September 2, 2025 • 27 mins
Amy speaks with Lauren Harper Pope, cofounder of The Welcome Pac, an organization focused on expanding the democratic tent beyond the stale rhetoric and purity tests.
*This episode was recorded on August 25th 2025 and Aired September 2nd 2025
About Truth in the Barrel:
Amy and Denver are both military veterans, political junkies, and whiskey lovers who sit on opposite sides of the aisle but have one thing in common: they love the United States of America.
Truth in the Barrel was born of Amy & Denver’s commitment to country, the Constitution, and a well-curated collection of the world’s finest bourbon.
Join them weekly for deep dives into timely topics, interviews with recognizable guests, and a dose of call-in fun.
Visit The Welcome Pac :
Visit Our Website:
Subscribe to Truth in the Barrel:
https://www.youtube.com/@TruthIntheBarrel
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0JQcSj5mwVyGDJ8DcXwlu9?si=5f2bd1d1b0c64e6f
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/truth-in-the-barrel/id1804092329
Instagram, BlueSky, Facebook, TikTok:
@TruthintheBarrel
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
For the Democratic Party to win elections, it needs to reach mainstream voters, not justthose who pass all the progressive tests.
It's still true that the path to winning back the House of Representatives runs throughcenter-right leaning districts.
And there is a way to put some long-time safe Republican districts in play.
(00:25):
Joining me to talk about this is Lauren Harper Pope.
co-founder of the Welcome Pack, a group of strategists who come from across the politicalspectrum and from a variety of geographies and partisan backgrounds with the goal of
protecting our democracy.
Lauren Harper Pope, welcome to Truth in the Barrel.
Thanks, Amy.
(00:46):
So nice to see you and thanks for having me.
Yeah, well, I want to get we're going to get to politics and to the theory for victorythat you have and races around the country.
But I want to start with you um and your background.
You you have roots in is it South Carolina and Texas?
Is that right?
(01:06):
Yeah, largely South Carolina.
grew up in South Carolina.
I actually still live like 20 minutes from my hometown in TK, but I went to the Universityof South Carolina.
So proud Gamecock, big Gamecock football fans, so excited for football season.
uh And yeah, I spent two years, my husband in Texas, just kind of, you know, exploring anddoing something different, but Texas was way too hot for me.
(01:27):
So we came right back home shortly after we got married.
Yeah, and how did you get into politics?
To give you a long story short, very accidentally I say, but accidentally and by the graceof God, because I was studying public relations at the University of South Carolina.
University of South Carolina is in Columbia, South Carolina, which is the capital of ourstate.
(01:48):
And so I found myself getting opportunities for internships that were government related.
So I interned for former mayor Steve Benjamin, who I worked for after college, internedfor a state house rep and then Senator, me and McLeod.
intern in a lobbyist firm and just had like a variety of internships and opportunitiesbefore I graduated that were very public service facing.
(02:10):
And I was like, this is really cool.
And I knew that with my career, I could do anything, right?
And so I was like, do I want to, you know, just go make some company money or do I want todo something that I think is going to genuinely add value to the world around me?
And I thought that public service would be the right way to do it.
So that's, that's the route I went.
And you are the co-founder of the Welcome Party, the Welcome PAC.
(02:33):
And I know you're going to tell us a little bit about that.
But one of the things that I love about your PAC and your party is that you have a strongresearch arm and you identify races around the country where Democrats can win with the
right type of candidate.
So can you share some of that analysis or just tell us a little bit about what the WelcomeParty is all about?
(02:57):
And I always want to preface everything I say with the Welcome Party is not to make athird party.
We are not Elon Musk trying to make some new party or even forward party.
But say I'd like to say we are trying to make a more welcoming Democratic party.
Right.
So when we started the Welcome Party work, my co-founder, Liam Kerr and I, I was in SouthCarolina and he's based outside of Boston.
(03:19):
So he was doing work in New Hampshire.
So this is back in 2019, early 2020.
pre-COVID.
And we're saying, hey, what can we do to try to get more people to vote in this Democraticpresidential primary?
And so we were, know, South Carolina's first in the South, New Hampshire's first in thenation.
And so we were saying, let's try to do something where we can get more of a representationof this electorate in this state, particularly in states like ours that have open
(03:50):
primaries, I should say.
So, and we knew that, you know, if less ideological voters are not getting reached out to,then they're probably not gonna participate in this primary.
And we did a survey early on with the Welcome Party work to voters in these states.
And we found that like less than one in four of the least ideological voters in the statewere getting contacted by campaigns.
(04:11):
Right, and this is when everybody and their mom ran for president, right?
So you had, I was working for Beto at one point, you had Kamala Harris, you had Joe Biden,you had everybody running for president.
And these people in South Carolina weren't getting contacted by campaign.
Like that sounds nuts, right?
But they weren't because they were, you know, scored differently in NGP-VAN.
So we were saying this effort to say, let's get more people to vote in this primary.
(04:36):
And then so fast forward to 2021, we started our PAC.
2023, we started the Welcome Democracy Institute, which is ours 501C3.
So your point about the research.
And so we do this thing called, we call it the congressional competitive index, where weask them, or what are the most competitive and least competitive congressional districts
(04:57):
in the country?
So we release the support quarterly and we say, is anyone challenging this Democrat?
That could be challenging this Democrat.
Is anybody challenging this Republican?
That could be challenging this Republican.
And our research early on identified in 2022, California's 41st, Ken Calvert.
(05:17):
No one had ever run a competitive campaign against Calvert basically in 30 years.
And then Lauren Boebert, who was, you know, one of our favorite villains in Congress, butshe actually was in a pretty decently competitive district, right?
So that was a cycle we supported with Rollins and Adam Frisch in 2022.
And then obviously again in 2024.
