Healing Justice and Surviving Elections With Kate Werning

I spend a lot of my time thinking about campaign culture (duh). What makes it magical, what makes it difficult and how can we make it easier to sustain? So I was thrilled when Kate Werning reached out to me about her podcast Healing Justice and specifically her mini-series on Surviving Elections. After listening to earlier episodes, I felt completely intimidated and also a little defensive. After all, the goals and the intentionality behind movement work are just not possible in the same way when you have an impending deadline. Lucky for me that's what this mini-series is about!

Since Kate interviewed me, I figured turnabout is fair play and wanted to share more about her and her extraordinary project below. To listen to the mini-series (not just because of me but it's SO GOOD) click here.

Who are you? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m a Midwesterner, a community organizer and trainer, and a yoga and healing practitioner. I’ve got 10 years in the game working with social movements, raised by the brilliance of the Dreamer & immigrant rights movement, the Wisconsin Uprising, get out the vote efforts to defeat Paul Ryan, and learnings from holding trainings for leaders working on climate justice, Movement for Black Lives, student organizing, worker rights, and more. I co-founded a collective house in Brooklyn called Hoop House, and am a total grandma about hot epsom salt baths. They cure everything.

What is Healing Justice Podcast?

I started Healing Justice Podcast because on November 9, 2016, the accumulated overwhelm of what we’re facing as a nation hit me with a weight that seemed to both speed up time and also freeze me in place. I am so grateful to have access to peers and teachers who help me find the emotional capacity and strategic options to move forward in times like these -- but so many of us don’t have access to mentors like that. So, I decided to share those conversations.

Healing Justice Podcast is democratizing access to perspectives and practices to integrate longer term vision, healing, and sustainability into our organizing work. It’s supporting us to stay the course to win, and also not lose love for our own lives in the process. We’ve shared the voices of over 80 guests with 70+ episodes in our first year, and the numbers show a deep hunger for this conversation right now: we’ve hit 500,000 downloads and landed in the top 7% of podcasts. Our people need this work.

What inspired you to do the “Surviving Elections” mini-series?

My relationship to elections is a fraught one. 2008 was the first presidential election I could cast my vote in, believing wholeheartedly in the change Obama promised. Under Obama we won DACA and other important advances, and also saw more deportations than ever before in US history. During the Wisconsin Uprising in my home state in 2011, our energized mass resistance movement get channeled into a recall election strategy that ultimately squeezed out some of the oxygen of our momentum and failed. Failed so hard that Scott Walker has now been elected, re-elected in the recall election, and re-elected again. I worked on a national campaign to mobilize wellness practitioners to vote in 2016, and again we came up short.

I just finished up working on the Organizing Team of the Cynthia Nixon campaign here in New York, and there is so much I experienced there about that campaign in particular, and electoral politics in this country in general, that was vibrantly hopeful as well as deeply discouraging. I wanted to dive deeper into those paradoxes and knew my peeps need that conversation, too.

The questions posed in our trailer for the series are exactly it: how do we grapple with the inherent compromises and contradictions elections require? Is there a way for people working on campaigns to move at a pace that is anything close to sustainable? Is there anyone who knows how to use the VAN and be a kind person? (OK, that last one is pretty unfair, but I’m not the one who said it!)

What can we expect from the series?

Through the “Surviving Elections” podcast miniseries, we’re talking to social movement organizers like Sunrise Movement about how elections can play into a movement building strategy, campaign managers (including you! yay!) about cultivating healthy campaign culture that leaves strong infrastructure behind after election day, and candidates about their experience running for office. The Campaign Workers Guild joins us to talk about the movement they’re building to organize for workers’ rights in politics, and I share a little bit about our unionization process on the Cynthia Nixon campaign.

Our final episode will be released the day after the election so we can process the results and what’s next––with young leaders of color who are shaping the current progressive wave like Alexandra Rojas of Justice Democrats, and lifelong activists like Professor Barbara Dudley who help us understand ourselves in a longer-term movement arc.

What is one thing you think “campaign people” can learn from movement work?

A longer perspective. The short time frame and pop-up nature of electoral campaigns can create a “churn and burn” culture that can leave us and our volunteers broken at the end of it. We have to be careful with each other. The campaign will end, but hopefully our relationships do not. The volunteer infrastructure, fundraising capacity, strategic alignment, and relational networks built during campaigns is such a massive precious resource -- and movements are thinking long term about how to mobilize those resources into huge collective shifts, turning tides that cannot be reversed. Campaign staff needs to be asking local leadership how the campaign can feed into their longer strategy, exercise patience and listening, and join with the local progressive vision in service of those who will remain doing the work after E-day comes and goes.

