Democratic State Party Chair Shasti Conrad Discusses 2024 Election Strategy, Party Unity

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[00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review show and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes.

Well, today I am thrilled to be welcoming the Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party that has been on a long winning streak. Currently responsible for that winning streak is the Chair - Shasti Conrad. Welcome back to the show.

[00:01:09] Shasti Conrad: Thanks for having me back - it's great to be here.

[00:01:11] Crystal Fincher: Great to have you again. So I just want to start out - a lot of people have these conceptions of the national Democratic Party - a lot of times our conversations on politics focus on federal and national things. But we have a strong and prominent state Democratic Party, we have local party organizations. What is the State Party responsible for and what do you do as the Chair of the Party?

[00:01:36] Shasti Conrad: I basically see the role of the State Party as - I often describe it as kind of we are the steady drumbeat. We are the resources for making sure that we have a strong volunteer base, that we have the money and the know-how and the knowledge and the trainings and all of that to make sure that whoever steps up to run is ready to go. If you run as a Democrat, that there is a place that is a professional organization that is ready to support you and help you get connected into the local party organizations, help you get connected to the people in your community, and know how to run and win elections. And the candidates and the campaigns get to be kind of like the jazz that brings in the energy and the enthusiasm and whatever unique thing that they're bringing into that particular race, that particular election cycle, whatever it may be. But we really are that core organization that is statewide to make sure that we have solid Democrats running in every single part of this state - up and down the ballot at every level of government.

[00:02:36] Crystal Fincher: So you're kind of like the support system and the infrastructure that campaigns run on and that the Democratic Party operates on in the state. Is that fair to say?

[00:02:45] Shasti Conrad: Yeah, absolutely. And we have trained staff - we have a year-round core party staff that is working on party affairs, working on communications, doing all of that. And then in the even years, we run a Coordinated Campaign, which basically makes it so that whatever part of the state you are in, you have field organizers, you have people who will be able to know and tell you - Here are the Democrats that are running in your jurisdiction, these are the items that will be on your ballot - and are there to be a resource to make sure that we're reaching every single person, every Democrat that we can across the state.

[00:03:23] Crystal Fincher: I think a lot of times people think that that's other organizations or maybe the National Party. That really is one of the most visible and important functions of the state Democratic Party - is reaching, communicating with, listening to, and turning out voters in elections across the state. And we're here in a presidential election year - so you've got everything from the president to senators, representatives on down - and you are really doing a lot of the work to support that. What is your role in that?

[00:03:55] Shasti Conrad: I see my role as Chair as I am the one who's setting the vision and the strategy for the work. I came in having been a political organizer, professional for the better part of about 15 years now - I've worked on four presidential campaigns, I ran for State Senate in the 37th in an appointment process back in 2016 - so I've had a wide variety of experiences. And you and I met during my work and tenure as the Chair of King County Democrats, where I was for four years prior to moving into this role. So I come in with a lot of organizing experience and understanding of the different - both of being a candidate and also being someone who has been the support team and helped on campaigns, and then also been in the party infrastructure. And so as Chair of the State Party, I really get the opportunity to work with our Democrats across the entire state. There are 88 local party organizations - so there's county parties, there's legislative district party organizations. And the State Party, we are a little bit of like an umbrella organization - and I believe that we are at our best when all oars are in the water rowing in the same direction, which as Democrats is difficult to do. But I see my role as Chair as really being the one that is helping to gather us, make sure that we're moving forward, and that we have clear strategy that's going to work in the different parts of the state - because different messaging works in different places, different relationships are built. The other biggest job is quite honestly the fundraising - making sure that we have all of the money that we need to be able to hire organizers, to have a strong staff, to be able to do all of the support work for campaigns and candidates.

[00:05:34] Crystal Fincher: So what does a typical week for you look like?

[00:05:37] Shasti Conrad: Well, no typical week really, ever. It is constantly changing. But I spend a lot of time doing the fundraising work like we just talked about - meeting with people and making phone calls and doing that work. But then it's also meetings with candidates, it's meetings with others - people who are partner organizations, our labor allies. It's checking in around priorities - what do people need? It's a lot of problem solving - when something's happening in this part of the state, we need to figure out how we're going to get the resources that we need out there. Or whatever it might be - there's something happening with one of the local parties. All of that - it's really troubleshooting and it is also running the team and making sure that the staff have what they need to be able to do their jobs and get things done. And it's traveling, too - one of the parts of the job that I love the most is that I get to travel around the state and I get to meet incredible folks in every part of the state. And there really are passionate Democrats - people who are fighting the good fight - in literally every single part of this state. And we live in such a beautiful place - it's really such a joy to get to see all parts of it that in other circumstances I maybe wouldn't have had the chance to.