But again, like when you talk about the research, it's like the numbers are always outthere, right?
(05:41):
Like the data is always out there.
It's just a matter of how do you want to dig into it?
How do you want to compete?
Right.
And we, our original report was called the Conceding Democracy Report, where we weresaying, look, Democrats are actually conceding democracy to these MAGA Republicans because
they're not actually putting up a race against them.
Right.
They're running candidates who are raising, oh you know, $30,000 to run against aDemocrat, mean, a Republican incumbent.
(06:03):
They're not running real races.
Right.
Right.
We were trying to find who could be, you know, this centrist Democrat who could runagainst a MAGA incumbent and actually beat them.
Right.
And so that's how we got all started.
And it's really important today, right?
Because just in the next cycle, there's not that many seats that Dems need to pick up towin the House.
(06:29):
Right?
I mean, in order to hold this administration accountable.
So it's doable.
Yeah, it's totally doable.
And we could have had a house majority a few cycles now in 2022, 2024, and then hopefullyin 2026.
But to your point, it's very doable.
And so when we talk about Welcome PAC specifically, our work focuses on what we call, youmentioned in your intro, conservative leaning or center-right districts across the
(06:58):
country.
So we're not specific to any state or even any region necessarily.
We're just like, hey, what are the most competitive districts
out there and how do we find the most vulnerable Republican incumbents who are just simplyout of touch with their districts, right?
So places like last cycle, Pennsylvania's 10th with Scott Perry when Janelle Stelson ranagainst him.
(07:21):
She had one of the closest races in the country and if she had won, she would have beenone of the huge decision makers for regaining house majority last cycle.
But say I like to say, know, Parisburg, that PA 10 area, like,
That was vulnerable, right?
It was a place that Scott Perry was very out of touch with his voters.
And, you know, he was voting against like uh protective gear for firefighters.
(07:44):
Like dude, who does that?
Right?
Like a firefighter of all people are like the most uh well-liked public servants outthere.
Right?
um So, you know, we're finding places that are opportunities for Democrats to trulycompete and running what we call aggressively centrist Democrats against those
Republicans.
Yeah, because you know, like Lauren Boebert and Scott Perry are super duper far right,like mega.
(08:08):
they, you know, their districts are not R plus 50.
I mean, they're not necessarily swing districts, but they're not super duper red.
And so if you can get the right candidate in there and really expose all of the sort of
(08:29):
craziness of the incumbents that are in there to the voters there, you have a really goodshot.
Why did you name your group the Welcome Party or Welcome Pack?
What is that all about?
What's the welcome piece?
Yeah, so we originally named it Welcome because if you think about like the welcome partyfor a wedding, right?
(08:49):
It's like the first time everybody's getting together, you're meeting everyone.
It's like a fun time, right?
So one of the big things about our brand is we wanna be welcoming, we wanna be empathetic,and we wanna be fun, right?
Democrats are, you know, the approval ratings and the gutter and people perceive us asjust this elitist, out of touch, unfun.
Paul Monter Party, right?
(09:10):
And I'm saying all these things, other people have said this, I'm not the only one sayingthese things.
But when you think about a brand, you want someone who's gonna be like, I wanna go totheir tailgate, right?
Speaking of football season, that's where I wanna hang out.
So we want them to be welcoming.
And then specifically wanted to be welcoming as a democratic coalition to um Republicanswho are more moderate, right?
(09:30):
So you're like business class, whatever Republicans, they're not like super magnetconservative Trumpy, they're just.
Republicans, right?
The regular conservatives.
And then also swing voters, right?
Independent voters, uh particularly independent voters, which obviously we're having anincreasingly large number of our electorate become quote unquote independent voters or
unaffiliated voters for that matter.
(09:51):
So we wanted to be welcoming to these Republicans and independent voters and to theDemocratic coalition.
uh But now increasingly, particularly as 2024 cycle has passed, like we're trying to bewelcoming to Democrats in our own party.
Right?
And I say this again as a red state Democrat who is a very conservative Democrat, someonewho's, you know, much more usually to the right of most Democrats on any given issue.
(10:14):
And I feel sometimes unwelcome in my own party.
And so I'm like, I'm sure there are plenty of other people.
I have plenty of friends who feel this way.
So what am I doing?
What are we going to do to ensure that uh Democrats who are conservative leaning, even,you know, moderate Democrats still feel welcomed as Democrats in this party?
Particularly when you talk about people of color.
(10:34):
younger people who are returning independent, right?
Like, you know, I'm not going to get into, you know, taking for granted the black vote.
Like, hey, like we're usually more moderate than progressive.
So say that to say, um welcome.
We wanted to be welcoming.
that was the brand of like, come on in.
We're a centrist band family.
And one thing I do want to hit on is like, you know, we are what we call partisancentrist, right?
(10:58):
You can be a centrist.
You can, you know, not have a party affiliation.
But it's actually a lot more valuable for you to be a partisan centrist.
So someone within a certain party who is specifically with that party.
We had a conversation on my podcast, The Depolarizers, last year with Dee Dee Kuo, who's ascientist and researcher at Stanford.
And she was talking about how the parties have become so hollow and they just kind of arejust noels for.
(11:23):
party activity, right?
Like, the DNC is doing this and they're having this convention or whatever.
Like they're just shells really, right?
For just party activity.
They don't actually have the robust infrastructure that they weren't intended or createdto have.
So say that to say you should, instead of, this is her argument, which I agree with, butshe said, instead of becoming an independent, why don't you become just a more independent
minded person within a party?
(11:45):
So if you want to be a conservative, be an independent minded Republican.
If you want to be a Democrat, be an independent minded Democrat, right?
just stick with the party so that the party has more flavor, more robustness, right?
Because even to what I was saying about people leaving the party to become independents,they're leaving the party because they find the party going away from them, right?