What is one thing you think “movement” people can learn from campaigns?

My movement building community (Momentum) has taught me to focus on moving public opinion to change the political weather and force politicians’ and candidates’ hands. I really believe that is the path to lasting change. Yet as I organized on the Cynthia Nixon gubernatorial campaign here in New York, I experienced the incredible power of an unapologetically progressive campaign to change the conversation, move decision-makers to the left, and energize new imagination in the progressive public. I think movement organizers need to understand electoral campaigns as actions in their own right - they have the power to galvanize and train thousands of new leaders, polarize the public, and dramatize heroes and villains for our issues. What if we related to electoral campaigns not as an ultimate solution, but as campaign cycles that can feed into our longer vision?

What surprised you working on the Cynthia Nixon campaign?

I was pleasantly surprised by the vision for the role I was invited into, which I believe is rare on a campaign. As the Hub Organizer, I worked with specific constituencies. I am most proud of what we accomplished with #DisabilityJustice4Cynthia, a group of disabled activists who gave major input into Cynthia’s disability platform, organized actions, helped fundraise, and did self-directed visibility work on Election Day.

Together we hosted a Virtual Town Hall, which was an hour-long virtual event dedicated to Q&A on Cynthia’s disability platform. We had talented Closed Captioners and ASL interpreters, and practiced the ins and outs of the tech to ensure it was as accessible as possible. Cynthia addressed the intersectional lens required to be an advocate for disability justice, and we had so many comments from people that had never in their lives heard a candidate understand the wildly varying issues faced by different folks in the disability community. People were so happy to be able to join such an accessible space and hear their concerns addressed so directly.

This surprised me because I think it is rare for a campaign as big as ours to invest that deeply in relationship and accountability to specific communities. I was so happy that the leadership saw this as a priority, and I know that through the work we did together we are leaving behind a stronger network of incredible disability justice activists who are now more connected and will undoubtedly continue to move the necessary policies that were included in our platform forward.

If there’s one thing people come away with from Healing Justice what would you want it to be?

We need you. You matter. All of the policies and visions we are fighting for… the things we so deeply believe all people deserve… you deserve them too. And if we can have rigor around remembering and practicing that belief with skill and determination, that power radiates into the work we are able to move in the world.

What’s a practice from the podcast that would be great for campaign people?

Ooh. I’d go with the Compartmentalizing in a Healthy Way practice. Having Je Naé Taylor in your ear helping walk you through overwhelm, anger, emotion, whatever -- is such a clear and practical encouragement, and it’s just 11 minutes long. [Editor's note: I am so glad Kate picked this one because I've adopted it myself since listening to that episode.] This is a great one to put on in your headphones after an infuriating interaction with your supervisor, an unsettling volunteer or canvassing interaction, or if something’s coming up in your personal life but you just really need to focus at work right now.

If you’re really ready to stretch, the Relational Inclusion practice is powerful -- it is an exercise to understand where someone else is coming from when it feels totally impossible. We need this skill deeply on campaigns, where the pace can exacerbate conflict amongst ourselves getting entrenched and feeling insurmountable - I hope we aren’t too far gone to be open to it (ha!).

There are so many great ones for also getting back into our bodies, too -- Somatic Centering, Emotional Freedom Technique, and more… it’s so hard to choose!

What else do you want us to know?

I am so grateful for all the folks working on campaigns right now, on behalf of all our futures. Your labor is such a gift to all of us. Eyes on the prize -- this has been and will continue to be a long game fight. Let’s do all we can this cycle, and be good to ourselves and one another along the way. Because after November 6th, November 7th comes, and if we still have each other, then our movement can keep growing. Onward.


Join the “Surviving Elections” email list to receive a weekly email that isn’t asking you to chip in $3 before the reporting deadline! We’ll send you new podcast episodes when they drop, along with a weekly Election Survival Tip.

You can listen to Healing Justice Podcast on most podcast listening platforms. Our favorites are RadioPublic and Apple Podcasts. Talk with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Even More Rules for Campaign Staffers

An FOCS recently tagged me in a post on Facebook about this article from the New Media Firm. The rules laid out therein are more or less a mashup of the 15 Commandments and 10 Rules for Savvy Campaign Staffers but since both of those lists were passed down to me from generations of yore who got them from whom is hard to say. In any case, they could always use reinforcement. So I give you...