[00:06:51] Crystal Fincher: Now, you kind of alluded to the fact that the Democratic Party is a big tent party - bigger tent than Republicans. But that means that there are a wide variety of viewpoints among people in the party. How do you navigate corralling all of that, keeping all of that together, making sure everyone is heard, and getting people motivated to move all in one direction when there are varied opinions on everything from Israel's conflict in Gaza, to taxation, to so many other things - how do you work through that?

[00:07:27] Shasti Conrad: Well, I come from a coalition building background. I really do believe that it's important that you have a diversity of stakeholders that are at the table helping with decision making, helping with consultation - that it does take all of us to be able to get this work done, to be able to make sure that it is fully reflective of community, which is always my number one priority. So certainly, I think particularly this last year, we've seen the ways in which the really stretching of the big tent has happened, particularly in issues related to what's happening in Gaza and ceasefire and things like that. It was really important to me that I created space to really listen to the communities that were most impacted, which included working with our Jewish caucus and also leadership coming from the Muslim perspective. I'm really proud and excited that at our state committee meeting at the end of this month in Yakima, we'll be looking to form our first Muslim caucus. And that came out of conversation and a lot of work this past year, and really saying - Okay, please come in. We want you to feel like this Democratic Party is as much yours as it is anyone else's and that you have a role to play here. Let's figure out how we can create that space for better organizing and communication. Alongside really listening to our Jewish members and making sure that they felt supported and heard and there was space to process their trauma as well. So I'm really proud that the Democratic Party is a truly diverse coalition of so many different perspectives and backgrounds - and that makes it so that we often are in debate and at times even conflict, but that we have a space. And I believe that I'm trying to build that at the State Party - that we are the space to work through that, to be able to have these discussions - which is very different from the Republican Party. They had options to pick people other than Trump. And what we've seen from Mike Johnson and people that run the gamut - up until very recently, almost no Republicans were challenging Trump, right? Like it was - you fell in line, you did what the top guy said - and you couldn't step out of line, there was no room for debate or discussion. You just did what you were told. And that, I don't think is democracy. This version is messier, but I think that it's really important that we create the space for people to feel like they can bring their full selves to the work.

[00:09:58] Crystal Fincher: Now, on the other side of that is - it's a very big tent party, but it's not a party for everyone. It's not a party for Republicans or for others. And so, how do you navigate issues like in our state - many states, but especially in ours - people can just self-identify as anything they want to. Anyone can call themself a Democrat when they choose to run for office - they fill in the box of what party they adhere to or belong to, and it's not like they have to get party approval to do that. How do you deal with people who run for office who seem to be aligned with Republicans? There are some that come to mind - Jim Ferrell, who ran for King County Prosecutor, who eventually lost to Democrat Leesa Manion, is one of them. There's a current race in the 43rd Legislative District in Seattle where Shaun Scott is facing Andrea Suarez, who's calling herself a Democrat - but a lot of Democratic organizations and local Democrats don't consider her a Democrat. And also made news that you had blocked her, in addition to many other people have blocked her for various antics over time - as well as the former Chair of the Party, Tina Podlodowski said, I'm not the Chair right now, but if I was still, I would have blocked her too. How do you navigate through that and what is the recourse for the State Party or local party organizations to deal with people who they feel don't align with their values and don't adhere to the platform?

