Flexing the Women’s Vote: Amanda Brown Lierman
October 27th, 2022
“Women truly are our greatest hope for change.”
Amanda Brown Lierman is the Executive Director at Supermajority and Supermajority Education Fund, which builds women’s political power through efforts to inform, train and organize women across age, race, and background.
Women are 52% of the vote. Fundamentally, women believe that their lives should be safe, their bodies should be respected, their work should be valued, their families should be supported, and that the government should represent them. Relational organizing is surprisingly powerful. One simple conversation could be a game changer. Supermajority’s work is to bring more people along in this exercise of radical imagination for true representation of these values. A crucial step is to make sure that women are voting in November.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guest: Amanda Brown Lierman
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
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Amanda Brown Lierman Transcript
Mila Atmos: [00:00:00] Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight. Shopify is a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs like myself the resources once reserved for big business. For a free trial, go to Shopify.com/hopeful.
Mila Atmos: [00:00:21] Welcome to Future Hindsight, a podcast that takes big ideas about civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for you and me. I'm Mila Atmos. Women have been the most powerful voting bloc in the U.S. ever since 1984. At 52%, we are the majority of people in this country. A supermajority of voters. This week just days away from the midterms, we want to turn our gaze to women and voting with Amanda Brown Lierman. She's the Executive Director at Supermajority and Supermajority Education Fund -- organizations that build women's political power through efforts to inform, train, and organize women across age, race, and background. Amanda is one of the youngest women and very few women of color to head a major progressive, multiracial women's organization. Amanda, welcome to Future Hindsight. I'm really excited to be talking to you at this time.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:01:23] Thanks, Mila. I'm excited to be here.
Mila Atmos: [00:01:26] So when you hear that drumbeat and it's out there, get ready for
Roevember, what do you hear and what's different?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:01:33] I hear so many women who are hopeful and ready for change. They are calling for change. They are demanding change, and they are going to the polls to vote for that change in November. And what I really hear also is the work that we have to do, the organizing behind it, to make sure that every single woman out there knows what's at stake, knows what's on the line, and remembers that she has the power to vote people into office, but also vote people out of office who don't need to be there, who aren't working for her. And I want to make sure that people remember the second part of that job too, right. We can vote people in and also we can vote people out.
Mila Atmos: [00:02:17] Yeah, well put. That's definitely something to remember. I think people think about it only in one way. So that's actually the perfect lead up to my next
question about Kansas and the right-to-abortion vote. What does that tell you about the midterms? Is Roevember real?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:02:32] I think so. I mean, there's also a part of this, Mila, that's like: I hope so. Right. And I can only hold that hope. But I think we learned a lot from Kansas. We learned that not only is this an opportunity for women to show up and flex our muscle and make it very clear how we feel about something and how we feel about a woman's right to choose and honestly, a woman's freedom in this. Right, like women in Kansas voted for women's freedoms over our lives, over our bodies, and also over our futures. But it's also very clear and I think this is the thing that I'm taking away from Kansas, is that this is an opportunity to really build coalition. So there are a lot of people who might not have been those Roe voters in the past, but following this egregious decision by the Supreme Court to take away what, you know, I would call a fundamental right for women, but to take away also a long standing law and legal protection that a woman has in this country. We saw women rise up and women who maybe, you know, hadn't voted in this way in the past and all of a sudden had this sort of epiphany moment around this issue. And it mobilized women in a way and mobilized women who hadn't been mobilized on this issue in the past. And so I think that this is a moment and something that we need to really understand, really dig into, and do the hard work of organizing people across issue, across race, bring more people in and talk about this so that we can not just impact the elections that are happening in November, but these are people who can be with us and, you know, join our coalition and be a part of women are voting and the supermajority calling for change for literally the next couple of decades. Like this is a chance for us to really, really, really grow and deepen the progressive base.
