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television companies and more, including cox. >> when connection is needed most, cox is there to help. bringing affordable internet to families in need. new tech to boys and girls clubs and support better. whenever and wherever it matters most, we'll be there. >> cox supports c-span as public service alo with these other television providers egiving you a front row seat to democracy. >> this is amanda joining us, the co-founder and president of the organization, run for something. she's already the author of the forth coming book "when we're in charge the next generation's guide to leadership" amanda littman, thanks for giving your time today. >> thanks for having me. >> how do you describe your group to other people. >> young, diverse leaders running for office across the country. pretty straight forward, we ask people to run and when they say yes or maybe, we help them do

it through election day. >> what made you come up with this organization, as far as the need that you saw to recruit people into office? >> i worked for secretary clinton's presidential campaign for two years. right after election day, after hearing from friends i'd gone to high school and college with, hey, amanda, i'm a public school teacher in chicago, i'm thinking of running for office, what do i do. >> in november of 2016 if you were young, newly excited about politics and do more than vote and volunteer, there was no way to answer the call. and along with my co-founder, we wrote a plan, built a website and wreath wrote something on trump's inauguration day, and thought it would be small, we had a thousand and up to today, 190,000 people across the country who raised their hands and want to runments when they say they want to run and they get their interest, what

happens then, as far as vetting them and see if they go further. >> we're like marketing funnel, go to the website, and look at the offices available to you at your address and then start getting information and invites to calls, like one we're doing this tuesday and we talk about the first time questions candidates have. how do we know what to run for, how do i raise money, how does any of this work and we talk tu some of the offering and you can talk to one of our volunteers and start getting e-mails and text messages from our teams, giving you resources, training, events that our partners are doing, this this is all available to everyone of any age and then an application once you filed to get on the ballot and you can apply for run for something's endorsement and we winnow is down, application, see your campaign plan, number, and value screens, and folks 40 and under to make sure to bring young leaders into the process. i was going to say, once we

endorse, we have a whole bunch more support for you depending on your campaign. >> because you focus on younger people, particularly progressive people, what drives them, if your mind to get into politics? >> a whole range of issues and one of the things i love most about our candidates, one thing they all have a common is a willingness to serve their community, really do something when in office. they're running for representation for families, child care, and running because the republican incumbent hasn't been challenged for decades or the incumbent hasn't been serving the way they want. they're commit today solving problems. >> because you used the term progressive. what does that mean in your mind, how does that differ from typical democrat running for office? >> we have an expansive definitions here, we work with candidates in all 50 states running for different offices. a candidate where i live needs to talk about the issues and

show up for the issues in a different way than a school board candidate in alaska or city council in iowa. >> all of our candidates are pro equity, pro tolerance, pro housing pro health care for everyone, pro climate change is real and ready to tackle the issues of gun violence, pro democracy and pro facts and how does that show up in your campaign. >> and our guest with us, if you want to ask questions, 202-748-8001 for republicans, 8000 for democrats, independents, 8002 and text the questions at 202-748-8003. there was an article in the new york magazine last year featuring you, the headline says you've helped more than a thousand young people get elected and i'm sure that changed. elaborate on that and who are

your standouts? >> we've now helped just under 1500 people win elections in the last eight years. nearly every state except for idaho and you might know some of our alumni, they include now congressman jasmine crockett, from texas, from arizona, emily randall from washington, and one from virginia, who are members of congress. state level, senator mallory from michigan, malkin kinyatta, and florida. down in texas harris county executive, hill dag goe, i could go on and on and on and amazing young leaders who know how to show up for their communities in in places to reach the voters they need to reach. >> when it comes from crockett, you've probably seen back and forth with north carolina republican nancy mace. what do you think of her roles or the statements she's making when it comes to politics and

congress? >> i think she's emblematic of a whole generation. we know that the republicans -- at idea of civility and decorum is behind them and she calls them out and draws attention. i think is good, especially in this environment. >> pew research says the largest generation of now both belonging to generation x are in congress, 180 members. what do you think about that number compared to what you've seen in years before when it could manies comes to congress. >> this is the third oldest congress ever and it keeps getting older and we see the byproduct of that, and the fight back now, leaders who don't understand how to wield attention in this economy and they don't really understand where their voters are and they're not hearing from them. some of the leaders of the

