watch the full hearing tonight at 8:00 o'clock eastern on c-span2. c-span now are free mobile video app or online c-span.org. >> c-span's "washington journal" involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics and public policy. from washington and across the country. coming up friday morning, time magazine national political reporter talks about his interview with former president donald trump about his vision for a potential second term in office. then politics reporter talking about the trump campaigns process for vetting and selecting a running mate for the former president. vanderbilt university law professor and war crimes officer walter newton talks about the prosecuting of war crimes in the international court. israel hamas war and russia's invasion of ukraine.

c-span's "washington journal" joined in the conversation live at seven eastern friday morning on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those that need it most. charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. a look at future progressive political candidates seeking to improve their electability. participants learn about the importance of running for office

at the state and local levels. a core message for their campaigns and how to campaign on digital platforms. [applause] our c3 national organization. vote run is our c4. this is just an image of our program. what is boat run lead action and what do we do?

why am i here? trained pro-democracy, antiracist and feminist women and non-binary folks to address the long-standing underrepresentation of women in state legislatures. we are working up and down the ballot with state legislatures where our focus is. that is where the action is. that is where the policies are made. we are also training campaign staff. where is olivia? hey olivia. our campaign staff that went through our campaign staffing programming. it is going to create a holistic approach in a ripple effect of how we change the complete cycle of the political landscape. it is not enough to only train women and non-binary folks as candidates. we also have to train campaign staff. a woman of color who is running

for the first time and no shade but her campaign manager is still an old straight white man who don't know nothing about what is going on on the ground. talk to me. yeah. no. that does not work. but no shade. i want you to look at all the contestant seeds. racing in georgia and the cycle were uncontested. that means we are letting people hold their seats. we are not letting them be held accountable. we will run against you. we will unseat you and we will put people in the seats that will actually work to make a difference. at the current rate that we are going it will take the state of georgia 28 years to reach gender parity.

i will not wait almost three decades to see representation in my state. that is why we are doing the work that we are doing and that is also why we will not stop anytime soon. so, hey, there is me at the capital. my name is ashley. i use she/her pronouns. my hometown is hershey, pennsylvania. the sweetest place on earth. that is a real thing. i am very biased when it comes to chocolate. campaign strategy. my likes are live music. i love to travel especially solo travel. just got back from japan a few weeks ago. black female novelists. toni morrison, audrey lord, all of the greats. this is state representative rula roman. i believe she was the youngest elected at 29.

she is the first palestinian american woman in this georgia state legislature. also the first had job wearing woman in the georgia state legislature. most importantly, she is a proud foe need alumni. what we are going to talk about today, we have a lot to get there and you will want to take notes. we will talk about how we go from training to action with practical steps on how we feel the confidence cap. how we go from agitation to reaction. being matted not doing anything about it. why? let's use our energy for good. i know some of you in this room, politics may not be your first career option. that is okay. a difference in different industries and sectors. then we will have some reflection time and we will do

an interactive exercise. all my introverts in the room, bear with me. it will not be that bad, i promise. filling the confidence cap. i will pretend i know how to multitask. bear with me. did you all know that no two fingerprints are the same. even on your hands, your feet, if you are an identical twin you have different fingerprints. that just tells us that no one else can be you. that feels deep. right? no one else can be you. it is real. again, pretending i can multitask. so, step one, write this down, take a picture of it. you are enough. you are more than enough. you've always been enough. you always will be enough.

.... .... to be something and understand what you do all this hard work. can you all read that for me?

imposter syndrome is a life and i don't know if crystal is around from spotlight communications group the crystal said something a few weeks ago and she said if you are having a hard time getting over imposter syndrome be the best imposter that you can be. let's be honest none of us know what we are doing. none of us. we are all trying to figure this thing out as we go read some practical steps to combat imposter syndrome, gather evidence of your accomplishments, keep a folder, keep a sublabel in your gmail or your google ducks wherever you keep things. when you get an e-mail from a boss or colleague and say hey this was great. thank you forward ever you did to save us today. keep that e-mail and make a mental note of the complements that you get not necessarily about your parents but about the work that you have done.