Mila Atmos: [00:04:28] Hmm. Yeah, that makes sense. So. Well, we just talked about Kansas, but I'm wondering about the other places and ways in which the Dobbs decision changed your strategy. I mean, if it did, because you talked about it just now a little bit, that you're trying to broaden your coalition. What does it look like?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:04:44] Yeah, I mean, our strategy from the very beginning of time has been that we are leaning in to the fact that women are the supermajority of voters. They have been an established voting bloc, but people don't recognize or respect women's political power. And one of my goals at Supermajority is
to make it so that people are honestly a little bit afraid of women's voting power. Right? Like that's what political power means to me. I want people who are in elected office to be accountable to the very people who put them into that elected office. And so we've been leaning into Supermajority. We have been talking to women, trying to help them understand and recognize their individual power so that we can flex our collective power together. So a lot of that work is literally just women talking to other women, right? Like the conversations that you have with other parents when you're doing kid pickup duty at the end of the day, or on the soccer field or at, you know, the fancy coffee shop, when you go, treat yourself to some caffeine. Those are all meaningful conversations and organizing opportunities for us to connect with people about what I fundamentally believe is a shared set of values. And, you know, I am not going to ever say that women or even progressives have the same experience, right? We don't. Women are not this monolithic voting bloc. But I do believe that there are a shared set of values that do bring us together and can unite us across all of those things that honestly, the patriarchy and like white supremacy would divide us. But we can come together across those things. And fundamentally, women believe that our lives should be safe, our bodies should be respected, our work should be valued, our families should be supported, and that our government should represent us. And those, like very basic value propositions, are what women hold hope for and what women are fighting for.
Mila Atmos: [00:06:39] Mm hmm. Well, I love it because let's face it, American politics has been largely built on division rather than coalitions. So it's really.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:06:48] Totally, totally.
Mila Atmos: [00:06:49] Yeah, so it's really refreshing to hear about uniting people instead. So Supermajority was founded around the same time that we were starting this podcast. And I know for my part, the show has evolved over these last five or so years. When we started out, the show was fairly straightforwardly about civic action, but these days it's at least as much about protecting democracy. How has Supermajority evolved since its founding?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:07:16] Oh, this is such a good question. Yeah, so many answers to this actually. So when Supermajority first got started, it was, you know, born of the incredible minds of badass organizers who honestly, I've respected for so long in
my own organizing career. Right. You have these incredible giants of Cecile Richards, of Ai-jen Poo, of Alicia Garza, Jess Morales Rocketto. You know, Katherine Grainger, coming together with this idea that women are the majority of voters, of consumers, of all things. Right? And we need a world that actually works for women. It was really clear for us what we needed to do when we first got started, because we had just seen this sort of surge of women's activism. It was right after Donald Trump was elected. It was, you know, in the heat of this like resistance era, millions of women had just marched in D.C. and across the country at marches. And so there were all these women who hadn't really been involved before but were looking for a home for their activism. And so Supermajority really stepped into the space, trying to serve as that community and to serve as that home, to welcome new women in and give them a meaningful way to take action and give them a community to do that with, as well. And so we, you know, again, had this clear mandate going into the 2020 election cycle. And thankfully, we won. Right. And we were able to defeat Donald Trump, which was a very clear goal. And following that election, we as a young organization even went through a bit of a leadership transition. Cecile Richards, who was actually our founding ED, stepped down, and I stepped into this role. We needed to really redefine ourselves as an organization because again, we had been formed in the heat of this resistance moment, and we don't want to be a campaign. We want to be a longstanding, permanent organizing organization. And to do that, we needed to reorient a little bit in this new ecosystem when you have Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the helm, when you have some I'm using air quotes right now, some control in these halls of power. And so we as an organization needed to figure out, like, how are we going to keep pushing, how are we going to keep organizing, where is our capacity and how do we keep supporting women in the way that they need to be supported and also meet the moments as they arise? And so we did a lot of that work through 2021 and coming into 2022. I think we all knew that everything is on the line and everything's at stake because we always say that going into an election. But obviously, I mean we have just been hit time and time again with new reasons, new motivations, and honestly, just like new demands for women to show up and vote this election cycle, and like this election literally is the most important election of our lifetime. It could not be any more important because there's so much on the line and so much at stake. And so we've had to do a lot to just orient ourselves to make sure that, again, we were meeting the needs of our community, which, like women are tired right now, Mila, and I know I don't have to tell you this, right. Like this pandemic has been hard because women have been on the front lines. We've
