A Vote for All and a Message to Get Us There: Voting Rights Messaging for 2019 and Beyond
Session Type(s): Training
Training Tag(s): Communications
Starts: Thursday, Jul. 11 10:15 AM (Eastern)
Ends: Thursday, Jul. 11 11:15 AM (Eastern)
Even though nearly every major newspaper’s editorial board has championed voting rights, voting rights advocates struggle to achieve proactive policy wins. Why is that? ReThink Media analyzed more than 4,100 articles; nearly 22,000 quotations; and over 600 million tweets, and combined this intelligence with three years of public opinion and messaging research from more than five leading research firms to figure out why and how to fix it. Come learn how we can re-center this most important civil right in the American political consciousness and build a better democracy for us all. We’ll learn how to reframe our messages to better reach the public through themes and values that move people to listen to and act with voting rights advocates.
This training is best suited for people who talk about voting rights in their daily work.
Moderators
Ricardo Ramírez
Ricardo Ramírez founded Forward Shift Strategies after 13 years of experience with advocacy, political, and social justice communications work. Earlier, Ricardo served as democracy program director for ReThink Media, a data-driven nonprofit organization focused on building the communications capacity of social justice organizations across the country. He was also a senior member of the communications team at Advancement Project’s national office, where he worked with organizations at the forefront of grassroots racial justice and civil rights fights, including efforts to expand the right to vote and defend immigrant and refugee rights. During his tenure with AP, he helped power communications strategies that resulted in thousands of people with past felony convictions regaining the right to vote.
Originally from Puerto Rico, Ricardo got his start through years of work in political press offices, including the U.S. Senate and the Democratic National Committee, where he served as a regional press secretary as well as Latino communications director. He was an integral part of President Barack Obama’s successful 2012 campaign in Florida, where he led communications for the I-4 corridor. Ricardo is passionate about racial justice, winning narratives, and a successful communications plan.
Emma Weinstein-Levey
Emma Weinstein-Levey is a Media Associate with the Democracy collaborative, focusing on Voting Rights. She supports campaigns to maintain and expand access to the vote by providing story-focused communications strategy and media training to partner organizations around the US.
Prior to joining ReThink, Emma was a Communications Associate at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), where she led media strategy for the criminal justice reform and immigrant justice projects. This included guest worker rights litigation, juvenile justice legislation, and education access campaigns. She also worked on reproductive rights advocacy at Population Action International and NARAL Pro-Choice America. She has managed editorial outreach strategies, developed spokesperson trainings, and created messaging for a variety of civil rights issues. Oral history and storytelling traditions guide her approach to communications work—she believes we build a better world by centering the stories and experiences of marginalized people in creating a new narrative.
Emma hails from the Land of 10,000 Lakes and will gladly tell you it about its many virtues. Outside of work she enjoys baking bread, reading, biking, and seeing live music and art.