[00:11:32] Shasti Conrad: Look, I think at the end of the day, the work is about values and policies - and so we have to be very clear. Every two years, we work hard to update our platform that lays out what it is that we're prioritizing, our values related to be a part of the Democratic Party. But the Republicans have made it pretty clear that at a baseline for us - I believe to be a solid, strong Democrat - you have to believe in democracy, you have to be committed to fighting for democracy, for standing up for democracy. The Republicans voted to take the word "democracy" out of their platform at their convention. And so at a basic line, that's where we start. And then it's things like standing up for marginalized and vulnerable communities. It is making sure that we are fighting for housing rights for all, that we are standing up for healthcare for all, that we are doing what we need to do to think about, I think, coming from an empathetic lens of how do we make the world better for the most people? And when folks want to say that they're a Democrat but their actions do not match that, then yes, we're going to have concerns. I think one of the most important assets that we have as a state Democratic Party is VoteBuilder, which is where we have all of our data that is connected to our voters - and we sort of know how often people vote, we know how likely they are to vote for a Democrat. And we go through a process where candidates apply to be able to get access to VoteBuilder so that they can reach out to the voters that are in their jurisdiction that they're running into. But the requirement is that you have to get sign off from a local party organization that knows you. And if you're not a Democrat in good standing, then no, we're not going to give you access to all of our voters. We're just not going to do that. And so, you mentioned Jim Ferrell in the race when he was running for prosecutor - he decided to do an event with a white supremacist organization. And I was not State Party Chair at the time, I was King County Chair. And I worked with, at the time, Tina to say - No, we're not comfortable with someone who is actively working with an organization that has said that they don't want people who look like me to be in power and not even sure they really want us here. Then, yeah, you're not going to get access to our voters. And that's a safety concern as much as it is anything else. And so, if there's no one in the local party infrastructure who's going to say that you are a Democrat in good standing, then sorry, you're not going to get access to our voters. So there are times when we have to make those calls - and that is the current case with Andrea Suarez. And they have other ways to be able to get other types of data, but that's it - we have to protect that - our number one resource is being able to know who our base is.

So people, a lot of times, they want to be like - Well, how are we reaching Republicans? That's not the job of the State Party. I am the Chair of the Washington State Democrats - I see the job as reaching our Democratic voters and turning out our base. That's the job. The candidates in the campaigns can do the persuasion work - and that is very important - but that's not what we do. And so people have to understand that when it comes back to it, if you're actively working with Republicans, it's going to cause some pause. It just is. Now, I understand in places that are more purple, that that is - it makes sense - you're going to have to build a coalition that includes people who identify as Republicans. And that I completely understand - and we find our ways to be able to work through that. But at the end of the day, this is our job, which is to focus on turning out the base - because in certainly for statewide races, if we turn out the base, we will win. So that's the stance that I take, and I'm always a little bit - it's confusing to me when I see people who are not in the more purple places really doing all of this extra work. Like, you're in Capitol Hill, and you're talking about wanting to work with Republicans, and just - it doesn't make sense to me. And I don't think it's a smart strategy, and it's going to give a real pause on whether we'd want to give you access to all of our voters.

[00:15:35] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely will give pause. Now, you just referenced - hey, pretty much in Washington State, if we do turn out the base, Democrats win. Democrats are a majority of the state. It's played out that way for quite some time. However, we just had a primary where that almost didn't happen - it came so close to it not happening. In the Commissioner of Public Lands race - out of almost 2 million votes cast - after the first certification, the difference between the second and third place position in a race where the top two go to the general election was just 51 votes. There was really a worry that despite Democrats - in total, all of the Democratic candidates, I believe there were five of them - getting about 57% of the vote in total, that we may not have advanced a Democratic candidate to the general election because of our top-two primary system where we don't send one candidate from each party to the general election, we just send the top two vote-getters. So in a situation where you have Democrats - five of them - in a race to only two Republicans, where Democrats are splitting the vote between several candidates and Republicans aren't, that Democrats almost got locked out of that general election. What does the party need to do in order to make sure that doesn't happen again and that Democrats are represented in general elections?

[00:17:05] Shasti Conrad: Let me start with the good news, which is - the good news is that what we saw in majority of our Congressional races and in our statewide races, that the Democratic vote share was around 57, 58%. So what that tells me is that the base of Democrats is over 50% - it is a solid majority, both statewide and in many of our Congressional districts. Now, the piece of it is that when you go into - you talked about the top-two primary - particularly in the Public Lands Commissioner race, the Republicans put up two candidates. We had five. And we had five where one of the candidates didn't get in until basically the last day of filing week. And when you're doing that, it's obviously going to split the vote. And that means that it is just a bit more difficult because when you're sharing 58% across five people that's going to cut it in. And it was truly by a hair that we were able to get a Democrat across the finish line - it just happened this last week because it took a full month to make sure that every single vote was counted.