been stepping up and pushing ourselves to step up in ways that I don't think any of us knew we were even capable of. And yet we have to do even more going into these elections, because everything that we believe in is on the line. And in some of these states, literally abortion is on the line, it's on the ballot. And so we, you know, have done a great amount of organizing work, trying to add capacity, trying to work through each and every single one of our 500,000 members. We've grown to be a community of over 3 million people who are united and have sort of, you know, pledged their allegiance to this value proposition and these hopes that we have for the world. And we think that every conversation matters. And just working through women for women and with women, that's our theory of change and that's what we're going to keep doing. And so I think we've evolved to maybe meet the moment and have been maybe a little bit more refined in our approach. But we're doing the same thing that we set out to do: building women's political power, working through women. Because women are not only our greatest hope for change, but they're the best trusted messenger in all of our spheres of influence.
Mila Atmos: [00:11:51] Well, and also, I think they are essential on how we're going to meet these threats, because after Trump, there is still, as you say, a lot on the line, for example, abortion. And because I feel as though the stakes are super high, they've also changed. Right. And that's had a really big effect for us here on the show. We do think a lot more about protecting democracy as a whole. But I wanted to give you a moment here to speak about the women who have always stepped up to save democracy in the United States. And not everyone has historically shown up for this to the same extent.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:12:24] It's true. It's true. I'm a Black woman myself. I say this every opportunity that I get. Thank God for Black women who have been literally the greatest defenders and the saviors of our democracy every chance that we have needed them to to do so. Yeah, there's I mean, so many points even in the last couple of years where all praise to to Black women who have saved us from ourselves in many situations and to women of color who have been stepping up also. I mean, the numbers in terms of Latinas that are stepping up and showing up and they're increasing their rates of participation as well, it's pretty phenomenal to see what's going on. And also not surprising, like, I think, you know, women are always the ones who are doing the work and always the ones who are leading and calling for change. Women are literally the backbones of all of our progressive movements and progress that has been made in our
country. So I have, you know, a lot of gratitude, a lot of respect for women of color in particular, who have been holding us down in so many ways. And again, going back to that idea of coalition, Mila, we need a multiracial coalition of women if we're going to win elections and if we're going to win in some of these policy fights as well. And so we also need more white women following the lead of women of color, of Black women, specifically. And that's not to say, this is something that we grapple with a lot at Supermajority. That's not to say that all of that work also has to fall to Black women or to women of color. We need white women to do that work on their own. Right. And so a lot of the work that we do at Supermajority in terms of building this multiracial coalition is, you know, training and helping white women understand the roles that they have when talking to other white women and how they need to be pulling people along with us in this journey. They can be extending an arm and having conversations at their own Sunday night dinner table, so that, again, that work doesn't fall to Black women and it doesn't fall to other women of color. And so, again, you know, the math here is that we we need women of color and we need Black women in particular to keep doing what they do best. And we need more white women to follow their lead. And so our you know, this is a little bit, this is very tactical, not a little bit, this is very tactical. But when I think about the Supermajority sort of target audience, right, when we're doing our voter contact plans and, you know, planning who and how we're going to talk to people in the great state of Michigan about what's on the ballot, we think about three different universes. We think about women of color at large because there are so many efforts to suppress the vote of women of color. And so we got to make sure that those women of color know exactly how to vote, that they have a plan that they can, you know, overcome all of the barriers that are in place. That's the first part of our universe. The second part is young people who are just coming up, who are just establishing their habits as voters, who are just starting to think about these complex problems of our world and the solutions that they want to see and making decisions and understanding the power and agency that they have in the fate of our country. And so we're doing a lot of work to educate young women about their power and their role. So that's the second part of our universe. And the third part is white women. And again, we have to bring white women along if we're going to win on some of these critical issues and in these critical election races. And Kansas, again, is such a good testament to to this concept. And so we're not talking to all white women. There are some white women who, you know, fundamentally, I'm not going to spend any of our time trying to convince, you know, a Trump voter, if you will, But there are white women who there is some
compassion. There is an opportunity to open the door, share our values and bring more people alongside. And I'm going to use this word, which is surprising even myself right now. But to train those white women again, to follow the lead and learn from the work on how women of color, Black women in particular, vote. And so those are our three universes. And we combine all of them to then go do our voter contact work. But we do need to be building that multiracial coalition to win.