But if you stay within your party infrastructure, you're forcing the mechanisms of thisparty to take you seriously, right?
(12:11):
To consider you, right?
Because if you're part of the Democratic primary electorate, you're going to have to,people are going to have to listen to what you have to say when it's time to come out to
vote.
Yeah, it makes sense.
And we know, like the New York Times reported just recently in the last couple of weeksthat the Democratic Party is facing a voter registration crisis sort of around the
(12:33):
country.
Why do you think this is happening?
I mean, basically everything I just said, right, the party has become more progressivethan the median Democratic primary voter, right?
um And so when that happens, people are like, I don't wanna be with them, right?
I'd rather just be my own thing, being independent, right?
And that's, if anyone wants to do that, that's fine.
(12:55):
But again, it forces, when you stay within a party, it forces the party to have to earnyour vote.
And to have to earn your vote, they're gonna have to change policy, messaging, branding,decision-making, rhetoric.
to become the people that are willing to become a party that is what people want.
And so one thing that I do talk about a lot is depolarizers.
(13:17):
And so this is the name of my podcast, but it's more of just like a program withinWelcome, because depolarizers are people who are able to win over an array on the spectrum
of voters because they're depolarizing in their rhetoric and their action and theirbehaviors.
People who are willing to not vote with their party
but prioritize local place based issues, right?
(13:38):
So particularly for members of Congress, if you're Marigold's in Camp Perez and you'revoting against student loan debt cancellation, because it's it's not something that your
district values or prioritizes because for whatever, you know, whatever percent of peoplewho actually go to college in your district, you're gonna vote against it because that's
not what your district wants, right?
And you'll get backlash, you know, she literally had people on Yelp.
(14:01):
talking, you know, giving bad Yelp reviews to her family's auto body shop, right?
Because she was trying to be a depolarizer, prioritize her district over the party'spriorities, which were again, probably misplaced in that even anyway.
And she got backlash for it, right?
So depolarizers are not always rewarded with, you know, fun hugs and kisses on Twitter andeverything, but they are rewarded by her getting reelected this past cycle, her being able
(14:26):
to show her differentiation from the Democratic brand that is so toxic at this point.
Yeah, and you talk about the fact that Democrats need to sort of reject purity tests towelcome this majority that can actually win.
um Can you give some examples of what that means to folks?
(14:49):
Totally.
um So our friends at Third Way actually have a few memos of like, you know, throw out thequestionnaires and don't take pledges, which I'm like, heck yeah, like, let's do that,
right?
But when you come, when it comes down to uh the democratic infrastructure, uh you know,over the past several years, it has just become like this, like check a box party, right?
(15:09):
And it's like, you know,
Do you agree with this?
Do you support this?
And it's like, what even is this?
I call it like the Build-A-Bear Party.
Like we're literally just trying to build people who can check all these boxes, have thiscolor skin, be this gender, whatever.
And it's just like, you are checking all these boxes but completely missing the point.
(15:30):
And so you're not actually able to relate to voters.
You're putting yourself within these confinements that are keeping you from actuallyrelating authentically and genuinely with voters.
And so when you think about purity tests and whatever, like one thing that we've been bigon is like, we don't have a questionnaire for our PAC, right?
Our campaign, I mean, our campaign, our welcome team has met with like 60 somethingcampaigns in 2020 for the 2026 cycle already this year.
(15:56):
And at first I was like, what the heck is going on?
How are we having all these calls?
But it's been really valuable to meet so many people and understand better what the ethosand the thought processes are for the 2026 election cycle.
But I say that to say,
um We don't have a questionnaire for Welcome Pack.
So you're not going to see one if you see one, it's not real.
So yeah, because it's not real, right?
(16:16):
But um we have conversations, right?
And obviously, we have an array of questions that we typically ask people.
So we say, hey, what is something that you're frustrated with the Democrats about?
Right?
What frustrates you about our party?
Or um what are some things that if you had a Democratic president in office that you would
(16:38):
probably break with your party on based on past priorities, right?
What would you have broken with Biden on for that matter?
Yeah, right.
Like specifically, like what would be votes that you might be one of like 10 Democrats tovote with Republicans on because it matters to your district.
And it's something that's actually genuinely authentic to who you are as a person, right?
Don't forget the personhood when you run for Congress, like continuing to be.
(16:59):
Right.
So say that I'm speaking to someone who knows this already, but you know.
I I think about that a lot.
I'm somebody that, for example, national security is kind of my thing.
And I'm a very strong person when it comes to we need a strong military.
We need to fund it.
(17:20):
ah We need to stand up for Ukraine, for example.
In my belief, we could have maintained a uh
modest presence in a place like Afghanistan and not had it fall.
But you I mean, you do, you have to look at who you are as a person and also the districtthat you want to represent.
(17:48):
Totally, But yeah, so going back to the questionnaire, purity testing, yeah, so we justhave these conversations, right?
So we try to understand who people are, where they're coming from.
And I try to tell people like, one, you're in a safe place, right?
Because when people have conversations with a lot of PACs, they're in the DC mindset, Icall the DC mindset, which again, no offense, I have a lot of friends, lots of people I
(18:12):
love in DC, but they think like DC, right?
And so I'm like, look, this is a safe place.
If you got a hot take or a spicy take.
Lay it on me, right?
I'm probably to the right of you anyway, right?
So let's talk about something that is safe and authentic to you and don't feel like youhave to walk on eggshells with us because you know, like our team is pretty chill, right?
And then say all that to say, uh some of the more questionnaire type thing, I'm sorry, notquestionnaire, but more of the conversation things that we have with our, the candidates
(18:40):
that we're talking to is, you know, what is a policy that is differentiated from thedemocratic brand for you?
Right.
It doesn't have to be anything specific, right?