So I think I have come in with, there was some tension in previous iterations and generally around the party writ large - so both the national level and on the states and whatnot - around thumbs on scales and what the role is of a party in deterring candidates from getting in and doing the handpicking of who is the top best candidate to get through. I understand that at times that thumb on scale has often gone against younger candidates, people of color, women - and I'm very sensitive to that. And I wanted to make sure that we were not doing that - that people need to have a chance to get out there, run their race. But in the conversations and leading up into filing week, it was certainly like - Run your race, see how it's going. But by the end of filing week, we need to make sure that we are putting ourselves in the best position possible to be able to advance at least one Democrat in all of these various races. People are going to do what they're going to do. People are going to make their own choices. But I do think that that's something that I feel has been missing a little bit in what I've seen, which is - I just wish that people would think about it strategically in how do we make sure that we get someone through who's going to represent Democratic values. And if it's you, fantastic. If it's not, come be a part of the coalition that's going to help us make sure that we are in the strongest position possible. And look - when I ran for State Senate appointment, I came in third out of eight candidates. My career didn't end by not winning. My career really started in this work because I got involved in the party work, I got involved in my local legislative district and then the county - and it was really about how do we work together. And the woman who ended up winning in that race is Senator Rebecca Saldaña, who is fantastic - and who I am thrilled to call not only a colleague and ally in this work, but a friend. And so there's opportunities to be able to do that and to be able to be a team player in that sense. But that takes real - you've got to be willing to put yourself to the side and be able to make sure that you're putting your constituents, people, that you're putting the values in front to make sure that we've got at least one candidate that's going to be able to represent the voters who are Democrats.

[00:20:31] Crystal Fincher: Now, another element of that race, which I think a lot of people may not understand how extensive and involved it is - is the ballot curing process. When people vote with a vote-by-mail system like we have here, there are additional steps that not everyone in every state has, but that we use to make sure that we can verify that the person that should be voting is the one who voted and making sure that our elections have integrity. Some people forget to do that and sign the outside of the envelope or do something technical with that. And so their vote isn't tallied, but the election administration basically says - You have the opportunity to correct whatever deficit happened with your ballot. And then once that happens and we're able to certify that you did everything you were supposed to do to prove it was you, then we can count your vote - that's called ballot curing or ballot rehab. And the party plays a really big role in that. And that actually looks to have made the difference in the Commissioner of Public Lands race, a statewide race, and made the difference in whether a Democrat was going to be in the general election or not. How did the party help the campaign through that process? And how does that demonstrate how important parties are to campaigns and the election infrastructure in the state?

[00:21:49] Shasti Conrad: This is where having a professional organization that is ready to go at a moment's notice is so important and so key to victories. Because the moment that it looked like we were headed towards a recount, which was before it was officially called, we were able to get the Dave Upthegrove campaign set up with VoteBuilder - with our data - so that they would be able to have access to track to see who were people in the different counties that potentially had a ballot that had been challenged. And right away, they were able to have, I think, one of the greatest ballot curing efforts that this state has ever seen. They cured over 2,000 ballots in a week. And it really, I think, made a massive difference because, as you said, before the recount, we thought it was a 51-vote difference. Because of the curing efforts, it narrowed even more to 49. But we wouldn't have won had we not been curing all of those ballots. And so we were right there, ready to go. The other piece of the work that we helped with was election observers. So once we went into the manual recount, we helped the campaign with being set up to be able to do the recruitment for volunteers. We, through our Coordinated Campaign, some of our volunteers helped with all of that. And I do want to give credit to the Dave Upthegrove campaign - they did take the lead, but certainly we were right there with them to help them get set up, help them with legal support, making sure that they had everything that they needed to be able to be successful. And walk them through - I have people on my team who were around for the 2016 recount, and we even have our parliamentarian who was on the legal team for Christine Gregoire. So we have people who have been through this that can be ready to go to help coach. When Dave - Dave'd never been through something like this - and so we were able to help immediately to then win, to get to victory where we were able to land and be able to have it come out on top.

[00:23:44] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. That campaign did an excellent job. But yeah, I don't know that people realize that these campaigns and everything that they deal with - even after the votes are complete - is pretty intricate. And they run and operate on party infrastructure - they use party resources as a regular part of campaigning and to defend and protect the votes that have already been cast. And I'm sure lots of us have that on our minds as we're heading into November and hearing, especially with a number of Republicans who are still denying the 2020 election that are saying that they may not accept the results of this upcoming November election, that those observers, that infrastructure is critically important. Now, I want to talk about some of the priority races for Democrats in Washington in the state. What are the races that you're really paying attention to, investing in, and how can other people support those?