define your success metrics. a lot of us myself included have an all or nothing approach to success and especially in campaign management and movements where we have to break those things down into small goals because otherwise we'll go and panic culture we are trying to overcome that so break down your success metrics and instead of saying we need $40,000 for the quarter say we need $5000 this week. start small. also talked to trusted friends and mentors. it's so easy to get in your head and be an isolation bubble where we don't feel like we we are doing what we are supposed to do. sometimes i have a book chat of my sorority sisters and some of my focus friends. when i say i'm having a day and

i will get voice memo's back to say stop playing you are that girl, hello? #beyonce number one on the renaissance track. i'm that girl, i'm that guy. i am, them hello and then accept failure. a lot of us have heard that failure is not an option. yes it is, it absolutely is and it's okay because when you fail that's an opportunity to learn how to do something better and it's an opportunity to learn how to do something different and it's an opportunity for you to realize you cannot do this work by yourself but you have to have community and when you failed it's a reminder to say what did i not do this time around? who did i not reach out to? that i asked for help? did i delegate control -- i'm one of them i'm raising my hand. i'd like to be in control very

type a. we are going to learn together how to deal with that. next we are going to go from agitation to action so agitation is a very powerful catalyst for change but you have to channel that energy to be productive. like i said earlier it doesn't make sense to be mad and not do anything about it. to go from agitation to action we are going to talk about some very specific practical steps first of all advocacy is active. we are doing something about it. first we are going to connect, engage with like-minded people and share your values and your passions. you also want to do something about the work that you are passionate about. social media is a powerful tool to find like-minded individuals. we are all on tik tok and i call it twitter i know what x means. and instagram and threads and

all the things. think about the people you talked to on a regular basis. have you ever talk to them about what you are passionate about your family or cousins your college friends. have you ever had a conversation about what's happening in the world and what you all can do about it. you also want to learn. educate yourself on the nuances of the political landscape and some of the historical context about the things that you are passionate about. what does this issue mean for women, for children, for men for immigrants? what does it look like wexler policies have already been tried, where have we failed in the past and what can we do different and most importantly with learning please get your information for crop from credible sources. the shade room is not a credible resource, okay? i'm not going to tell you what broadcast networks and what news

channels to watch but just make sure you are doing your due diligence and you are getting your information and your education from credible news sources. next we are going to mobilize. you need to advocate for change at the appropriate level so for example if you are concerned about potholes and your community please don't call the governor's office. he doesn't care. he can't do anything about the potholes. hoosier city councilmember? if you can't get in touch with your city councilmember hoosier mayor? make sure you're advocating at the appropriate level. a lot of us are activists and i'm a grassroots activists. we'd like to lace of our sneakers and hit the ground with their bullhorn. my bullhorn is in the trunk. it stays in my trunk and i'm always ready but hitting the streets is not step one. step one did you ride a letter, did you send an e-mail? did you request a meeting? es burn it all down and make

sure it's the right building first. make sure there's somebody in it. we have to think strategically about these things and finally we are going to collaborate. there is no reason to do this work alone. we cannot do this work alone and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. think about all of the coalitions and the faces that already exist and are doing the work that you also want to do. reach out and make connections. say hey i saw that you all are doing this great work and i'm also interested. raise your hand and say do you need volunteers? are you looking for an intern and i will in turn absolutely. there are power in numbers and joining the existing movement coalitions is an excellent way to not be an efficient in how are going about change.

considering a career change. this is the big one. all of us are not going to run for office. all of us are not going to manage a campaign and that's okay. consider what your unique skills are, consider what your unique abilities are and how you can be the most useful to those movement. i, a communications and digital media maven, maybe i can help to be a trainer. maybe i can wright grants for a nonprofit organization, grant applications. it doesn't necessarily have to be campaign related. doesn't have to be running for office. advocacy, grassroots advocacy, mobilizing your community. i'm still considering law school. i'm just trying to figure out who's going to pay for it. the student loans that i have right now are a joke. i have nothing to do with that. it's above me.

that being a paralegal, being a secretary there are different ways to get into different industries. media and communication, education and research. we all know his campaign staffers in the room opposition research and opposition consulting but you also can educate on a grassroots level. it doesn't have to be complicated is my point. and then the bogeyman corporate affairs. there are good spaces and departments and corporate relations and corporate affairs that help you connect with communities. my first big girl job when i moved to atlanta, i worked in the building right down the street on the 37th floor and i helped run probe on a community service and large law firm. my job was to connect our really powerful wealthy attorneys with non-profits who are doing excellent work on the ground,