Mila Atmos: [00:17:06] Right. Well, it's a very comprehensive strategy. And I have to say, I'm sitting here nodding and saying thank you to to women of color and to Black women in America. And I think really a huge part of what you're talking about is it's about more women, more white women, stepping up every time. Like, every time.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:17:27] It is. And again, that work doesn't have to fall also to Black women to do it. You know, I think it is important that white women understand the work that they have to do themselves. And I say that with love. And actually, I want white women to be empowered to do that work. Right. Like, I think it's it's so necessary and it's so important. And I feel like a lot of white women, you know, some of the white women that I'm close to myself, I will hear them say like, oh, white women, you know, and they'll also be dismissive of other white women. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. We can't just let them all go. Like, Hey, you go do the work. Go bring, go bring your friend along. Go bring your cousin along. Like we got to be building coalition right now. And there's work that you, white woman -- not you, Mila -- but that a white woman can and should be doing in this moment.
Mila Atmos: [00:18:25] We're going to take a quick break to thank our sponsors. And when we come back, Amanda will be taking us through some key state races that Supermajority is focusing on this midterm election and why they're so crucial to women's rights. But first, can we talk about notifications for a second? Who actually leaves those sounds on anymore? {Cashier sound} Well, besides that kind. That's another sale on Shopify, the all in one commerce platform to start, grow, and run your business. With Shopify, you'll create an online store in your vibe, discover new customers and grow the following that keeps them coming back. Whether your thing is vintage teas or recipes for ghee, start selling with Shopify and join the platform simplifying commerce for millions of your favorite businesses worldwide. Shopify has all the sales channels sorted, so your business keeps growing from an in-person POS
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Mila Atmos: [00:20:41] I also want to tell you about another podcast I think you'll love: The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics, hosted by A'shanti Gholar, the president of Emerge. The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics is the one stop shop for women of color who want to hear and talk about the world of politics. Join A'shanti this season as she talks to incredible women of color who are changing the face of politics and tackling some of the most important issues facing the United States, from reproductive justice to voting rights to climate change and more. Tune in every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts.