[00:24:46] Shasti Conrad: Definitely - I've been saying for the whole cycle that this is sort of a reverse coattails year, where a lot of times in a presidential cycle, all the energy is driven at the national level. And certainly in the last month that has shifted - there's a lot of national energy that is occurring because of Kamala Harris. But really, it's been our races here in Washington state that are very exciting and really are driving so much of the enthusiasm. A lot of times we just get labeled - Washington state - as a blue state. You hear people say - Well, what's the point? Why should I even vote? Remember those 49 votes that separated us from having two Republicans for a statewide race versus getting a Democrat in there, who we plan to win? Every vote matters. And whenever we've had an open governor's race, it's come down to a percentage point or two - it's a couple hundred votes sometimes. So don't sleep on the Bob Ferguson-Dave Reichert race. Obviously, Attorney General Ferguson is an incredible candidate and an incredible leader, but we cannot take that race for granted. And all of our statewides - I did not think a few months ago the Public Lands Commissioner race was going to be the one that we would be talking about so much, but that certainly - when you have a number like 49 votes, that one's going to need a lot of attention and focus. And all of our statewides - we just got all Democrats in all the statewide seats back in 2022 - first time in 60 years that that had ever really happened. And so we really want to make sure that we're not leaving anything unguarded and we're covering them. Congressional priorities - a road to a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries runs right through Washington State. If we do not return Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Kim Schrier back to Congress, we will have lost the House nationally - that is a bellwether to tell us that we had a bad year and it's not happening. So we need to do everything we can to make sure that we're sending both Marie and Kim, in CD3 and CD8, back to D.C.

And then, we have a really incredible opportunity - in part because of redistricting - to get to supermajorities in our State Legislature. We have incredible opportunity - we've got three amazing Latino women that are running in Yakima in the 14th Legislative District. We are so hopeful that we're going to be able to flip all three of those seats. Up in the 10th Legislative District, we have Janet St. Clair, who's looking to flip the State Senate seat - we flipped the two House seats there over the last four years, and we'd really love to do that again. And up in the 42nd, we've got House seats up there we want to protect. And then down in southwest Washington, the 17th and the 18th as well. And there's all kinds of amazing races - in the 26th, you have Adison Richards, who lost by only 750 votes last time - he's running again. And then the other really big piece of the work this year are the initiatives that a Republican billionaire has put $5 million into basically undoing the landmark legislation that Democrats have put in place to protect our climate, to stand up for caregivers, and for making sure that we're getting the resources that we need to be able to continue to build our infrastructure and whatnot here in Washington state. So there are four initiatives that are going to be on the very top of the ballot, and folks just need to know - vote No. Vote No on all four of those initiatives. If you're going to vote Democrats on down, just vote No, vote No, vote No, vote No - and that is a really important part of what's going to be on the ballot this year too.

[00:28:13] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely important to just vote No on those initiatives - they're part of just a huge Republican overreach. I do want to talk about how you navigated through the run-up to and aftermath of the Biden-Trump debate and the weeks that followed. What was that like within the State Party? Were you involved in conversations? I'm sure people were calling you to both tell you what they thought and to find out what was going on. What was that like and how did you navigate through that?

[00:28:50] Shasti Conrad: Certainly it took an already challenging year and definitely put it in the blender. And it was definitely sort of a pressure grinder - tough couple of weeks there, writ large, right - for the entire party, national, all the way through. Look, certainly I come from - we are going to do what we need to do for our candidates. And at that time, that was President Biden. And so in that immediate aftermath of the debate, we put out a statement pretty quickly to say that we were still supporting President Biden and we were standing by President Biden. We wanted to demonstrate that we would have his back if he was going to be our candidate all the way through. And I felt that we needed to do that because when you look at the difference between Donald Trump - who I think just had an even worse debate than President Biden did back in July, but his party doesn't abandon him - that it was important to demonstrate that we were going to take the totality of President Biden's life of public service, his career, and that truly his administration has been one of the most progressive administrations, certainly in my lifetime, and we were ready to defend him and to do the work that we needed to do if he was going to remain our candidate. Certainly behind the scenes, there were conversations that were happening that were coming both from the grassroots and the sort of donor class and the professional political class of folks who were worried. And what I mostly heard in those conversations was a true, deep fear of not wanting to lose. Because if we lost, it was more than just losing one campaign. It was about democracy, right? It was true fear around that. And everybody from all their various angles, whether they were backing Biden or whether they were calling for him to step down or whatever it was, I believe was truly coming from that vantage point. And it was about what was the best thing that we could do to put us in the best position possible to win and to, quite honestly, save democracy. So it definitely was a moving needle - in the immediate aftermath, there was those conversations, and even from folks like our own Representative Adam Smith, who were in conversations and started to then do - I think they were test balloons a little bit to see what the response would be, how the public would respond to the idea of a change in top of ticket. And through that, certainly having some behind-the-scenes conversation to start to prepare for if there were a shift.