Will Robinson’s Rules for Campaign Staffers
1. If it’s not in writing it doesn’t exist.
2. No such thing as “off the record.” (Reporters are not your friends!)
3. Do not hold a private conversation in a public place. (This includes cellular phones and planes!)
4. Don’t believe any number that ends in zero.
5. Never turn down an opportunity to eat or go to the bathroom. (Don’t eat anything that you don’t recognize or can’t pronounce.)
6. Don’t spend any of your own money. (Personal) Don’t even admit you own a credit card. Don’t spend money that is not yours. (Authorized)
7. Not always a “right” or “wrong” answer – “It depends”
8. In a campaign, someone has to be in charge – campaigns are a place to foster democracy, not practice it.
9. Assume nothing.
10. If you make a mistake, fix it before analyzing, etc. (Bad news doesn’t age well.)

Ask Nancy: How to Invest When You're At Your Most Stressed

One of the strange things about being a field organizer is an overwhelming sense of professional responsibility juxtaposed with an almost complete lack of control over one's personal life. You're often in a new city, sleeping on someone's couch, with very limited income and less time to spend it. By necessity and by choice, organizers tend not to take very good care of themselves preferring instead to devote every last resource to their jobs. Personal health, fitness and relationships take a back seat to recruitment, turf cutting and canvassing. I myself have been known to live by the mantra "you can sleep on November 5th."

When I started writing this post 2 weeks ago, I was on my way to yoga reflecting on how I ever put my body through the rigors of being a field staffer and wondering what I would advise if I could go back in time and tell little organizer Nancy to take better care of herself. Flash forward a week and I had accepted a short-term job as a Field Director on an extremely intense high profile race. I quickly found myself trying to figure out how I was going to move out of my apartment of 2 years in the middle of GOTV and not drying my hands in the bathroom because I was in too much of a rush to get back to the office (brilliant time saving strategy, Leeds.) I'm getting a first hand reminder of the fact that "self care" is easier said than done.

So, from one very sympathetic field person to another, here is my advice for what to put your energy and money when both are at an absolute premium.

When it comes to money, there is no better investment than controlling your space.
1) Scented Candles. I know this sounds girly, but smell is the most powerful sense in terms of evoking memories and enhancing your mood. It's a great way to quickly change the vibe of your space. (Get ready coworkers, I am totally bringing in a scented candle tomorrow.)
2) Fans, window unit air conditioners and space heaters. I know you don't want to take the time away from the office to get them or invest in a big ticket item, but you'll save yourself HOURS of productivity if you are not constantly sweating, freezing or suffocating in stale air.
3) Comfortable bedding and pillows. A good night's sleep makes a huge difference and is often the only "you" time you ever get. You will be absolutely miserable if your sleeping arrangements are uncomfortable. Even if you're sleeping on a couch buy yourself an extra comforter if you need one. You'll often be getting 4 hours of sleep a night so you best make them count.
4) Laundry, F. That. Noise. I know it seems impossibly privileged and we field folk are supposed to be scrappy but suck it up and pay for a laundry service or a fluff and fold. You don't need another tedious yet stressful activity on your plate.
5) Microwave, mini-fridge, coffee maker. This stuff costs money but you will save yourself much more in delivery and Starbucks in the long-run. Plus the ability to have healthy snacks nearby keeps you from binging on volunteer doughnuts. Sometimes.

Manage Your Mental Health.
1)Plan something to look forward to. It is really debilitating to look onto the horizon and think "and...after this I'll be unemployed and homeless." I'm trying to reframe my choice to find a cheap sublet in the village when my lease runs out and spend the two weeks after GOTV applying to jobs as a staycation that will allow me to finally allow me to enjoy the city I've lived in for two years unencumbered by grad school or campaigns.
2)Have one outside friend who "gets it." The last thing you want to do is spend 20 minutes of your time explaining why yard signs are such a necessary waste of resources before complaining about having to distribute them. Sorry in advance for all the text messages, my beloved broworkers.
3)Be grateful. Besides being Jewish, I am devoted member of the church of Oprah. One of the tenets of Oprahism is recording five things you are grateful for every day, a practice I've participated in for about a year. I have to say it really helps because it keeps you aware of the little victories even on a crappy day. I do it before I go to bed and since I have begun doing so (don't laugh at me) I've been waking up in a better mood.
4)Don't take other people's stress personally. I tweeted about this the other day because it is SUCH a common campaign pitfall, at least for yours truly. When you have a crappy call time, its stinks but you don't fester on it afterwards. Getting snapped at, dismissed, or talked down to are similar unavoidable campaign pitfalls and reflect as little on your worth or abilities as getting hung up on. The more you can let things roll off your shoulders, the happier you'll be.
5)Have something that's "yours." Despite my best intentions, it never takes long for my whole life to become about a campaign. Whether it's your ten minute walk to the office, a weekly home manicure, or a fantasy sports league you need something, albeit small, to remind you that you're still you. Mine starts with a C and ends in "ampaignSick."


Thanks for being my little bit of sanity. I hope I helped yours.


Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy


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