Mila Atmos: [00:21:19] And now let's return to my conversation with Amanda Brown Lierman. Well, we definitely want to grow the coalition and folks haven't always shown up for state races, I'm thinking here, but they are so important and there's a lot on the ballot, I mean, down ballot this year, right? You're focusing on five states this midterm election. And you already mentioned Michigan, but there's also Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Why there?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:21:48] I have a different sort of argument for each of these places. But, you know, at the end of the day, I'm just trying to build political power. You know, I think we have to think about political power at the national level and also at the state level. And so each of these states represents a tremendous opportunity to increase the representation of women, increase specifically the representation of
women of color who are running for some incredible leadership positions. Georgia, you know, like we can finally, finally, hopefully call Stacey Abrams, Governor, or we might, just might have a Black woman senator from the state of North Carolina. And then we as an organization have been building our power from the ground up. And we have a lot of members in all of these states who are ready to do the very, very important work of not just putting people into office, but then championing around the policies and the issues that they want, you know, to be talking about, that they want their elected leaders to be presenting solutions for. And so each of these states, again, presents sort of a different opportunity. But there's incredible need and also demand for us to be organizing women in these places. And I know I have talked about Michigan a little bit, but Michigan is one of those states. So before I came to Supermajority, I was actually the political and organizing director at the DNC. And I was there during the midterm cycle where I saw this incredible, like the role that women played in the midterms was phenomenal, right? Like they were showing up as voters. They were showing up as volunteers and they were candidates on the ballot in such a phenomenal way. And Mila, this is one thing that I will never forget. Women were donors and they gave 100 million more dollars in 2018 than they did in 2016. Right. And one of the greatest successes from the 2018 midterms was this incredible slate of women who were elected to positions up and down the ballot in Michigan, so headed into the 2022 cycle in Michigan. Those same women, we need to keep them in their jobs because they've done incredible work. They've been literally on the front lines of some of these horrific abortion bans that have been moving through the state legislature that, thankfully, Gretchen Whitmer has been in a position to veto. You have Jocelyn Benson, who is in charge of how elections are operating in that state. And if we don't make sure that Jocelyn Benson holds her seat like we might not actually be able to certify a win in 2024. Right? So there's long term consequence and implications to to winning in 2022 as well. And you have the same thing in Georgia, right? You have this incredible young woman, Bee Nguyen, who's running for secretary of state. She has a phenomenal story of how her family immigrated to the United States. She's one of the most hilarious, actually, candidates that I've seen, and she has a lot of great jokes in her stump speech, but it's really honest about the role and the importance of fair and honest election administration so that those processes are credible, which we all know is really important. And we need champions like Bee who are sitting in these positions of power. And again, it's, you know, up and down the ballot that we need to be rebuilding and reclaiming our power and making sure that we're voting strong leaders, strong
champions of justice, and also, you know, specifically of gender justice and putting them into these positions of power and voting those people who are not serving us, who have failed to do their jobs, who aren't even listening to the needs of the majority of their constituents not being responsive to women. That's, I mean, it's ridiculous. And I'm, that's me being nice right now. Like, they have to leave. They have to get voted out. And I think it's up to women. I think women feel motivated and compelled. As soon as you start having these conversations and remind them about that power, like they are fired up. And so it is our job in all of these states to make sure that not only are they fired up, but that they're bringing everyone that they know, you know, their friends, their family members, the people that they are driving by on the street as they head to the polls. Like everyone, we have a job to do to make sure that women are voting in November.
Mila Atmos: [00:26:23] Right. Well, since you're talking about candidates, what are the key things you're looking for in a candidate?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:26:30] We have this values based agenda. Back in 2019, we actually surveyed and worked with 75,000 women from across the country to help us put together this agenda, which is, again, very simple. Our lives are safe. Our bodies are respected. Our work is valued. Our families are supported. And our government represents us. Right. And it's simple, it's easy, it's visionary. And yet somehow it feels like we're not there yet. Right. And so the work that we have to do is to bring more people along with us in this sort of exercise of radical imagination, even, to know that that world is possible and it's not that far off. And so when I'm thinking about a leader, you know, at Supermajority, when we're thinking about the leaders that we want to champion and support, it's those people who are listening to women, those people who bring and invite women to the table. It's those people who look like us, who have similar experiences and are speaking our truth to power. And so that sort of support, that agreement even, and ratification of our majority rules agenda, like those are the leaders I want. I want somebody who is going to listen to women. I want somebody who is going to fight for women. And I want somebody who's going to remember that women put them into office so that even once they're elected, they continue to listen and continue to fight for women.