We're not saying, you must break with the party on this.
Like we don't really care what you break with the party on.
It could be something that's not actually a policy, but more of a value space thing,right?
But let's have a conversation about where you differentiate with the party, because ifyou're a hundred percent, you know, gung ho Democrat, then like quite frankly, you're
(19:06):
probably not going to win in this type of district.
And you're also probably not going to be anyone who appeals to these types of voters.
um So we are just been, we've just been very honest and very frank with people.
uh And again, we haven't had, we've had some conversations where we're like that wentnowhere.
And like, this is just, this person just wants to be a regular Democrat and that's fine.
That's what you want to do again, be you honey, be you.
(19:29):
But we're looking for a very specific type of candidate.
These are the questions we try to surface and understand better, again, place-basedpolitics, what the issues that are specific to your district.
that may not be on the national radar, but something that you intend to espouse andsupport in your campaign.
So you had a convention this summer where you brought in folks who have been able to winin purple, red districts even.
(19:55):
How did that go?
What was the most impressive piece out of bringing everybody together and talking aboutthese things?
First all, was a great time.
Again, we like to have a good time.
So was called Welcome Fest.
So basically a festival where we gather over performers and we cultivate a centristfaction, right?
(20:16):
So I don't think I mentioned that yet, but welcome is very into centrist faction building.
Progressives have their faction, love it, bless it.
Centrists, we also have our faction.
What are we doing to grow and strengthen a robust centrist faction?
And we co-hosted and partnered with several organizations to
do Welcome Fest.
So we were like, look, this is not just a welcome thing.
(20:36):
We want to make sure that everyone knows that you're a critical piece of this puzzle,right?
We can't do it without New Dems.
We can't do it without the Blue Dogs.
We can't do without Third Way, PPI, all of our friends, right, in the center.
So we try to ensure that people know that this is a group effort, team project, right?
So say that to say, Welcome Fest was awesome.
We held the first Welcome Fest last year in 2024.
(20:58):
with the theme of For the People in the Middle.
So it's kind of a playoff of the Harris campaign of For the People, Comma Harris for thePeople.
So we're like, look, for the people in the middle, this is us, right?
And then this year's Welcome Fest, um we doubled the size of last year.
So last year we had about 300 folks.
This year we had 600 folks and it was just incredible.
And the theme was responsibility to win, right?
(21:19):
So how are we taking responsibility to win in these districts and just generally speakingas Democrats?
So we had some awesome speakers.
um
The Blue Dogs, Marie-Luz and Ken Perez, Jared Golden, Adam Gray spoke.
Several new Dems, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Janelle Stelson, Tom Swazee, Rebecca Cook.
I think I'm missing one on there, but we had Jake Offenklaas.
(21:42):
We had Richie Torres.
We had Alyssa Slotkin.
It was just so fun.
We had all the folks.
And obviously, there's several other people that we didn't were able to mention or featurethis year that we intend to bring into the loop for next year's Welcome Fest.
So if you weren't there and you didn't speak, don't feel bad.
We invite you next week.
So, you know, it was just a really good time, right?
(22:02):
And we were able to, again, explore overperformance, right?
So, Laksha Jain from Split Ticket did a presentation on, you know, like war andoverperformance and what types of candidates overperform and found things like, look, if
you look at the explicit data on overperformance, Janelle Selsen is actually a bigger overperformer than AOC, right?
(22:23):
Because she's more moderate, right?
And moderate candidates win.
particularly in these types of districts.
granted, Janelle didn't win last cycle, I hope that she wins this cycle, but those thingsmatter, right?
Your ability to relate to voters, meet voters where they are, not just geographically, butideologically, it really does matter.
And when we coalesce around an agenda that is very people focused, that is taking the 80on the 80-20 issues, like those are the simple things, right?
(22:46):
There's like a lot of things that we could do.
We could try to contort ourselves, twist ourselves into these boxes and become whateverthat people want us to be, like, no.
let's just be genuinely authentic and let's be with voters on the issues.
Let's care about what they care about.
Let's prioritize what they prioritize.
Let's talk about what they talk about, right?
And, you know, our friends at More in Common, they have always, you know, been puttingthese things out about like, are voters' perceptions of the parties, right?
(23:11):
They talk about often, you know, voters perceive Republicans to have priorities likeimmigration and healthcare and stuff like that.
And that's actually what Republicans talk about.
And whereas Democrats, they perceive Democrats to prioritize like abortion and LGBTQ andclimate when Democrats, that's not exactly what they prioritize, but that's what voters
(23:32):
perceive them to prioritize, right?
So how do we reframe our messaging so that we're actually, again, meeting voters wherethey are on the issues and speaking to them about the things that are genuinely of utmost
concern to them.
Yeah, and those issues depend on your district too.
Totally.
If you're running in New York City, it is different than running in, what is it,Pennsylvania 10?
(23:55):
Yes.
Yeah.
In Harrisburg area.
So if people want to get to know more about the Welcome Pack, I know you have a sub stack,which is really good.
You guys do some good research and good writing on some of these topics.
ah But also if they want to support you or learn more about what you do, where should theygo?
(25:45):
Yeah, that makes total sense.
I really appreciate you coming on and talking about this.
This is such an important issue because we've got to reach out to everybody uh who is inthe pro-democracy camp right now, not just Democrats, but independents and uh Republicans
who are sort of fed up.
I mean, I've talked to lots of people who voted for Trump and what is happening right nowis not what they voted for.
(26:13):
And so there has to be an alternative there where they can say, all right, I'm going tovote to check this president now.
And that alternative can't be so different from their values in order for them to vote forthat person.
And I just feel like this is such an important piece in order to, frankly, the goal is toprotect our democracy right now.