making sure they are getting their probe on her out -- probe on all hours. also making sure that the money we are bringing and is going into the community will where they need it. one of the main things and i don't have this written down to one of the things that's important to think about when we are running these corporate programs is even for those of you who work in non-profits and other spaces where you get back to the community what does the community actually need? if you are going to do a back-to-school drive and you are filling bookbags with school supplies that the parents are saying we don't need crayons and pencils. my babies are hungry, we need to think about are we here because we want a photo op and we want to look good in our newsletter because we be about 500 bookbags or do we want to make a difference and make sure these babies are fed when they go to school, make sure they are sneakers don't have holes in

them. so we are moving. does anybody have any quick questions for me before removing to the reflection and interactive exercise? i have a question over here. can i have a microphone please and thank you. thank you ace. give it up for aids. he's been working behind the scenes making us do what we do. >> i know and understand how vital having your squad and mentors are and so how would you go about acquiring a mentor? in some cases there are people who don't necessarily have the

time or the capacity to be able to take on a mentorship and you know there are people who have friends for decades and they just have outgrown them and have moved forward into different space with different people and that kind of dynamic. >> that's an excellent question for the greatest mentorship relationships that i have had in my personal and professional life has not been from intentionally seeking out a mentorship's. i didn't send an e-mail and i'm not saying this is wrong but i did not send an e-mail and say hey i would love to learn more about you and what you do, will you mentor may? i reached out and said i really interested in the work that you are doing and how can i help? so offering yourself as not to somebody who's going to be as sons -- of sponge that make yourself available to get your hands dirty with that person.

my campaigns strategists leadership mentor, i reached out to her and i said hey if you need help on some of these campaigns that are coming up call me. i will knock on doors and i'll make calls and volunteer with your candidates and that's how i got to be in the room where it happens. that's how i got to be in the room to see what she's doing and build a relationship with her. you can also send an e-mail and just say hey my name is ashlee and i'm in the interest in the work you are doing and i'd love to treat you to copy one day and just chat. to see where it goes. believe it or not i'm a textbook introvert. i'm very uncomfortable right now for doing hard things. shout out to me by putting yourself out there is going to be really important. >> thank you.

>> i saw a question over here. >> my question is actually about the it's okay to fail. i have learned maybe in our jobs it's okay to fail and i know in life it's also okay to fail and this is probably like a therapy session. >> that's okay, that's okay. bring it on. >> one of the things that i struggle with the most is like yes it may be okay to fail but if i fail i'm failing at something so big that it sets me back maybe a year or two years in my life plan or can have dire consequences on me and my future. that's what i struggle with when it comes to saying it's okay to fail. i want to ask have you

encountered that in your life and also the people that you have trained in how have you overcome that? >> that's an excellent question. i love that so much. i too had a life plan. i still have a life plan. i just nixed the timeline of little bit because there's no such thing as being too old to start over no such thing as being too old or too seasoned to try new things. it's okay to fail but thinking, i turned 30 on april 1 shout out to my aries in the room. by 30 i was like i'm going to be married. i may have a couple of kids running around and my law degree. i did do that but i had all of these plans and all of these things that i had to accomplish by a certain time and i was

stressing myself out. my anxiety was through the roof. trying to manage all of the things to get done was hard. shout out to lexapro but one of the main things i tell people and i know this really doesn't answer question but it's okay. how old was when she got her first on error job quite she was 35 or 36. ava duvernay one of my favorite film directors didn't pick up a camera until she was in her mid-30s. yes there is an overwhelming voice in the back of our heads that say if i don't do this or if i don't do this right what consequences that have for my family? what consequences that have for the movement that i'm trying to do and i think my point is we cannot carry all of that weight on our own and on our shoulders.

i hope that helps you a little bit. here's a hug from the stage and then i have time for one more question right behind you. >> hi my question is how do you discern whether when you have difficulty in an organization that's not honoring the values they put forward to the public how do you know whether to stay and fight for that change or two leave the organization because i feel very disillusioned. now it's not the organization itself but it's my particular affiliate so i'm having a hard time whether i should stay and fight because i truly care about the people who work there because they are very sweet and

they really give a --or do i say i can do this and i'm going to? today off too big of a question? >> that might have been too good of a question, friend. also a shout-out to your shirt, planned parenthood southeast but we love them. what are your nonstarters like what values can you say i am here to do this work because of this and i'm not going to jeopardize that. i'm not going to change that for anyone and if that's not what we are doing there isn't a place for me here. that's also okay. movement work as we all know it