Mila Atmos: [00:28:05] Right. So that's what it means to have legislators who are accountable to women voters.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:28:10] Exactly. And we need a lot more of them. I'm honestly blown away by how many elected officials we have who occupy a seat and somehow forget that a super majority of women voters put them in that seat and suddenly, you know, they're not answering those phone calls. They're not responding to the thousands of direct messages that I think they are receiving. And, you know, thinking about a very real and recent example in terms of the outpouring of women on issues of care, issues of paid leave, and thinking about how we can make real investments so that we can make the economy work for women again. And our leaders fell short of doing that. They had an opportunity to go big and really, really, really push beyond the status quo and actually support women. And sadly, our leaders fell short. And so we have to do our job as women to make it impossible for them to ignore us and to not listen to us and one of the things that I say a lot -- part of it is because primal screams have been sort of cathartic for me recently -- but I say they might not be able to hear my primal scream, but they cannot ignore our votes. And it's true. They cannot ignore our votes.
Mila Atmos: [00:29:38] Definitely not. I'm with you on the primal screams.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:29:41] My husband, he's like, again, Amanda. And I'm
like, Yes, again.
Mila Atmos: [00:29:47] So you just touched on this a little bit, but let's pull on the thread. What are the issues that you find are really energizing and galvanizing women at this time in this election cycle? Is it all Roe all the time, or are there other issues not maybe getting as much media play that are proving to be big motivators?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:30:08] Abortion and reproductive justice is certainly top of mind for all of us, right? This is a unique moment where I think it's been a real, real, real polarizing issue for so many for a long time. It's like the second you say abortion, you know, you know exactly where people stand and all of a sudden abortion has actually been more of a coalition building issue. And that's what we've seen following the horrific decision by our Supreme Court earlier this year. I think it has brought more people into a conversation about a woman's right to make decisions about her future, about her life and about her own body. And so it has been an issue that, you know,
unlike before, has allowed for more conversation to happen and more stories to be told and more people to be reflecting on those experiences and understand and, you know, find that compassion and actually, you know, think about what it means to to hold what freedom means, what liberty means. And so I, you know, this is a very unique time for abortion as an issue. And it is certainly mobilizing people. And we've seen some of the signs like, "I can't believe I'm still fighting for this." And I think about, you know, the number of times I've even taken my three girls to the Supreme Court this year on that issue specifically. Right. So it's definitely getting people out there. And economics, the reality that so many women face as they have to make impossible choices about how to lead their own lives and help their family. It's really hard, and the pandemic has just exacerbated so many of the ugly truths that we have known about our country for so long. And women, women are struggling. Women are hurting, women of color in particular. They are forced to make impossible decisions every single day. And there are real questions about economic justice, about racial justice, real realities around that, that it's hard. It's just hard. I don't know how else to say it other than I think women are struggling and women are carrying everything right now. And we always do. And yet, like this moment, there's a lot more on our backs right now. There is an element, certainly, that abortion will mobilize people. But I do think, you know, deep down, one of the reasons why abortion will mobilize people is because it's an economic justice issue. And related to that, there are just so many realities around health care, around child care and access to affordable child care, to parental leave, like so many economic issues and policies that are crippling women and our families that are also motivating people. And you see that specifically with women of color. It's like that being the driver. And that's not unique to this moment. That's always, always the case.