(26:41):
Because in my belief,
And I think a lot of other people, the Republican party is not the party of democracy.
um What's happening in our country with uh this bill that was just passed that added a tonof money to our debt, threw people off of healthcare, the rising prices, tariffs, the
(27:02):
undemocratic things that you're seeing in our country.
mean, just seriously, the deployment of our national guard around cities.
ah is just appalling.
And a lot of people get that.
Even if they voted for this, you know, or they're long time Republican voters, they sortof get that.
So I feel like we have to keep working to provide an alternative that people can believein.
(27:34):
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for being on the show, Lauren, and really appreciate you and allthe work that you do.
For the Democratic Party to win elections, it needs to reach mainstream voters, not justthose who pass all the progressive tests.
It's still true that the path to winning back the House of Representatives runs throughcenter-right leaning districts.
And there is a way to put some long-time safe Republican districts in play.
(00:25):
Joining me to talk about this is Lauren Harper Pope.
co-founder of the Welcome Pack, a group of strategists who come from across the politicalspectrum and from a variety of geographies and partisan backgrounds with the goal of
protecting our democracy.
Lauren Harper Pope, welcome to Truth in the Barrel.
Thanks, Amy.
(00:46):
So nice to see you and thanks for having me.
Yeah, well, I want to get we're going to get to politics and to the theory for victorythat you have and races around the country.
But I want to start with you um and your background.
You you have roots in is it South Carolina and Texas?
Is that right?
(01:06):
Yeah, largely South Carolina.
grew up in South Carolina.
I actually still live like 20 minutes from my hometown in TK, but I went to the Universityof South Carolina.
So proud Gamecock, big Gamecock football fans, so excited for football season.
uh And yeah, I spent two years, my husband in Texas, just kind of, you know, exploring anddoing something different, but Texas was way too hot for me.
(01:27):
So we came right back home shortly after we got married.
Yeah, and how did you get into politics?
To give you a long story short, very accidentally I say, but accidentally and by the graceof God, because I was studying public relations at the University of South Carolina.
University of South Carolina is in Columbia, South Carolina, which is the capital of ourstate.
(01:48):
And so I found myself getting opportunities for internships that were government related.
So I interned for former mayor Steve Benjamin, who I worked for after college, internedfor a state house rep and then Senator, me and McLeod.
intern in a lobbyist firm and just had like a variety of internships and opportunitiesbefore I graduated that were very public service facing.
(02:10):
And I was like, this is really cool.
And I knew that with my career, I could do anything, right?
And so I was like, do I want to, you know, just go make some company money or do I want todo something that I think is going to genuinely add value to the world around me?
And I thought that public service would be the right way to do it.
So that's, that's the route I went.
And you are the co-founder of the Welcome Party, the Welcome PAC.
(02:33):
And I know you're going to tell us a little bit about that.
But one of the things that I love about your PAC and your party is that you have a strongresearch arm and you identify races around the country where Democrats can win with the
right type of candidate.
So can you share some of that analysis or just tell us a little bit about what the WelcomeParty is all about?
(02:57):
And I always want to preface everything I say with the Welcome Party is not to make athird party.
We are not Elon Musk trying to make some new party or even forward party.
But say I'd like to say we are trying to make a more welcoming Democratic party.
Right.
So when we started the Welcome Party work, my co-founder, Liam Kerr and I, I was in SouthCarolina and he's based outside of Boston.
(03:19):
So he was doing work in New Hampshire.
So this is back in 2019, early 2020.
pre-COVID.
And we're saying, hey, what can we do to try to get more people to vote in this Democraticpresidential primary?
And so we were, know, South Carolina's first in the South, New Hampshire's first in thenation.
And so we were saying, let's try to do something where we can get more of a representationof this electorate in this state, particularly in states like ours that have open
(03:50):
primaries, I should say.
So, and we knew that, you know, if less ideological voters are not getting reached out to,then they're probably not gonna participate in this primary.
And we did a survey early on with the Welcome Party work to voters in these states.
And we found that like less than one in four of the least ideological voters in the statewere getting contacted by campaigns.
(04:11):
Right, and this is when everybody and their mom ran for president, right?
So you had, I was working for Beto at one point, you had Kamala Harris, you had Joe Biden,you had everybody running for president.
And these people in South Carolina weren't getting contacted by campaign.
Like that sounds nuts, right?
But they weren't because they were, you know, scored differently in NGP-VAN.
So we were saying this effort to say, let's get more people to vote in this primary.
(04:36):
And then so fast forward to 2021, we started our PAC.
2023, we started the Welcome Democracy Institute, which is ours 501C3.
So your point about the research.
And so we do this thing called, we call it the congressional competitive index, where weask them, or what are the most competitive and least competitive congressional districts
(04:57):
in the country?
So we release the support quarterly and we say, is anyone challenging this Democrat?
That could be challenging this Democrat.
Is anybody challenging this Republican?
That could be challenging this Republican.
And our research early on identified in 2022, California's 41st, Ken Calvert.
(05:17):
No one had ever run a competitive campaign against Calvert basically in 30 years.
And then Lauren Boebert, who was, you know, one of our favorite villains in Congress, butshe actually was in a pretty decently competitive district, right?
So that was a cycle we supported with Rollins and Adam Frisch in 2022.
And then obviously again in 2024.
But again, like when you talk about the research, it's like the numbers are always outthere, right?
(05:41):
Like the data is always out there.
It's just a matter of how do you want to dig into it?
How do you want to compete?
Right.
And we, our original report was called the Conceding Democracy Report, where we weresaying, look, Democrats are actually conceding democracy to these MAGA Republicans because
they're not actually putting up a race against them.
Right.
They're running candidates who are raising, oh you know, $30,000 to run against aDemocrat, mean, a Republican incumbent.
(06:03):
They're not running real races.
Right.
Right.
