than carry out Trump’s agenda. In February, more than 20 civil service employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency quit and issued a statement saying: “We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations. However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.” In New York, three senior federal prosecutors quit following the department’s decision to drop the criminal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Federal workers quitting their jobs in response to the Trump agenda could be another promising pool of new candidates. In Seattle, for example, Erika Evans left her job as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and is now running for Seattle City Attorney.
“I have seen how the Trump Administration is attempting to destroy foundations of our democracy, forcing former colleagues and fellow federal government workers across the country to lose their jobs, sometimes because they stood for what is right,” she said in her campaign announcement.
Evans, who would be the first person of color to serve as City Attorney, has joined the six-month training cohort offered by Emerge, which recruits and prepares Democratic women to run for office. Nationally, Emerge has reported that it saw a 157% increase among those interested in running from this November-to-February period over the same stretch a year ago.
Jessica Forsythe, executive director of Emerge Washington, says there are 20 women in its current state cohort. She says that not only is new candidate recruitment going well, but those already in office may be putting off decisions to leave when confronted with the impact of Trump initiatives. “I know a couple of individuals who were thinking of not running again. They are seeing what’s going on and saying maybe now isn’t the time for me to leave,” says Forsythe.
Forsythe herself is in her second term on the Redmond City Council. “When I ran the first time, it was looking around and going, well, somebody’s got to step up and lead, and I guess that could be me,” she says.
She shares her story with women she meets at rallies and elsewhere and always carries cards with her to hand out to women who may want to do more than march. “A lot of women are seeing medical benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, being slashed, and that has a big impact on women who tend to become the caretakers in those instances. We’re seeing housing costs that are unaffordable, and women tend to be making a lot of those decisions. We’ve also seen a big impact on bodily autonomy, which obviously impacts all women and can be a leading driver for a lot of women on why they consider running for office.”
“We’re seeing lots of women coming to the table who’ve never run or considered running, and now are doing so,” agrees Emily Carmichael, Washington State Director for Vote Run Lead, another organization that trains women to run for office,
When connecting with women who might consider running, Carmichael says: “My mantra is just to look around locally at what is happening. We have a tendency to look at the federal government and get really upset. We see harmful policies coming, and It makes us feel extremely powerless. And for me, the antidote to that has been to really get involved locally.”
She advises potential candidates that being against Trump and how his policies are impacting your community isn’t enough for a successful campaign. She tells them to find a positive message.
“Feeling angry or feeling scared or worried, and having that be sort of like a righteous indignation can really fuel people,” says Carmichael. “You might be aghast at different policies that are coming out of the federal administration, and that is encouraging you to run. And that often happens when people see some sort of issue or problem in their community, and that inspires them to run. You have to take that issue that is really upsetting or making you mad, and you have to find a way to change that into a positive platform.”
That positive approach is what Bazley sees as she recruits Democratic candidates for the more than 300 positions on ballots in King County from school boards to city councils. Most of those offices, she adds, are unpaid.
“If you want to lead at that level, you have to be deeply committed. And these folks truly are,” says Bazley. “None of these are vanity runs. You know how some folks think that they kind of almost deserve it, or it’s the logical next step for them? All of these candidates, and I’ve spoken with so many of them, are really stepping up as a service to their current communities. You don’t make money being a school board representative, and you can’t even go to the grocery store in peace without somebody sharing their opinion with you.
“I can also say that I am really happy at the number of incumbents who are deciding to run for reelection to their school boards and to stick with it when they thought perhaps they would retire,” adds Bazley. “Instead they are deciding to stay for another term to get over this hurdle of uncertainty with a Department of Education that’s being starved from the inside out. People are really wanting to make sure that providing public education is job one for us as a society.”
Bazley assures first-time candidates that the King County DNC has an array of resources to help them mount a campaign and be successful including getting professional headshots and mentoring. Other organizations also offer a range of support. Vote Run Lead Action and the National Women’s Political Caucus Washington are holding a two-day training in Seattle next month. While the Emerge WA cohort already is underway, its site shows how to get involved in the next one. Run for Something also tells those interested in running how to take the next step.
Another resource helps those thinking of stepping into the political arena to know what state and local offices they could pursue. Anyone interested can fill out this form and receive a list.
Some of the growing number of organizations recruiting and training candidates, mostly targeting Democrats but some are nonpartisan, include:
- Run for Something
- Ready to Run
- Emily’s List
- New American Leaders
- She Should Run
- Ingite
- Running Start
- Latino Victory
- The Campaign School at Yale
- National Democratic Training Committee
- Democracy for America
- Emerge
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We need young, left thinking and middle-of-the-roaders to take up the cause. The speeches across the country by AOC and Sanders are telling us something about after only two months of the addled king and his court of fools. Chuck Schumer and Democratic establishment, are you listening? I don’t know if this discontent really means anything at this point, and await the mid-terms. By then, they may not matter as the damage to the country could be so advanced as to be near impossible to undo. We hope for the best.
Thanks Linda and Spider. Hope we see midterms. Seems the lawless Musk-Trump regime and complicit Republicans are ready to claim life-time appointments to their present positions. Happy though to see Harvard and others refuse to capitulate to tyranny. May that trend continue.
There already is damage to the country, but that is no reason to give up or to give in to despair. I think it’s too early to think about ‘undoing;’ better to work at stopping or at least impeding more damage. There’s plenty of work to do.
Agree Carolyn. And running for office is one way to stop or at least impede some of the damage. But it takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there these days as a candidate. A few years ago I met someone who had served on a local school board and found the personal attacks and vitriol hard to bear.
Great idea!
But “Young progressives”?
Heaven help us.
That’s not the issue & too narrow.
Neither “youth” nor claims of being “progressive “ are particularly motivating.
Kind of like Balducci advertising that if she wins, she’ll be the “first woman to be King County Executive” — of course it’s a good thing but it is hardly noteworthy or important today. Kind of like Clinton in her claim to be first woman POTUS. And considering that Trump has many women in key tiles — eg Bondi and Leavitt — there’s no reason to think that women are better at governing.
An important article, Linda. We do need good people to step up and run. Glad to see that there are those who are helping candidates. There is much to learn about running a campaign and these groups can help make it a success. One early lesson is how to ask for support — money and endorsements. As mundane as that sounds, it’s the key to enabling candidates to get out there.