by Sarah Baldauf

Voting trends suggest Georgia’s Republican stranglehold is weakening in key districts, making a Democratic majority in the State House of Representatives a possibility within the next decade. Yet clinching that majority with progressive women will require a strategic boost from previously untapped sources to recruit talent – not only candidates to run for office, but  prospective campaign managers to support their election. With recruiting innovation in mind, Her Term leadership established a new relationship with Emory University’s Goizueta Business School this year – becoming an IMPACT competition client in the school’s signature program to solve real world problems.

“Her Term aims to be additive, finding new ways to compliment the work our allies are already doing,” says Han Pham, Her Term executive director. “We saw an opportunity to bring private sector thinking to the challenges of recruiting a strong pool of progressive women candidates and potential campaign managers.” While Her Term and allies recruited a record breaking number of women to run last election cycle, says Pham, finding Georgia-based staff with local knowledge, political savvy, and management skills was a challenge.   

In May, a team of Goizueta students presented Her Term and a panel of IMPACT judges with strategic recruitment recommendations based on a semester-long process of data analysis, qualitative interviews, academic research review, and an assessment of private sector best practices for talent acquisition. Tyler Dinucci, presenting with the Her Term IMPACT team, framed their efforts around a critical observation made by Erica Pines, a highly respected political strategist in Georgia. “Walk through Midtown Atlanta and look up at the buildings. There are women in there who would make excellent candidates, and they may want to get involved in local politics but have no clue how to do so.  We have to go get them.” Solving for those problems with the goal of winning key seats in the State House led the team to develop a scalable recruitment process that would complement existing political recruiting practices in the lead up to the March 2024 candidate filing date.  

“The IMPACT team delivered an actionable, data-driven plan that we plan to start putting in place right away,” says Pham. “Our engagement with this team has been a win for Her Term.” 

Key recommendations from the IMPACT team are detailed below along with implementation challenges that Her Term will need to address.

1. Build Robust Profiles for Key Districts

Targeting key districts and understanding them at a granular level will be essential to flipping the House. The IMPACT team recommended prioritizing six districts with the best odds based on results in the 2020 presidential election and electoral shifts in partisanship – particularly the change in district results between Jason Carter’s 2014 gubernatorial run and Senator Raphael Warnock’s 2022 runoff. Compiling and assessing detailed district profile information is critical because voters skeptical of putting a Democrat in a State House seat will need convincing. This is evidenced by a ‘down-ballot lag’ in key districts, which voted for Joe Biden for President in 2020, but vote Republican for their State House seats. Having deep knowledge of the district – including top employers, local issues, and legislation of concern – will enable candidates to make a strong case for support, connecting with voters on the issues they find most important.

Implementation Challenge: Time and effort necessary to collect information and analyze profiles. Many of the online sources of data are updated after redistricting, but not necessarily in subsequent years. 

2. Broaden the Pool of Non-Traditional Potential Candidates 

Candidate recruitment currently relies on an ad hoc process of Democratic party insiders and allies discussing individuals who are usually already plugged into the political process in some way.

The IMPACT team recommends complementing this approach by using private sector tactics that enable Her Term to search for candidates beyond the political realm, and allow candidates to more easily find Her Term. The IMPACT team recommends leveraging LinkedIn Recruiter Lite and conducting zip-code targeted online advertising to reach non-traditional potential candidates who would not be identified through the current process. 

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite effectively matches desired candidate qualities and experience with actionable recruiter search terms, and leveraging this tool will help Her Term more easily search for possible candidates. The IMPACT team conducted interviews with experts in the political and private sectors to develop an ‘ideal candidate persona.’ Key traits included having strong community ties, a passion for service, and the ability to communicate her vision. Similarly, the team identified keywords that aligned with those traits and other Her Term-relevant criteria to help find potential candidates using the platform. Recommended keywords included: social justice, social impact, DEI, equitable, change agent, community engagement, and advocate. The candidate list could be further honed with pre-screening questions, which the team developed to assess motivation, knowledge of political campaigns, self-awareness, and experience and skills. 

Targeted online advertising is a tactic used by similar organizations to attract talent, building a pool of potential candidates, campaign staff, and volunteers – while also increasing their own visibility as a player in progressive politics. Run for Something, for example, targeted ads that appealed to progressive values and current issues, such as book bans and overturning Roe v. Wade, and included a call to action: ‘Join the Movement.’ Clicking through, proposed the IMPACT team, could bring the user to a motivating, high-level explanation of Her Term and a form to share contact information and get involved. Using this strategy, Her Term can further build its network of politically curious individuals who may someday run for office or serve in a staffing role.      

Implementation Challenge: LinkedIn Recruiter Lite and targeted online ad buys require money and time to initiate, sustain, review, and keep current.

3. Leverage Key Skills, Experience to Identify Potential Campaign Managers

Identifying a greater number of qualified campaign managers, implementing screening tactics to ensure their success in the role, and being able to offer this to potential candidates will strengthen Her Term’s ability to recruit potential candidates overall. Informed by expert interviews, the IMPACT team uncovered important insights for recruiting potential campaign managers. While campaign experience is undoubtedly a plus, the team learned that individuals with the right skills and traits don’t necessarily need to come from the political world.

The team developed pre screening questions for potential campaign managers to help Her Term identify alignment on key skills and attributes.Finding a personality match with the candidate, according to experts, was the most important requirement for a successful campaign manager, reflecting the short-lived, all consuming, highly stressful nature of campaigns. Experience with start-ups and budget management, political savvy and understanding of the race’s nuances, and people and leadership skills also surfaced as essential campaign manager qualities. 

The IMPACT team recommends using LinkedIn Recruiter Lite not only to search for potential campaign managers, but also for posting the positions, using screening questions, and considering paid promotions to increase visibility.

Implementation Challenge: As with candidate recruitment using LinkedIn, cost and time are necessary to manage and sort through the pool of individuals that meet Her Term criteria.

Her Term Needs YOU to Help Put the Recommended Strategies in Place

Implementing the IMPACT team’s data-driven, well researched recommendations will require funds and people power to manage, evaluate, and adjust the novel recruiting processes. Her Term believes investing in these strategies will be valuable to building a pipeline of progressive women to run and skilled campaign managers to help usher in wins. Flipping the State House is within reach, but relying solely on traditional practices won’t get us there. Testing innovative strategies that can be shared and scaled with Her Term allies will. 

Get involved! Please donate to help Her Term put these strategies in place AND connect with Han Pham on LinkedIn.