I was very proud. I woke up the Thursday before - the announcement came on Sunday - I don't know, I woke up with this feeling where I was just like, if this is going to happen, or we're going to have a change in leadership, we need to be ready to have Vice President Harris's back immediately. As a woman of color in a leadership role and the first one to do it, I have viscerally felt what it is when people start questioning whether or not you can do the job. Can you carry on the successes of a white successor? Can you do these - all of those - and I knew that as much as it was going to come from the Republican Party, it was also going to come from within our own party. That there were going to be those people who are going to be like - Is she ready? I don't know. Can the country accept a woman and a woman of color? All of that stuff. And so I made some calls to my association of state Democratic committees and the Chair, who's the Chair of the Minnesota Dems Ken Martin, and we pulled together our executive committee there to say - If this happens, we have to be ready to defend her, stand up for the woman who has been doing the job. The reason why you have a vice president is for moments like these. She's been in training for four years and beyond, so we just have to demonstrate that we have her back. And I was really proud to say like that meant that we were ready when the news broke on Sunday morning, that we were the first state party alongside California to get out basically an endorsement of Vice President Harris - because just we were ready. I knew what was coming and I wanted to be really loud and proud and clear of our support for her. And I wanted to commend also President Biden for his career in public service and truly making a incredibly difficult but selfless decision to put us, the party, the country in the best position possible to win. And I still feel that with such overwhelming gratitude for him - been such an ally to have been the first vice president for the first Black president, and now to be ushering in what will be our first woman, our first Black woman, and our first Asian woman president. Yeah, it's incredible.

[00:33:23] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. How did you see the grassroots, the local party organizations - how did they respond? And what was that like after both President Biden announced that he was not going to seek the nomination and that he was endorsing Vice President Harris?

[00:33:42] Shasti Conrad: Truly, it's been a beautiful transition because what I've seen is absolute unity. Certainly, there are people who wanted to make sure - there's always your process people who want to make sure that process is followed and that we were doing everything to make sure that we were putting Vice President Harris in the best position possible, and so that there wouldn't be questions about whether she could become the nominee and the process for all of that. But overall, what I saw was an outpouring of excitement and energy and unity, quite frankly, around supporting her. And I think you saw that from the political entities and the elected officials and whatnot, but there really was a groundswell of local party support. And what we've seen is that it's just - we talked about earlier - a year where I was really seeing most of the energy being driven by our local races here in Washington state. Suddenly there was this real, like the dam broke and people were like - Yes! We are so excited about this history-making moment that we are in, and want to support her and want to make sure that we are able to win in November.

[00:34:49] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I don't recall seeing energy like this for years. Decade - probably, yeah, more than a decade.

[00:34:59] Shasti Conrad: People ask me a lot about - is this like 2008 Obama? And I say - It's more grounded. Because I think that we are more aware at this point of what the stakes are. And having survived 10 years of Trump, we know what we have to do. We understand the assignment in that we have to win and we have to back our nominee to be able to do that. And yes, it is about history making. But I think we're a little bit more weary of what it takes to do this. And I think having lost with Hillary Clinton and people feeling so excited about the potential first woman president and then that not happening, there's something that I'm seeing and feeling that - it's real and authentic in a way that feels like I've never really felt before - where people are just like, We are going to do this. We're going to be disciplined in this. And we just cannot leave anything for granted.

