Democrats may be able to turn the spike in enthusiasm generated by the Harris-Walz ticket into a deeper bench of candidates and staffers.
Arena, a training organization for campaign staff on the left, credited the generational shift at the top of the Democratic ticket with helping spur interest in political careers among young people.
“There’s a changing of the generational guard on the Democratic side of the aisle that is motivating people to dive into politics, whether that’s knocking doors, staffing campaigns, or running for office themselves,” said Lauren Baer, an Arena managing partner.
Baer said her organization is training now with an eye towards post-election “because we know that it takes all of us to build the teams that power Democratic victories.”
Meanwhile, the candidate training school Run for Something is also seeing greater interest. For instance, its so-called pipeline has swollen to some 160,000 young people interested in running for state and local offices.
“Many of them reached out to us immediately after big moments – from alarming events like the Muslim ban or when Roe was overturned, or inspiring ones like after the big wins in the midterms or when Harris announced her campaign,” said Amanda Litman, founder and co-executive director of Run for Something.
“We expect to see another big surge after the November election – no matter the outcome – and we’ll be ready to help them every step of the way and give them the tools they need to run a great campaign.”
