Running from Trump, Running for the People
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Friday, Aug. 11 4:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Friday, Aug. 11 5:30 PM (Eastern)
The 2016 DNC platform has been characterized as the most progressive in the party’s history, both by establishment Democrats and those affiliated with the Bernie Sanders wing. But these days, national party platforms are not the only game in town. As Democratic candidates struggle to mobilize voters around a bold, positive vision for the future, social movement documents—from the Movement for Black Lives platform to Canada’s Leap Manifesto—are also defining the parameters of political discourse. Panelists will explore their involvement in efforts to develop local and regional vision statements, manifestos, and policy roadmaps that are already capturing imaginations and uniting diverse communities around the country. What lessons are being learned about how to craft inclusive, democratic visions of the society we want to see? What is the relationship between inside and outside platforms? Does the “people’s platform” model offer an alternative path to electoral success?
Moderators
Drew Hudson
Drew has been an organizer and activist for more than 20 years – mostly with climate justice and environmental groups. In 2008, he left a good job in Vermont to work with MoveOn during the Democratic Primary. He went on to work for Democratic candidates and aligned initiative campaigns from California to North Carolina. In 2010, he started PowerThru Consulting to help progressive candidates and campaigns use digital tools to build bigger, better field campaigns and win. These days he works with our clients to protect endangered species, fight fracking, Divest from fossil fuels and more. In his spare time he’s founding his fifth new non-profit and serves on the board at VPIRG. In addition to politics, he likes cooking, cats (the internet and the real kind), hiking, whisky and dancing. Bonus points if you mix 2 or more.
Other sessions: Email 101: Best Practices for Running an Effective Email Program
Anthony Rogers-Wright
Selected as one of the Grist.org 50 People You’ll Be Talking About in 2016, Anthony K. Rogers-Wright has over ten years of policy analysis, community organizing and outreach/advocacy experience. While serving as a policy analyst for various environmental consulting firms in California and Colorado, he specialized in land use, Clean Air Act and environmental justice compliance. He has used his organizing and outreach experience to advocate for a variety of social justice campaigns including environmental justice, affordable health care access, income inequality and civil rights for LGBT citizens. In 2012, Anthony led the effort to make Colorado Health Insurance Cooperative the first health insurance provider in the State’s history to remove transgender health exclusions from all of their policies.
In 2016, he acted as a surrogate and policy advisor for the Sanders presidential campaign and testified on the need for increased action on climate justice to the DNC Platform Committee. He’s written numerous articles discussing the axiomatic nexus between the climate crisis and social justice, and spoken of this issue at universities throughout the United States and in Europe.
Anthony earned his undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and Policy and Jazz Composition as well as his Graduate Degree in Community Development, Environmental Science and Public Policy. He is blessed to be the father of his energetic, entertaining and VERY loquacious three-year old son, Zahir Cielo (aka “Bean”).
Panelists
Keith Ellison
Currently serving as Minnesota’s 30th Attorney General, Keith Ellison is the first African American and first Muslim American to be elected to statewide office in Minnesota. Before becoming AG, Ellison represented Minnesota’s 5th District in Congress where he focused on consumer, worker, environmental, civil- and human-rights protections for Minnesotans. As Minnesota’s AG, Ellison has championed affordable health care, a fair economy, and equal opportunity for all. Ellison has opposed a new rule revoking legal status for immigrants accessing public assistance, created a unit within the office of the Attorney General that focuses on investigating and prosecuting abuse of workers and wage theft, as well as filing lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. Following the killing of George Floyd, Governor Walz appointed AG Ellison to prosecute the case.
Other sessions: Trumped Up Trade: Retaking the Working Class on Trade and the Economy, Millions of Jobs: How Progressives are Taking Back the Populist Narrative and Going On Offense on Infrastructure, From Demonstration to Legislation: How Organizing Will Win Back Progressive Power, Friday Morning Plenary
Danielle Meitiv
Danielle Meitiv is known as the “free range mom” because she fought back when the police detained her children for walking home from the park without an adult. She stood up to a harmful and misguided bureaucracy and made her county change its policies. Danielle is running in the Democratic primary for County Council At-Large to stand up for all Montgomery County families. She’s a climate scientist working for a healthy and sustainable future. She’s the mother of two public school children and the caregiver of an aging parent. She’s the wife of a refugee and have stood with my neighbors against Trump’s divisive agenda. Danielle stands up for what she believes in and, as a Councilmember, she will be a tireless voice on the County Council for a strong local economy, excellent schools, a healthy environment, and equality for all.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a current candidate for United States Congress for the 2018 midterm elections in New York’s 14th Congressional district.
Prior to her candidacy, Alexandria worked for the Foreign Affairs and Immigration office of the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, served as the National Hispanic Institute’s Social Entrepreneur in Residence, and founded Brook Avenue Press, a project to develop methods on parent-child literacy education. In the wake of the financial criss Alexandria spent time working in the NYC restaurant industry, which fueled her passion for working-class advocacy. Most recently she produced “The Road to,” a live web series documenting cross-country road trip visiting sites like Flint, MI; Standing Rock, and Women’s March DC.
Other sessions: People Over Party: Fighting the Political Establishment to Win Elections
Paula Jean Swearengin
A native of Mullens, West Virginia, Paula Jean Swearengin’s coal mining roots grow deep. Her father, grandfather, uncles and stepfather all worked in the mines. She’s lost family to black lung, and watched the beautiful streams and rivers she grew up with become toxic with runoff from the mines. Today, a whole generation is struggling to find reliable, safe jobs that would put enough food on the table. West Virginia coal powered a nation. Now it’s time for West Virginia to invest in itself. Paula Jean is fighting for Medicare for all, transitioning to renewable energy and other sustainable industry, tuition-free public tech schools and colleges, and a multi-billion dollar investment in West Virginian infrastructure, industry and innovation. Paula Jean is challenging Blue Dog Democrat Joe Manchin for his long-held seat.
Other sessions: People Over Party: Fighting the Political Establishment to Win Elections, Friday Morning Plenary