ain't about the money because we all can be getting paid more. but it's about the value system that you hold personally. i've been in situations where i love the organization and i love opie stand for externally and they even made love my colleagues who i'm doing the work with but at the end of the day are we doing it for grant money and not doing what we are doing for the community and the people we serve because it's so you have to have that internal mindset and conversation and say from my example earlier if we are supposed to be feeding the community but also want to do is show up with bookbags in grants for high-schoolers like this is a personal parents i had. they need 500-dollar calculators

like what are we doing? it's like listen to that internal guide system whether it's your religious affiliation or whether it's your own subconscious. listen to that and sometimes it's worth just having a conversation with the people who are above you. i have learned that being afraid of saying what i mean in asking for what i need and questioning strategic plans on an organizational level it means i wasn't supposed to be here in the first place but somebody have to be holding each other accountable and that includes your president, founder and ceo and that includes the people sit on the board. ask all the questions and if you don't get significant answers and sufficient answers sometimes it's okay to step back and say maybe this is on parole for me.

i hope that helps a little bit but listen to that voice that you have because it's there and i know she's telling you like girl you need to stay and you need to fight for this or if every day you get up to go to work and you were like here we go again, it takes you forever to get it done because there's no motivation sometimes that's also that internal trigger like this is draining me. it's not bringing me joy and i need to find where i can make a difference. hey friend. can i do the reflection? our affliction i want you all to sit quietly and talk amongst yourselves if you'd like to but i want you all to reflect on what your values are and what your passion projects are and what you're getting neat

superpower is that you can use for change. so i will give an example. my passion project is electing women of color up and down the ballot. the unique superpower that i have to get that done this strategy making it all makes sense. so take a couple of minutes and just really think about what your passion projects are what your top values are where you draw the line. and then the superpowers and potential career changes that you can make. i'm going to be quiet for a couple of minutes. >> but come on back, let's come on back but come on back. if you can hear my voice clap once. if you can hear my voice clap twice. k and we are back. i hope that was helpful for you all to kind of reflect on what your unique lane is.

some of us are martin and some of us are coretta. it's okay. the poll that because the other person is at the front of the room the person whose a public figure and then there are those of us who were like corrina and that quiet strength in the background the strategy to logical thinking and making it all makes sense. my friend from venezuela over here i'm going to pick on you because you had a question. you don't have to but if you want to share what your reflections was and then ask your question. go ahead.

[inaudible] i connected a lot with the reflection and your answer. oftentimes [speaking spanish] because oftentimes is human right activists who are oftentimes in positions where we make decisions but we don't connect with vulnerable people. i know everyone here does, yes. but our mission is to teach people who are not in this room right now. [speaking spanish] in my experience that lived in

ecuador for five years. and there are i thought i learned what was needed to help venezuelan immigrants who were fleeing from one dictatorship, walking through four countries, going through and they would get to the city. my organization and my friend dennis weyland ecuadorians and people in the united states. [speaking spanish] >> we believe the best way to help them was with a coke and some food. obviously you have to eat right. a lot of these immigrants see

ecuador as a launching point to go further south. but i understood what you said earlier. it's putting yourself in the shoes of other folks. it's kind of what used to stepping outside of our comfort zone. but it's very easy to see here we are on the stage and here we are sitting down for the question is are we really doing matt? [applause] what did i do? it was a thing. don't do this. i left everything i had in ecuador. four years of hard work as an innocent -- immigrant and we are doing something wrong.

we are not helping these immigrants in the correct way. i decided that i needed to be an immigrant as well. they went back to venezuela and i walked with immigrants. with the little bit of clothing i had on me eating from trash cans just like they do hitchhiking, sleeping out in the streets and it took me three months to get from san antonio to venezuela to lima peru. crossing through venezuela columbia ecuador and peru. i could have gone back to my house there are but i have to do

what you are trying to teach us here. literally putting myself in the shoes of others and the concept outside of my comfort zone and that's were interested that we were doing everything wrong. i got back finally and other cities in columbia. to tell them immigrants they need all of these things and many more things. the immigrants, the person the asian person a person the underprivileged person might not stay out of fear of not knowing

or out of shame because you are trying to give me food and clothing and who am i to us for more and the message i want to leave here if please listen to her. [applause] >> thank you. thank you friend. that was the best example that any of us could have heard. we are the ones we have been waiting for payday know you have heard that before and i know it's cliché but we have to take that to heart and do our work. we have to get uncomfortable. we have two roll up our sleeves and get. her passion project is combating the food desert are you in the dirt planting or are