pushback has been younger politicians and slidely younger, average age in congress in the house i believe is 68 or something like that, and in the-- 63 in the house, 68 in the senate, i believe. young people are left out of these spaces and i'm glad that gen x is making that, and seeing more millennials in the years to come. >> do the younger members of congress talk to you in your organization, talk about how they're perceived by older members of congress. >> i've heard that over the years as i've gotten to know some of the younger members, and some of them they don't understand how to communicate and why they use instagram this way or their dress, their tone, they're really entering an institution that wasn't built for people like them. it's a disconnect and i love that they're brave enough to do it anyway. >> this is michael on our independent line from florida for our guest, amanda litman

from go ahead and run for something. go ahead. >> my understanding of progressives that they believe in equality of outcomes, this they do not believe in outcome of opportunity. what is your position on that? >> an interesting question. i don't know if i agree with that assessment. the candidate that runs for something over the year, do generally identify as progressive and see both sides of the equation. they want to make sure that their constituents and their community members have both equality of opportunity and of quality of outcome and they look at that through things like housing education, public transportation, clean water, clean roads, it's a little bit of both. >> laura is next, laura from texas you're on with our guest, guest. >> yes, thank you for taking my call. i have a-- i'm a baby boomer, but on the tail end of it and i am a bit concerned with the younger

generation believing that the older generations don't know what they're doing, and in some respects, i kind of agree with that, but i would hope that the younger generations understand that this is a collective effort. we cannot stand against tyranny and dictatorship and even acts of treason committed by the president unless we stand together and this nonsense about generational divide is put aside. so, i'm interested in your thoughts on that. >> you know, i think we can agree we need all generations to come together. the reason that working exclusively with younger leaders historically young people have been left out of this conversation of leadership. now, as of a couple years ago, 5% of state legislators were under the age of 35. the median mayor of a big city was 59. median school board member similarly, 59, 60. even in congress just not

reflective of where americans are. median american is 38, 39 as of the last census so i agree with you, we need generation toss come together, but young people have been entirely left out of that leadership conversation for so long and we're just on the tipping point of just start to go change that so i think that baby boomers, you're right, some really understand how to communicate, make space for those to come to. >> and conversation with your funding and how it works, from wisconsin. >> a mix of $5, and $500, $500,000, a whole range of folks. we got i think, about 40,000 individual givers at this point. we have a couple of different entities folks can give to, a pac, a c-4, c-3, i'm so grateful for every person who contributes. when we start this had so long ago, so much of the advice, great ideas, no one is going to want to run or give it that, it's not exciting or sexy.

and i'm glad eight years in, they've got that wrong. >> do you get money from political parties? >> no, i don't think we've ever gotten money from one of the formal democratic institutions. work with them as appropriate, but i don't think we've ever gotten money from them. >> a viewer from x considering campaigning has changed a lot. explain how run for something changes a newby into a viable candidate. >> love this question. figure out what the reason for them running and how is the office they're running for solve the problem they care about solving and why should voters want them to win. different from when you want to win. you want to win because winning is great and losing a terrible. and voters want you to win to do something for them. and one way how to tell the story and the rest of the campaign is logistics. it's hard, but it's not complicated logistics.

we'll help candidates figure out access to the voter file and to get on the battle and make sure they're running strong voter contact campaigns. it might look like knocking on doors, might look like phones, might look like print ads or radio, text messaging. i mean, definitely encourage folks to think about social media in a way that's genuine and authentic to them. and the way again, you run a race in new york city is different than rural iowa not that they're right or wrong, but the right race for the right place. >> because you lifted a lot of those you got into congress. can you describe a winning story as far as one of the candidates and what worked and why they got into congress because of the story. >> i actually want to talk about someone besides in congress if that's okay. in 2023 we recruited and helped this incredible leader justin douglas in dawson county, pennsylvania. a pastor from his church, he was fired for welcoming