We were trying to find who could be, you know, this centrist Democrat who could runagainst a MAGA incumbent and actually beat them.
Right.
And so that's how we got all started.
And it's really important today, right?
Because just in the next cycle, there's not that many seats that Dems need to pick up towin the House.
(06:29):
Right?
I mean, in order to hold this administration accountable.
So it's doable.
Yeah, it's totally doable.
And we could have had a house majority a few cycles now in 2022, 2024, and then hopefullyin 2026.
But to your point, it's very doable.
And so when we talk about Welcome PAC specifically, our work focuses on what we call, youmentioned in your intro, conservative leaning or center-right districts across the
(06:58):
country.
So we're not specific to any state or even any region necessarily.
We're just like, hey, what are the most competitive districts
out there and how do we find the most vulnerable Republican incumbents who are just simplyout of touch with their districts, right?
So places like last cycle, Pennsylvania's 10th with Scott Perry when Janelle Stelson ranagainst him.
(07:21):
She had one of the closest races in the country and if she had won, she would have beenone of the huge decision makers for regaining house majority last cycle.
But say I like to say, know, Parisburg, that PA 10 area, like,
That was vulnerable, right?
It was a place that Scott Perry was very out of touch with his voters.
And, you know, he was voting against like uh protective gear for firefighters.
(07:44):
Like dude, who does that?
Right?
Like a firefighter of all people are like the most uh well-liked public servants outthere.
Right?
um So, you know, we're finding places that are opportunities for Democrats to trulycompete and running what we call aggressively centrist Democrats against those
Republicans.
Yeah, because you know, like Lauren Boebert and Scott Perry are super duper far right,like mega.
(08:08):
they, you know, their districts are not R plus 50.
I mean, they're not necessarily swing districts, but they're not super duper red.
And so if you can get the right candidate in there and really expose all of the sort of
(08:29):
craziness of the incumbents that are in there to the voters there, you have a really goodshot.
Why did you name your group the Welcome Party or Welcome Pack?
What is that all about?
What's the welcome piece?
Yeah, so we originally named it Welcome because if you think about like the welcome partyfor a wedding, right?
(08:49):
It's like the first time everybody's getting together, you're meeting everyone.
It's like a fun time, right?
So one of the big things about our brand is we wanna be welcoming, we wanna be empathetic,and we wanna be fun, right?
Democrats are, you know, the approval ratings and the gutter and people perceive us asjust this elitist, out of touch, unfun.
Paul Monter Party, right?
(09:10):
And I'm saying all these things, other people have said this, I'm not the only one sayingthese things.
But when you think about a brand, you want someone who's gonna be like, I wanna go totheir tailgate, right?
Speaking of football season, that's where I wanna hang out.
So we want them to be welcoming.
And then specifically wanted to be welcoming as a democratic coalition to um Republicanswho are more moderate, right?
(09:30):
So you're like business class, whatever Republicans, they're not like super magnetconservative Trumpy, they're just.
Republicans, right?
The regular conservatives.
And then also swing voters, right?
Independent voters, uh particularly independent voters, which obviously we're having anincreasingly large number of our electorate become quote unquote independent voters or
unaffiliated voters for that matter.
(09:51):
So we wanted to be welcoming to these Republicans and independent voters and to theDemocratic coalition.
uh But now increasingly, particularly as 2024 cycle has passed, like we're trying to bewelcoming to Democrats in our own party.
Right?
And I say this again as a red state Democrat who is a very conservative Democrat, someonewho's, you know, much more usually to the right of most Democrats on any given issue.
(10:14):
And I feel sometimes unwelcome in my own party.
And so I'm like, I'm sure there are plenty of other people.
I have plenty of friends who feel this way.
So what am I doing?
What are we going to do to ensure that uh Democrats who are conservative leaning, even,you know, moderate Democrats still feel welcomed as Democrats in this party?
Particularly when you talk about people of color.
(10:34):
younger people who are returning independent, right?
Like, you know, I'm not going to get into, you know, taking for granted the black vote.
Like, hey, like we're usually more moderate than progressive.
So say that to say, um welcome.
We wanted to be welcoming.
that was the brand of like, come on in.
We're a centrist band family.
And one thing I do want to hit on is like, you know, we are what we call partisancentrist, right?
(10:58):
You can be a centrist.
You can, you know, not have a party affiliation.
But it's actually a lot more valuable for you to be a partisan centrist.
So someone within a certain party who is specifically with that party.
We had a conversation on my podcast, The Depolarizers, last year with Dee Dee Kuo, who's ascientist and researcher at Stanford.
And she was talking about how the parties have become so hollow and they just kind of arejust noels for.
(11:23):
party activity, right?
Like, the DNC is doing this and they're having this convention or whatever.
Like they're just shells really, right?
For just party activity.
They don't actually have the robust infrastructure that they weren't intended or createdto have.
So say that to say you should, instead of, this is her argument, which I agree with, butshe said, instead of becoming an independent, why don't you become just a more independent
minded person within a party?
(11:45):
So if you want to be a conservative, be an independent minded Republican.
If you want to be a Democrat, be an independent minded Democrat, right?
just stick with the party so that the party has more flavor, more robustness, right?
Because even to what I was saying about people leaving the party to become independents,they're leaving the party because they find the party going away from them, right?
But if you stay within your party infrastructure, you're forcing the mechanisms of thisparty to take you seriously, right?
(12:11):
To consider you, right?
Because if you're part of the Democratic primary electorate, you're going to have to,people are going to have to listen to what you have to say when it's time to come out to
vote.
Yeah, it makes sense.
And we know, like the New York Times reported just recently in the last couple of weeksthat the Democratic Party is facing a voter registration crisis sort of around the
(12:33):
country.
Why do you think this is happening?
