Running Start: An Opportunity for Hands-on Learning about How Women Can Run Successfully for Political Office

These thoughts were written by Alexia, one of our 2020 summer interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.

This summer I had the honor to be selected for Running Start, a program based in Washington, D.C. which prepares female students in high school and college for the possibility of running for office and having political careers later in life. The mission of the Running Start organization is to empower young women to get involved in politics and transform our world, one elected female leader at a time. The programs offered by Running Start are designed to equip young women with an interest in politics and policy with the hands-on skills and confidence they need to run and win. The high school program includes a political campaign simulation as well as an array of workshops intended to build knowledge and skills for being able to organize and conduct a campaign. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this program which was supposed to take place in person in Washington, D.C. was moved to a virtual environment. While participation in the program is costly, this should not be a deterrent, as there are scholarships available with support from sponsors, and I received a scholarship that covered almost entirely my participation expenses.

My team, which met several times every week to work on our campaign activities and materials as well as to debrief with our adult supervisors and go over what we had done, had a candidate, campaign manager, communications director, political director, and finance director. As the political director for the campaign, I sent out messages to possible supporters who were participants in the program in other teams, helped plan different events we had in order to get to know the potential voters better, and aided in the planning of what we would post. As a team, we did many things to get ourselves out there during the campaign and before the election as well as to get funding and support. We had a funding simulation included in the program, in which we each had a certain amount of virtual money to spend on the campaigns put together by other teams than our own, based on what inspired us the most and who we thought addressed meaningful political issues in the best way. We created an Instagram account and posted there quite frequently, including a link to a full website we also created to let people know our candidates’ stances on different issues. My candidate also did a livestream on Instagram which allowed potential voters to ask her different questions about her personally and also what she thought about different political issues. Finally, my team planned an event to make bookmarks for Liberation Library, which gives different educational materials to incarcerated young people.

While participating in this program, I also attended various additional workshop events held through Zoom that provided opportunities to learn from adult experts about being a woman in politics, how important networking is, and that more women should put themselves out there so that we have more females in elected positions. To give just a few examples, we have had Zoom calls discussing diversity and inclusion, self-defense, de-escalating arguments, the importance of fundraising, connecting with mentors, and many more. Not only that, but on the Running Start learning platform, the organizers have added different modules for us to learn more about these issues and extra resources on political life that are important for all girls my age to know about and have access to if possible.

I have very much enjoyed being part of Running Start and I feel this experience has got me thinking about becoming involved as a political candidate in the future.