[00:36:00] Crystal Fincher: I want to talk just about the party - again, going back to the idea that it is a big tent party. There's a lot of people with a lot of different beliefs. There are people - lots of people - passionately fighting for Palestinian freedom, passionately fighting for a ceasefire resolution, for peace. A lot of people, I think, sometimes are like - Oh, why are you taking this up with Democrats, taking it up with Republicans? They're worse. And there's kind of an acknowledgement - of course, Republicans are not interested in this. But so many Democrats are. And this is our party - as they're feeling - and so they should respond to the base. They should respond when state parties pass ceasefire resolutions and so many leaders across the country, but definitely in the State Party have. How do you respond to people in the party who say we should be making more demands? We should be using the leverage that we have now before the election - and using the leverage of our vote, using the leverage of this time and attention to draw attention to how our tax dollars are being used and whether they're being used in a just pursuit of peace or not. How do you have those conversations?

[00:37:16] Shasti Conrad: What I like about being a part of the Democratic Party versus, I believe, the other party is that there is room for nuance on our side. Which is, I think that people are able to hold two things at once, which is - like I said, we understand the assignment. There is no peace in the Middle East with Donald Trump. And there is no peace in our communities here in the United States if Donald Trump is in the White House. So we have to win. I would rather be holding Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz accountable and calling on them to do the right thing than battling Trump. And you heard him in the debate name check Viktor Orbán, who is gassing his own people - this is what we're up against. So we understand - we have to do what we need to do to get our folks elected. We just do. Because at least we can debate and we can push and we can be in conversation with Democratic elected officials. I have not seen that and I do not see that - this Republican Party. This is not your grandfather's Republican Party. This is not even your father's Republican Party. This is a Republican Party who, when back in full power, has zero interest in anything that the people want. That's just not what they're about. So I think that holding electeds and the party accountable is important and is a part of civic engagement - and we should be. And I'm proud that Washington state - we were able to hold space for people in our delegation. We had nine people who voted present as a sort of protest vote. And look, what that demonstrates is - you can do that within the party. You can come and you can be a part of the party and still take another stance on these things. But my ask is always come and do it in the party. Let's work on it together. But at the end of the day, remember that when you're sitting down to fill out your ballot, that you at least can engage with Democrats, and you can work with them, and you can work with us. And the accountability is a part of it - that's what makes us great - is that we can debate and we can have these heated discussions. But these are family discussions that we're going to do it and then we're going to go out in the world and we're going to face voters and say - Look, everybody's welcome here - and we're going to move forward with our agenda.

[00:39:34] Crystal Fincher: Now, going into the state convention, a lot of people were wondering if this was going to be a really super contentious convention, if there was going to be a lot of discontent. There are so many different opinions and viewpoints about so many issues. In the Democratic Party, you're bringing together not just lots of people, but people from all across the state, different areas - just a lot to pull together and organize. How did you approach the convention and how did it turn out?

[00:40:08] Shasti Conrad: Yeah, I'm so proud of both the state convention, which we held in June, and then obviously the national convention that just happened this past August. It really was a summer of really gathering our folks, which we hadn't really had a chance to do much because of the pandemic era. And I think folks were really hungry to just be together to be able to show that there's so many of us who are just - who want to do right by our communities, who want to do this work, who want to be engaged in it, and that there is enthusiasm and excitement in this party. Like any major event, it took months to plan the state convention. It was definitely a labor of love. I come from an events background, so this stuff was really important to me. I know the power of that moment where you gather folks and people feel like they're together. We had all-day trainings on Saturday that people told me were some of the best trainings that they'd ever been to. I look at it as our party people are our best messengers. The thing that makes us so great is we have the best volunteer base - I think in the country, but certainly in Washington state - who are our best messengers to talk to their neighbors, to talk to their community members about our candidates, about the initiative campaigns, why we support what we support, and why it's important to be engaged and vote and do all that work. So we plan trainings to make sure that - I'd heard people really wanted messaging - they wanted to know how to engage in rural communities, and they really wanted to make sure that they were well prepared to be able to go out into community to do this work. And so, we did that, and then we had our business meeting where we got through passing our platform. And there were a number of resolutions related particularly to ceasefire, because that is one of the biggest things that we're talking about this year. And for me, it was just very important to create space for people to be heard. And we went over time a little bit, and what we found was that at least folks felt like they had an opportunity to have their say. And at the end of the day, we got through it. There was times there was a little bit of tension as people pick sides and had their say. But at the end of the day, we came back together and we got through it - and we were able to move forward and we came out with a strong platform that is representative of our big tent. And so I'm very, very proud of that. And folks told me that it was one of the best state conventions they've been to in 25 years, and I felt so proud of that. And we had our great candidates that showed up - Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Senator Cantwell, all of our folks were there - which was wonderful.