I mean, basically everything I just said, right, the party has become more progressivethan the median Democratic primary voter, right?
um And so when that happens, people are like, I don't wanna be with them, right?
I'd rather just be my own thing, being independent, right?
And that's, if anyone wants to do that, that's fine.
(12:55):
But again, it forces, when you stay within a party, it forces the party to have to earnyour vote.
And to have to earn your vote, they're gonna have to change policy, messaging, branding,decision-making, rhetoric.
to become the people that are willing to become a party that is what people want.
And so one thing that I do talk about a lot is depolarizers.
(13:17):
And so this is the name of my podcast, but it's more of just like a program withinWelcome, because depolarizers are people who are able to win over an array on the spectrum
of voters because they're depolarizing in their rhetoric and their action and theirbehaviors.
People who are willing to not vote with their party
but prioritize local place based issues, right?
(13:38):
So particularly for members of Congress, if you're Marigold's in Camp Perez and you'revoting against student loan debt cancellation, because it's it's not something that your
district values or prioritizes because for whatever, you know, whatever percent of peoplewho actually go to college in your district, you're gonna vote against it because that's
not what your district wants, right?
And you'll get backlash, you know, she literally had people on Yelp.
(14:01):
talking, you know, giving bad Yelp reviews to her family's auto body shop, right?
Because she was trying to be a depolarizer, prioritize her district over the party'spriorities, which were again, probably misplaced in that even anyway.
And she got backlash for it, right?
So depolarizers are not always rewarded with, you know, fun hugs and kisses on Twitter andeverything, but they are rewarded by her getting reelected this past cycle, her being able
(14:26):
to show her differentiation from the Democratic brand that is so toxic at this point.
Yeah, and you talk about the fact that Democrats need to sort of reject purity tests towelcome this majority that can actually win.
um Can you give some examples of what that means to folks?
(14:49):
Totally.
um So our friends at Third Way actually have a few memos of like, you know, throw out thequestionnaires and don't take pledges, which I'm like, heck yeah, like, let's do that,
right?
But when you come, when it comes down to uh the democratic infrastructure, uh you know,over the past several years, it has just become like this, like check a box party, right?
(15:09):
And it's like, you know,
Do you agree with this?
Do you support this?
And it's like, what even is this?
I call it like the Build-A-Bear Party.
Like we're literally just trying to build people who can check all these boxes, have thiscolor skin, be this gender, whatever.
And it's just like, you are checking all these boxes but completely missing the point.
(15:30):
And so you're not actually able to relate to voters.
You're putting yourself within these confinements that are keeping you from actuallyrelating authentically and genuinely with voters.
And so when you think about purity tests and whatever, like one thing that we've been bigon is like, we don't have a questionnaire for our PAC, right?
Our campaign, I mean, our campaign, our welcome team has met with like 60 somethingcampaigns in 2020 for the 2026 cycle already this year.
(15:56):
And at first I was like, what the heck is going on?
How are we having all these calls?
But it's been really valuable to meet so many people and understand better what the ethosand the thought processes are for the 2026 election cycle.
But I say that to say,
um We don't have a questionnaire for Welcome Pack.
So you're not going to see one if you see one, it's not real.
So yeah, because it's not real, right?
(16:16):
But um we have conversations, right?
And obviously, we have an array of questions that we typically ask people.
So we say, hey, what is something that you're frustrated with the Democrats about?
Right?
What frustrates you about our party?
Or um what are some things that if you had a Democratic president in office that you would
(16:38):
probably break with your party on based on past priorities, right?
What would you have broken with Biden on for that matter?
Yeah, right.
Like specifically, like what would be votes that you might be one of like 10 Democrats tovote with Republicans on because it matters to your district.
And it's something that's actually genuinely authentic to who you are as a person, right?
Don't forget the personhood when you run for Congress, like continuing to be.
(16:59):
Right.
So say that I'm speaking to someone who knows this already, but you know.
I I think about that a lot.
I'm somebody that, for example, national security is kind of my thing.
And I'm a very strong person when it comes to we need a strong military.
We need to fund it.
(17:20):
ah We need to stand up for Ukraine, for example.
In my belief, we could have maintained a uh
modest presence in a place like Afghanistan and not had it fall.
But you I mean, you do, you have to look at who you are as a person and also the districtthat you want to represent.
(17:48):
Totally, But yeah, so going back to the questionnaire, purity testing, yeah, so we justhave these conversations, right?
So we try to understand who people are, where they're coming from.
And I try to tell people like, one, you're in a safe place, right?
Because when people have conversations with a lot of PACs, they're in the DC mindset, Icall the DC mindset, which again, no offense, I have a lot of friends, lots of people I
(18:12):
love in DC, but they think like DC, right?
And so I'm like, look, this is a safe place.
If you got a hot take or a spicy take.
Lay it on me, right?
I'm probably to the right of you anyway, right?
So let's talk about something that is safe and authentic to you and don't feel like youhave to walk on eggshells with us because you know, like our team is pretty chill, right?
And then say all that to say, uh some of the more questionnaire type thing, I'm sorry, notquestionnaire, but more of the conversation things that we have with our, the candidates
(18:40):
that we're talking to is, you know, what is a policy that is differentiated from thedemocratic brand for you?
Right.
It doesn't have to be anything specific, right?
We're not saying, you must break with the party on this.
Like we don't really care what you break with the party on.
It could be something that's not actually a policy, but more of a value space thing,right?
But let's have a conversation about where you differentiate with the party, because ifyou're a hundred percent, you know, gung ho Democrat, then like quite frankly, you're
(19:06):
probably not going to win in this type of district.
And you're also probably not going to be anyone who appeals to these types of voters.
um So we are just been, we've just been very honest and very frank with people.
uh And again, we haven't had, we've had some conversations where we're like that wentnowhere.
