For years, people have asked for diversity among political leaders but positions of power remain predominately white. The Boulder County Democrats hope to change it with a new training.
When Lafayette’s mayor JD Mangat and Representative-elect for Colorado House District 10 Junie Joseph ran for office, they felt they had to learn a lot about political campaigning on their own. While many politicians have this feeling, many white candidates have the benefit of generational knowledge that doesn’t exist in communities of color.
After the Boulder County Democratic party hosted an online panel in which recently elected people of color were able to discuss their experiences with the political process.
“Through that conversation, we started to realize we had a lot more in common than we thought as elected officials of color within the county,” Mangat said.
The realization prompted further discussion on the struggles people of color face when running for political office — which included obstacles created by opponents, people who don’t want to see people of color succeed, nasty text messages, verbal abuse, fundraising obstacles, the ability to put oneself into uncomfortable situations and more.
After sharing their stories, Mangat and Joseph decided it was time to create a network and a community that would empower future leaders of color to step up and share their voices.
On January 21, the Boulder County Democratic party will host its first BIPOC Rising training session. Those who attend will hear from elected leaders of color who represent various areas around the state. These leaders will discuss the challenges they faced during their campaigns and how they overcame them.
Participants will not only spend the entire day learning from these elected officials but will enter into a mentorship program and a community dedicated to supporting their efforts to run for and get elected to office.
“This process is very lonely for people of color, because there is not that history … you don’t have that institutional knowledge, you don’t have that roadmap and hopefully that is what this particular training will create. All of these things are barriers. All these things we are working on to educate community members of color, if you don’t know them, they are barriers to getting elected,” Joseph said.
In addition to breaking down the barriers for people of color, the group hopes to create a community that will continue to serve future generations of political hopefuls.
“What I hope for this training is that is going to create that sense of community, that there are other people of color in the community who are interested; that it’s ok to step forward and say ‘I want to do this,’” Joseph said.
Magnat said he hopes the community that is established will begin to help determine the outcome of future elections for candidates of color.
“We are the ones elevating each other and we are the ones ensuring that we bring more people with us that way we don’t feel like we are going out of our element just to be a representative of our community.
So far, the Boulder County Democratic party is encouraged by the diversity of participants signed up for the training. According to Pam Malzbender, team leader for the party’s Outreach and Inclusion Team, more than 20 participants have added their names to the roster.
The training is open to all people who are registered as a Democrat but especially those who are interested in representing underrepresented groups.
“We really just want to represent the underrepresented and get them involved,” Mangat said.
Enrollment will close the night of Jan. 8.
“We want people to participate. We want people to join the process because we are at this time in our history that we want people to feel connected. We want people’s voices to be represented in government. I don’t want to speak for the LGBTQ community all by myself, I want them to be represented themselves … because they know what is going on in their communities. That is what this training is about. It is about empowering community leaders so that one day they too can join this table,” Joseph said.