Mila Atmos: [00:33:19] Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, I want to pivot a little bit here and talk about the specifics of strategy. What are the tools you're using? How are you organizing and reaching out?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:33:31] I'm using every tool in my toolbox. I laugh about it, but really, I don't want any woman to wake up on Election Day or any time in November being like, "Man, I didn't know how to vote" or, you know, "I didn't quite make it to the polls." No excuses here, right? Everything is on the line. And I want to make sure that not only do women have the information that they need to get to the polls and cast in a ballot that is informed and that they feel good about, right. I want there to be some
confidence in that, but I want to make sure that they're inspired and motivated to do that and to bring people that they love along with them. And so our strategy fundamentally is all about women talking to other women. And we do that through a couple of different mechanisms. But for the most part, we have women in our community that have been trained on how to have courageous conversations with people that they love and people that they don't know. And they are having those conversations about a set of values and a set of ideas, and also about candidates who are on the ballot. They're doing that over text, literally. You can join us on Superwomen Wednesdays. A little bit of a plug here, but we've been operating Superwomen Wednesdays and you can come in and literally text hundreds of women in an hour, which is so helpful. Just trying to spread the word about what's going on and get women connected to resources about voting. We are making phone calls and we're also knocking on people's doors. This summer alone, we knocked on something like 50,000 doors in Michigan and Pennsylvania. And that real face time, it matters so much. And even for the people that we didn't talk to, Mila, this is one of my favorite organizing tactics. Our organizers left "Sorry, I missed you" notes on the doors with our literature. And the literature, of course, just directs people back to some voting resources and talks to them or, you know, is a little bit of amplification of our majority rules agenda. And we had people that we didn't even have a chance to talk to at the doors but who got the the piece, the mail piece, and they went to the website themselves and signed up. Right. And made a commitment to vote from that. And so all of these interactions, all of these conversations really do matter. And we are working through our network, our membership, our community and our incredible volunteers to do that peer-to-peer relational organizing and, you know, important, important voter contact work.
Mila Atmos: [00:36:05] Yeah, I'm really loving these stories of women to women organizing. There's so much dark stuff going on, and I'm shamelessly angling for the feel-good here. So if you got more stories, don't hold back. It's so uplifting to hear about women working together.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:36:20] It's so true. And I actually fundamentally think, you know, people are often intimidated by the word organizing or even activism. Right. Like, I have a lot of adjectives that I would use to describe myself and is organizer one of them? You know, I feel like for a lot of women, they would just never say that. But women are fundamentally innate organizers, and we're innate organizers because of
two things. One, we hold hope. That's the most important. That is a super power of women and like key to organizing. And two, we like to tell stories, right? We like to connect with people. And there's always a way to connect with somebody. And I think those conversations, those interactions, like we have some of the most loyal and I mean incredibly dedicated volunteers. And I think it's because they get such a rush from connecting with women who might be in a different state, who might have had a completely different experience than they have had, or who might even have, like voted differently than they did in the past. But women in our community are finding these synergies and finding that there's so much truth in our shared set of values that they, like crave these opportunities to engage and to join with us for some of our volunteer activations because it is so meaningful. And I think we sort of dismiss the power and importance of one simple conversation that literally could be a game changer. One thing I'll say related to that is like this idea that, okay, I had a conversation Mila and I like even today, right? I did treat myself to a fancy coffee because I have three sick children at home. So I was like, I need a little bit of a break and I'm going to get myself a fancy coffee and 15 minutes of quiet time in the car. While I was getting coffee, I, you know, struck up a conversation with the barista. And we were talking about the fact that the election is in two weeks and talking about whether or not they had a plan to vote, because statistically, if you have a plan, it is that much more likely that that person will show up on Election Day, or before, because you can do that, too. And so, you know, it's like talking to her about what was motivating her, you know, just connecting with her. And you think about that as like one interaction, one conversation. But our local elections, where I live in Maryland, they might be decided by a few hundred voters, all of those sort of 1-to-1 conversations, they add up. And the math, it adds up really, really quickly. Like if every single woman had one conversation with one other woman, right? Like, I'm not very good at math, but we would be talking to millions of women if we were able to do that. And so I do want to make sure that people understand that there's value. And even just taking that like one small step, because if we all take that one small step, it turns into a giant leap and it is honestly real progress. And for many women across the country, it's like life and death, because so much is at stake this election.
