How Progressives Can Avoid Demographic Pitfalls in 2010 and Beyond
The excitement of the Obama movement and progressive agenda has been primarily centered on three demographic groups—millennials, minorities and educated whites—all of which are projected to grow as a percentage of the voting population over time. While this should be good news for progressives, there are a number of emerging nuances among these groups that could mean the difference between success and failure in 2010 and beyond. They include growing dissatisfaction among Millennials with the Obama administration, the continued assimilation of Hispanics and a rapidly changing higher education environment whose growth may not be sustainable. This panel will highlight these nuances and create opportunities for the Netroots to better engage with these constituencies.
Gina is a new media strategist and founding partner of Middle Coast. Gina specializes in using technology to bring together engaged Americans with political experts. Her approach to online politics has become a cornerstone of the online progressive movement.
She is also the founder and past CEO of Netroots Nation, the most dynamic and influential political organization to emerge from the early years of the progressive blogosphere.
Gina continues to explore innovative ways in which the Internet can help ordinary people become invested in their own political solutions. Most recently, Gina co-founded Tweet Progress, a directory of progressives on Twitter. Last summer Gina traveled to Taiwan to advise top elected officials on open government initiatives. In 2008 Gina was a member of Barack Obama’s policy advisory committee for Technology, Media, and Telecommunications and served on the E-Government-E-Democracy subcommittee. Gina regularly appears on CNN.com as a progressive spokesperson.
John Della Volpe is Director of Polling at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and has been affiliated with the IOP since the late 1990’s. Each semester, John leads a public opinion survey group of students who develop, field and report on the attitudes of young Americans (Millennial Generation) toward politics and public service. Since 2000, the IOP survey has tracked pre- and post-9/11 attitudes; accurately predicted the spikes in youth turnout over the last three election cycles; addressed the growing importance of religion in the lives of young people; marked the generational shift in attitudes toward foreign policy; and provided insight into the ways in which Millennials communicate and form opinions. John is a veteran of four presidential campaigns and dozens of other high-profile campaigns in the U.S. and abroad.
In addition, John is Founder of SocialSphere, Inc., a strategy company located in Harvard Square, Cambridge that helps international brands and institutions connect and communicate in an ever-flattening, more diverse and younger world. His clients at SocialSphere include the United States Marine Corps, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and the Walton Foundation.
In 2008, John was honored to be named an Eisenhower Fellow, for which he traveled to China and Korea studying the impact that Millennials and social technologies are having on Asian culture, politics and the economy.
Karlo Barrios Marcelo is the CEO of Karlo Marcelo Consulting, an online communications and marketing consultancy with an expertise in engaging Millennials in progressive politics and civil society. He provides strategic advice to and communications plans for nonprofit and political leaders in order to better connect them with their constituents when using email, social media, websites, and other digital modalities. His research on young voters has appeared in most major media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Associated Press. He’s blogged on progressive politics for FutureMajority.com and WireTap Magazine.
Prior to finding his entrepreneurial path, Karlo served as a researcher at CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement), a national, non-partisan think tank where he analyzed trends in youth civic engagement. More recently, he’s consulted with The Aspen Institute – Economic Opportunities Program, InterAction, 80 Million Strong, The Rappaport Family Foundation and See3 Communications. He also serves in a number of leadership capacities, including the Advisory Boards for HeadCount and New Leaders Council – Chicago, and the Board of Directors for Advocates for Youth. He holds a BA from the University of Maryland and an MPP from the University of Michigan.
Jason Rosenberg is Rock the Vote’s Digital Director, coordinating all of RTV's digital communications, mobile and online content.
Jason has worked in politics on and off for the last decade starting with the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, CA. Since then Jason has worked directly on about half a dozen campaigns in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Michigan, South Carolina, Louisiana and California. In addition to campaigns, Jason worked at MSHC Partners, a Washington, DC-based mail firm, and helped to launch PoliticsTV, a revolutionary website that aimed to bring regular original political content to the web.
In 2008, Jason was the first Director for Online Media for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, where he developed the 50 state blogger corp. He then returned to Los Angeles where he worked with content creators to develop new properties as well as advise commercial clients on how to better communicate and develop relationships with clients online.