And then we just came from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago - and it was just joy was the theme of the week. People were so joyful to be together, joyful to be in this moment that is this opportunity to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and really feeling a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. And that is what I love about politics. I love about being in the party. I love this work - is it feels like it is something that really allows us to live out our purpose as people who are a part of community and society and feel like we have each other's backs. And it was truly joyful. Our delegation was the belle of the ball because we had these fancy blinking cowboy hats that got everybody's attention.

[00:43:22] Crystal Fincher: They landed in the Smithsonian!

[00:43:24] Shasti Conrad: We landed in the Smithsonian! On the first night where we have these hats - which are based off of Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter album, when we had sashes that said Cowboy Kamala - someone from the Smithsonian came up and said, We put together exhibits on conventions and we'd love to have one of your hats to put into the Smithsonian. It's just so incredible. And I was able to give a hat to Governor Tim Walz. And so you never know. And people could see us throughout the entire convention center because we were lit up - even in the dark. So very special.

[00:43:57] Crystal Fincher: I have to tell you - people were very, very excited about the official pick and nomination of VP Harris and the party. But I will tell you, there was also so much excitement for the pick of Governor Walz to be future President Harris's vice president. So much excitement - a lot of it because of what he and the Democratic Party were able to accomplish in Minnesota - a lot of the things that have been on the wish list of plenty of people here. As we come out of these conventions, what is the Democratic agenda? What can people rely on the Democratic Party to fight for?

[00:44:42] Shasti Conrad: Yeah, certainly. And yeah, I think we were all so thrilled with Governor Walz. And I joke that we grew him in a lab because he truly hits all those points of a veteran, agriculture and rural communities, his daughter was conceived through IVF, teacher, coach, middle class background - which both him and the vice president share. And so I'd say I think that when you talk about a Democratic agenda and what our focus is, I truly believe that it is about a new pathway forward that is really about growing and expanding the middle class, making sure that we all have a seat at the table, that we have what we need, and that we feel like we're able to live our best lives as Americans, as people who are seen and heard. And that is through better housing policy, healthcare policy, student loan relief - understanding what the average person is going through and recognizing that that's the best of America. That's who we need to be thinking about, not the top 1% cronies and how do we get tax cuts for the wealthy. They'll be okay. They will be okay. But it's true that we've got to make sure that folks are able to work a good job, work a decent paying job, and be able to take care of their kids and their parents as they age, and be able to live a good life where they feel like that there's value here. And I already have felt this shift. There's a generational shift, I feel like, that's occurring too around someone like Vice President Harris who has lived that life. She understands - she talks about her mom saving up for years to be able to buy a house - that's someone who's seen it and felt it. And then also watching as her mom got sick with cancer and what it's like to worry about paying medical bills. That's someone who's lived it and feels it in a different way, and is able to then recognize what you and me go through. And you and I have had these conversations - we've both been daughters who've cared for aging parents and things like that. Vice President Harris gets that. And I feel that so much. And that is what I believe the Democratic Party - that's what we're all about - and we have to stay true to our roots.

[00:46:51] Crystal Fincher: Thank you so much for sharing so much with us today. If people want to get more involved with the State Party, how can they do that?

[00:46:59] Shasti Conrad: So we have our website that has links to be able to sign up to volunteer. I'll make sure that you have that for the show notes, but it's just wa-democrats.org/volunteer. Time, talent, treasure - if you've got a couple extra bucks that you can send our way to make sure that we can get all the organizing support in places to be able to close this election cycle out, you can donate there. And really, the line of our incredible former first lady, Michelle Obama - Do something. Everybody's got to find something that they can do to help us win this year, whether that is sending a postcard to voters in battlegrounds, whether it's going to a battleground state, and then not forgetting to do the work back here in Washington state to knock a door, make a phone call, send a text message, and also just talking to your friends and family about why this work matters to you, who you're excited to support and vote for, and inviting them to come with you to go door knock. Doing all of that - all the data says that is the best way to encourage people to vote - is to talk about how much it means to you and why you're doing it. And every bit helps. So just find something - get in, fit in, do it, and do something.

[00:48:11] Crystal Fincher: Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:48:14] Shasti Conrad: Thank you.

[00:48:15] Crystal Fincher: Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks, which is produced by Shannon Cheng. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on every podcast service and app - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the podcast episode notes.

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