Mila Atmos: [00:39:34] Mm hmm. Well, the midterms are super close now. And you just told us one thing that we can do to motivate other people to go out and vote. But what's
another thing that I can do right now or that anyone listening to the show can do today, tomorrow, or this week?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:39:51] You should join Supermajority. At womenarevoting.com you can find all of the resources for making your plan to vote, for committing to vote, checking your registration even, which is a very fundamental step to take you, you know, make sure that everything is in order before you get to the polls. And women are voting is an incredible resource. So go to womenarevoting.com. Get signed up. You will then be on our list. You'll be one of the millions of women who are hearing from us and getting all the information that they need to know to cast a ballot on Election Day. And then, you know, to everything that I said earlier, Mila, but if you are ready and excited and have the time, which I know not everyone does, but has the time to do a little bit more. We are running and have volunteer programming and every little bit counts. So come join us, come be a part of this effort, and let's get all the women to the polls.
Mila Atmos: [00:40:48] That's terrific. Amanda, you said something beautiful a moment ago about how women hold hope. And so for this last question, what makes you hopeful?
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:40:58] Huh. So I have three little girls who wake me up literally and figuratively every single day. And they are my greatest sources of hope because they remind me of, you know, what I want the world to be for them. And there are some real, real tests to that right now. And I fight every single day so that they don't have to face the same sort of oppression, the same sort of impossible choices that myself and, you know, my friends have to face right now. So they give me hope that things can be better and also that they should be better. And, you know, when I'm out on the playground with my kids, like watching the way that they defend and fight for justice at age five and three and one, even, that gives me a ton, a ton of hope because the kids are all right. The kids are all right, Mila.
Mila Atmos: [00:41:53] Yes, hear hear. The kids are all right.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:41:55] Well, I will say too, Mila, if you don't mind, just that, you know, the wind is at our backs right now and we have this incredible
momentum going into Election Day. And I know that people get really tired of this rhetoric. Just go vote. It's the most important election cycle or election of our lifetimes. And it's true. But I also know like how, you know, it feels overwhelming even. And so I just want people to remember that we can win and that we will win. But it requires all of us doing a little bit right. Like every time you hear somebody say, we can't win, just dismiss it. Just ignore it because we can and we will win.
Mila Atmos: [00:42:40] Yes, 100%. I was just talking to somebody who was laughing in my face about a race that he thought was hopeless. And I thought, no, no, we have to, we have to keep doing, we have to keep doing the work. And definitely I agree that the winds are on our backs. So... I also want to say, wow, you you have a five, a three and a one year old. So good luck with everything and.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:43:04] Thank you.
Mila Atmos: [00:43:05] And even more, 1,000,000% thank you for taking the time to
speak to us. You are so busy. I'm so grateful for your time.
Amanda Brown Lierman: [00:43:13] No, thanks so much, Mila. There are real big victories possible at the state level. Big victory is possible at the national level. And women, women truly are our greatest hope for change. They always are, and they always will be.
Mila Atmos: [00:43:26] Amanda Brown Lierman is the Executive Director at Supermajority and Supermajority Education Fund.
Mila Atmos: [00:43:37] Next week on Future Hindsight: In our last show before the midterm elections, I'm going to be talking to Dr. Allison Gill. She's a veteran, former federal government executive, and host of Mueller, She wrote and Daily Beans pod. We'll be talking democracy, accountability, and all the lawsuits the former guy is facing.
Allison Gill: [00:43:57] There are times when I talk about the perils of of democracy on the precipice, like you say. But when I think we frame it in a "what you can do to help save democracy, simple steps that you can take," it kind of takes that looming cloud of
fear away and I think gives people a little bit of of hope that that their voice matters and can make a difference.
Mila Atmos: [00:44:19] That's next time on Future Hindsight. And before I go, first of all, thanks for listening. You must really like the show if you're still here. We have an ask of you. Could you rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts? It seems like a small thing, but it can make a huge difference for an independent show like ours. It's the main way other people can find out about the show. We really appreciate your help. Thank you. This episode was produced by Zack Travis and Sara Burningham. Until next time, stay engaged.
The Democracy Group: [00:45:02] This podcast is part of The Democracy Group.