And like, this is just, this person just wants to be a regular Democrat and that's fine.
That's what you want to do again, be you honey, be you.
(19:29):
But we're looking for a very specific type of candidate.
These are the questions we try to surface and understand better, again, place-basedpolitics, what the issues that are specific to your district.
that may not be on the national radar, but something that you intend to espouse andsupport in your campaign.
So you had a convention this summer where you brought in folks who have been able to winin purple, red districts even.
(19:55):
How did that go?
What was the most impressive piece out of bringing everybody together and talking aboutthese things?
First all, was a great time.
Again, we like to have a good time.
So was called Welcome Fest.
So basically a festival where we gather over performers and we cultivate a centristfaction, right?
(20:16):
So I don't think I mentioned that yet, but welcome is very into centrist faction building.
Progressives have their faction, love it, bless it.
Centrists, we also have our faction.
What are we doing to grow and strengthen a robust centrist faction?
And we co-hosted and partnered with several organizations to
do Welcome Fest.
So we were like, look, this is not just a welcome thing.
(20:36):
We want to make sure that everyone knows that you're a critical piece of this puzzle,right?
We can't do it without New Dems.
We can't do it without the Blue Dogs.
We can't do without Third Way, PPI, all of our friends, right, in the center.
So we try to ensure that people know that this is a group effort, team project, right?
So say that to say, Welcome Fest was awesome.
We held the first Welcome Fest last year in 2024.
(20:58):
with the theme of For the People in the Middle.
So it's kind of a playoff of the Harris campaign of For the People, Comma Harris for thePeople.
So we're like, look, for the people in the middle, this is us, right?
And then this year's Welcome Fest, um we doubled the size of last year.
So last year we had about 300 folks.
This year we had 600 folks and it was just incredible.
And the theme was responsibility to win, right?
(21:19):
So how are we taking responsibility to win in these districts and just generally speakingas Democrats?
So we had some awesome speakers.
um
The Blue Dogs, Marie-Luz and Ken Perez, Jared Golden, Adam Gray spoke.
Several new Dems, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Janelle Stelson, Tom Swazee, Rebecca Cook.
I think I'm missing one on there, but we had Jake Offenklaas.
(21:42):
We had Richie Torres.
We had Alyssa Slotkin.
It was just so fun.
We had all the folks.
And obviously, there's several other people that we didn't were able to mention or featurethis year that we intend to bring into the loop for next year's Welcome Fest.
So if you weren't there and you didn't speak, don't feel bad.
We invite you next week.
So, you know, it was just a really good time, right?
(22:02):
And we were able to, again, explore overperformance, right?
So, Laksha Jain from Split Ticket did a presentation on, you know, like war andoverperformance and what types of candidates overperform and found things like, look, if
you look at the explicit data on overperformance, Janelle Selsen is actually a bigger overperformer than AOC, right?
(22:23):
Because she's more moderate, right?
And moderate candidates win.
particularly in these types of districts.
granted, Janelle didn't win last cycle, I hope that she wins this cycle, but those thingsmatter, right?
Your ability to relate to voters, meet voters where they are, not just geographically, butideologically, it really does matter.
And when we coalesce around an agenda that is very people focused, that is taking the 80on the 80-20 issues, like those are the simple things, right?
(22:46):
There's like a lot of things that we could do.
We could try to contort ourselves, twist ourselves into these boxes and become whateverthat people want us to be, like, no.
let's just be genuinely authentic and let's be with voters on the issues.
Let's care about what they care about.
Let's prioritize what they prioritize.
Let's talk about what they talk about, right?
And, you know, our friends at More in Common, they have always, you know, been puttingthese things out about like, are voters' perceptions of the parties, right?
(23:11):
They talk about often, you know, voters perceive Republicans to have priorities likeimmigration and healthcare and stuff like that.
And that's actually what Republicans talk about.
And whereas Democrats, they perceive Democrats to prioritize like abortion and LGBTQ andclimate when Democrats, that's not exactly what they prioritize, but that's what voters
(23:32):
perceive them to prioritize, right?
So how do we reframe our messaging so that we're actually, again, meeting voters wherethey are on the issues and speaking to them about the things that are genuinely of utmost
concern to them.
Yeah, and those issues depend on your district too.
Totally.
If you're running in New York City, it is different than running in, what is it,Pennsylvania 10?
(23:55):
Yes.
Yeah.
In Harrisburg area.
So if people want to get to know more about the Welcome Pack, I know you have a sub stack,which is really good.
You guys do some good research and good writing on some of these topics.
ah But also if they want to support you or learn more about what you do, where should theygo?
(25:45):
Yeah, that makes total sense.
I really appreciate you coming on and talking about this.
This is such an important issue because we've got to reach out to everybody uh who is inthe pro-democracy camp right now, not just Democrats, but independents and uh Republicans
who are sort of fed up.
I mean, I've talked to lots of people who voted for Trump and what is happening right nowis not what they voted for.
(26:13):
And so there has to be an alternative there where they can say, all right, I'm going tovote to check this president now.
And that alternative can't be so different from their values in order for them to vote forthat person.
And I just feel like this is such an important piece in order to, frankly, the goal is toprotect our democracy right now.
(26:41):
Because in my belief,
And I think a lot of other people, the Republican party is not the party of democracy.
um What's happening in our country with uh this bill that was just passed that added a tonof money to our debt, threw people off of healthcare, the rising prices, tariffs, the
(27:02):
undemocratic things that you're seeing in our country.
mean, just seriously, the deployment of our national guard around cities.
ah is just appalling.
And a lot of people get that.
Even if they voted for this, you know, or they're long time Republican voters, they sortof get that.
So I feel like we have to keep working to provide an alternative that people can believein.
(27:34):
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for being on the show, Lauren, and really appreciate you and allthe work that you do.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com