transgender and work with homeless and we to run for the county jail system, a whole bunch of other stuff that affects quality of life and democracy. we got him to run against a republican incumbent and justin ran this incredible campaign and he spent $12,000 on the race, but he was knocking doors, talk to go voters and left an incredible campaign like the mayor in jaws two, the mayor in jaws one was still in jaws two, vote in the election. and he beat the incumbent 140 thousand some odd votes, flipping it for the first time in 100 years. making it easier to vote in dawson county, pennsylvania and the way they were caring for inmates in the jail system. an incredible example of the thousands of candidates we've worked with over the years who

show up, who knock doors and who win in really long shot races. >> amanda litman with us with run for something. gary is in pennsylvania, philadelphia. and this is on the democrats line. hi. >> hi, i just wanted to salute her for what she's doing and mention something that to really compliment her work. i'm with get courage now.org, and gary at get courage now.org and developing something adopt an organizer because there's almost a million people working in coffee shops and other meaningless jobs and it's even 1% of those people and could be quite a bit more, but even 1% of those people wanted to become organizers and they don't have rich parents, the only option is go-fund-me and we're making adopt an organizer and for them to quit the jobs and become an organizers. if you're going to overthrow

fascist coup, i hope well work together. and hope she'll contact us, gary@get courage auto original. and have people, donate free housing, worth 700, 800. and pool of 3,000 well off people to match with a thousand dollars. >> thanks, gary. >> i love that and thank you for what you're doing. we need every possible avenue of support both for candidates and for staff and volunteers, you're right, institutions aren't meant for people independently wealthy on the candidate side and volunteer side. >> another viewer volunteered or requested this question, saying i don't think you're getting young candidates is your bigger problem. getting younger voters to vote is the biggest challenge you and your candidates face. >> i think it's a little bit of our solution is part of fixing that problem. young voters are looking for

candidates who can connect to them and who can show up in the media places they are, who can be on tik tok, instagram, snap chat, reddit, and discord, places where they're paying attention. i think of how many members of congress couldn't go on a nonpolitical space and talk like a real person. the run for something candidates absolutely can because they are just ordinary people who do this extraordinary thing of running for office. i think one of the wii ways we get more young people to show up, more to connect for. >> when it comes to information for a candidate, is it social media that's going to be the primary driver? if that's the case, how do you get so much information about a candidate on the platform of your choice? >> so it's a little bit of social media especially for the local races and making sure they're in the platforms where their voters are, but also in space relationship building. we've found that our candidates who knock doors, talk to voters, show up to farmer's

markets, pta meetings, pickup basketball at the gym, it's ease toy hate the democrat you see on tv or see trash in your local paper or local radio. it's hard to hate the candidate who came to your home, knock, knock, knock, i'm amanda, i'm running for county commissioner, i want to talk about your property taxes and sit down have a conversation. i think face-to-face relationships can help build that and kir circumvent anything online. >> i have a question, i admire all you kids doing this, you're young people and i think it's fantastic. there was a day that i can't remember last name, from the packland area in florida that had the shooting and i've seen him in washington in the past. have you been able to back him in any way or support him? i know that he is a smart, brilliant kid and it's a shame he had to go through this and that school, or any school.

i'm curious if you've had contact with him. >> yes, david hogg who started leaders we deserve, an organization that raises money and outside work for the candidates. i think nearly every candidate has come through the run for something pipeline and we've recommended almost all to david and his team to engage with. they're one of our many, many partners across the country who work on. and we know it's going to take a village to get many of the candidates to be a part of the village. >> what do you think of david hogg being a part of the democratic committee. >> and kinyatta, another one of the vice chairs of the dnc, him and david and the others are really able to make the cases in different places which is what we need with. >> as far as able to influence

the democratic committee for issues young people care about, what do you think of their ability to do that? >> i think it's worth making clear what the role of the dnc is. it's not setting the platform necessarily for the democratic party, especially across the country. they're there to provide back end support. >> as we leave this, a quick reminder, you can continue watching on our our website, c-span.org. a look at the u.s. capitol as the senate is about to gavel in, expected to look at army secretary and repeal for oil and gas rule. live coverage