Candidate training organizations are active in advancing women’s representation at all levels by motivating, recruiting, training, and connecting potential candidates to a network of women in politics. In light of the “twin track” approach, these organizations make up the empowerment track.
RepresentWomen can provide candidate training organizations with tailored resources and tools, collaboration on research projects, access to RepresentWomen’s networks and media outlets, collaboration on trainings, etc.
Training sessions, InstaLives, webinars, etc.
Trainings are tailored to the specific context and needs of the organization. Can be regularly scheduled or be a one-off.
- Teach your alum all about the systems strategies they can support to help get more women in office. This is especially great for women who decide not to run, but still want to be involved in getting more women in office. This is also very useful for women who want to run on a representation-oriented policy platform.
- Help prepare women who might run in a ranked choice voting election by providing an orientation to ranked choice voting to ensure candidates fully understand the system they’re running in, including how to maximize its benefits during the campaign season.
- Train your staff on the various systems strategies and policy tools that are proven to remove barriers to women's political power so that they are better prepared to talk about these topics in their work.
Network and community building
- Help create linkages and build partnerships between candidate training organizations and democracy reform organizations, which is especially relevant for women who decide not to run but would still like to be engaged politically.
- Providing connections to donors and PACs who specifically fund ‘pro-democracy’ candidates, who run on platforms that include reforms such as ranked choice voting.
Research and resources
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As much as possible, we can help with state and/or city-specific research requests.
- E.g., “Could you please dig into the San Bernardino, CA data for what type of gender gap there is for women and women of color elected to office in San Bernardino?”
- To support pro-democracy candidates, RepresentWomen has curated a list of evidence-based policy solutions for gender balanced representation to make it easy for candidates to construct their pro-democracy platforms.
- Provide full access to our Equip Toolkit, which includes key resources and graphics about ranked choice voting and representation, as well as tips for running in a ranked choice voting election.
Communications and outreach
- Co-authoring or amplifying op-eds, blogs, and other published pieces.
- Collaborate on production of print, online, and other content that explains the connection between democracy reform (e.g., RCV, fair representation voting, gender balanced PAC funding targets, legislative rules changes, etc.) and improved representation of women and women of color.
- Use our data to design and create tailored outreach materials (e.g., data visualizations, 1-pagers, data-based social media graphics, etc. ) for your state context.
- Seek out opportunities to speak in forums and mention/uplift/promote participation in your activities.
- Seek opportunities for you to join in panels, events, discussion, etc. related to women’s representation and democracy reform.