Amanda Litman - Run for Something: A Real-Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself

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To my 2012, 2014, and 2016 campaign families. You are all my Fight Song.

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Copyright 2017 by Amanda Litman

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Paperback edition October 2017

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Interior design by Jason Snyder

Cover design by OCD | The Original Champions of Design

Author photograph by Victor Ng

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Litman, Amanda, author.

Title: Run for something : a real-talk guide to fixing the system yourself / Amanda Litman.

Description: First Atria paperback edition. | New York : Atria Paperback, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017027814 (print) | LCCN 2017043309 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Local governmentUnited StatesCitizen participation. | Political participationUnited States. | Local electionsUnited States.

Classification: LCC JS331 (ebook) | LCC JS331 .L57 2017 (print) | DDC 324.70973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017027814

ISBN 978-1-5011-8044-6

ISBN 978-1-5011-8045-3 (ebook)

Im not an inspirational speaker or a motivational writerthis isnt a self-help book. Im a campaign hack, a political junkie, and a workaholic.

I was born and raised in Fairfax, Virginia. I always knew I wanted to work in politicsI knocked on doors for senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns as a teenager. I was obsessed with The West Wing and read the Washington Post every morning over breakfast. In high school, I took my first-ever skip day in 2007 to see Barack Obama speak at the university nearby before he even announced he was running. (I was, and might still be, a little bit insufferable.)

I chose Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, for college in no small part because I hoped Obama would win, I hoped he would run again, and I hoped he would run his reelection campaign out of Chicago so I could intern for him. Throughout college, I worked at my local Democratic committee, on Capitol Hill, and at political magazines. I majored in American studies, focusing on gender and politics. My senior year, I got a job interning on the digital team for Obama 2012. They hired me a month before I graduated. When I took a day off to walk at graduation, I spent the ceremony answering emails on my phone, which Id hidden in my gown.

After the campaign ended (reminder: we won!), I helped launch Organizing for Action, the presidents nonprofit, as deputy email director. My team helped to raise $26 million online in the first yeara third of the organizations operating budgetand defined what the organization stood for.

I left OFA in March 2014 to work as the digital director for Charlie Crists gubernatorial campaign in Florida. I raised $2 million, created a groundbreaking tool to help Floridians vote by mail, almost got charged with ten thousand counts of voter fraud (but, for the record, I didnt!), and served as senior staff on the biggest gubernatorial race in the country that year. We lost by just a hair over 1 percent after our opponent, Governor Rick Scott, spent $13 million of his own money on TV in the final two weeks leading up to Election Day.

I then took six weeks to drink and sleep, and in January 2015, I started working for what would become Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign. As her email director, I managed a nineteen-person team of incredible writers and strategists to help raise more than $330 million online, recruit half a million volunteers, and run the most profitable Democratic store ever. I was younger than nearly all my peers and half the people I managed. I worked 100-hour weeks for two years straight, ruined my personal life, lost an election, and gained a family. Even with the result and even with the day-to-day misery, I dont regret a single minute of it. (More on that on page 181.)

After we lost, I becameand remainso damn angry.

My anger is indiscriminate. Im angry at the institutions that have failed me. Im angry at the people who didnt believe elections matter. Im angry at the people who made some kind of false equivalence between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and Im angry at the media coverage that enabled it. Im angry at the old white men in government who think they understand my problems as a twentysomething woman in America but have never had to deal with paying for an IUD or negotiate for equal pay at a joband dont get me started on the ones who still have to be taught how to check their own email. Im angry at a system that makes it so hard to run for office and at a party that perpetually encouraged rich lawyers to run and then seems shocked to find itself without a diverse pipeline of talent.

But very little angers me more than people who complain endlessly without offering solutions or trying to fix the problem. So, after another few weeks of drinking and sleeping, I decided to solve at least one thing myself: I could help young people run for office and rebuild the Democratic bench in the process. I rationalized my decision to myself and others: Im unemployed, I know politics, I know how the internet works, and Ive got the rage-fueled energy to do the work. At the very least, I could turn this into a fun hobby while I got a real job.

I partnered with a cofounder, Ross Morales Rocketto, a friend with a decade of campaign management experience, and we found a group of advisors whod stand by us.

On January 20, 2017, Inauguration Day, we launched Run for Something, a political action committee dedicated to helping young people run for office by lowering the barriers to entry. We launched a website, opened up a bank account, filled out paperwork, and sent a press release to a list of reporters wed acquired from some friends in PR. Then we emailed our friends, posted on Facebook, and crossed our fingers.