As longtime readers may be aware, we tend to avoid delving into the horse-race coverage of politics and elections at Bioneers. Other entities provide plenty of political analysis and perspectives on these types of issues and we try to spend our resources focusing on topics and issues that are otherwise poorly covered in national media outlets. This is not to say we avoid “politics” altogether, simply that our approach and perspective tend to be more systemic, looking at macro trends and movements. The 2024 Bioneers Conference hosted a riveting conversation “What the Hell Should We Be Doing About Rising Fascism,” exploring the current state of larger political movements, both domestically and internationally. Given the 2024 presidential election results, we wanted to revisit this discussion with one of the participants, Seed The Vote Executive Director Emily Lee.

In the following conversation, Lee reflects on the 2024 election, examining the right’s effective messaging, progressive challenges in reaching working-class voters, and the need for grassroots engagement to rebuild power and advance equity. The 2024 election delivered a stark reminder of the challenges progressives face in connecting with voters while the Right successfully leveraged simplified messaging to resonate with economic frustrations and position itself as the champion of working-class Americans. Despite significant efforts from progressive movements, weaknesses in coalition-building and messaging contributed to the outcome, leaving many to grapple with how to better engage with the electorate. The results underscore a critical need for reflection and adaptation, particularly as the clock ticks toward pivotal midterm and presidential elections.

Emily Lee, Executive Director of Seed the Vote, has dedicated her career to grassroots organizing, multiracial coalition-building, and growing people-powered political movements. Seed the Vote, a project of Everyday People PAC, mobilizes thousands of volunteers to defeat the Right in battleground states while building lasting political power in working-class communities and communities of color. In this Q&A, Lee reflects on the lessons of 2024 and explores how these takeaways can shape progressive strategy and strengthen movements for the elections to come.

Bioneers: What do you see as some of the key factors in the success of the right in this most recent election? 

Emily Lee: What we saw through actually talking to people on the ground in these swing states was that the right was able to define themselves as the party or the candidate that cared about working class, everyday Americans. They used very simple, straightforward language. Literally, the signs said, “Trump: low prices, Kamala: high prices,” right? Or “Trump: safety. Kamala: crime.” They kept it very straightforward and very easy to understand, and even if that messaging wasn’t true, it felt authentic to people. The reality is that many, many working families across the country are facing huge difficulties in their lives and, from what we saw, feeling a lot of dissatisfaction with both parties, actually. It did not feel like the Democrats had a message that was really speaking to the economic issues and the real challenges people felt trying to survive and provide for their families. 

I think some of that is about this feeling of wanting to fight against the status quo, but it’s also that the right had really tapped into people’s feelings and concerns, and styled themselves as being anti-establishment. While that is completely untrue, as we can see by their picks of corporate actors and billionaires into Trump’s cabinet, they tapped into people’s real frustrations and fears. We saw that at the doors talking to everyday people, and that’s a huge issue if we can’t connect with the realities that people are facing. The other thing is that the center-left coalition was weak, and those weaknesses contributed to the right-wing success. Some of those weaknesses were a little bit bigger than we could have changed. We felt like the progressive movement was dealt a pretty bad hand and we tried to play it as best we could. The reality is that Kamala only had a couple of months to ramp up, and the result was a candidate who people didn’t feel they knew or understood. 

The reality is that many, many working families across the country are facing huge difficulties in their lives and, from what we saw, feeling a lot of dissatisfaction with both parties, actually.

For example, we were campaigning in Arizona, where people were very clear that they disliked (Republican senate candidate) Kari Lake and were voting for (Democratic candidate) Ruben Gallego. That was very loud and clear across all ethnic groups and many different voter types. But when it came to Kamala, people were like, “Well, we don’t know what she stands for.” “We’re not sure about her.” It didn’t matter that Kari Lake and Trump were essentially the same, both representing the MAGA agenda and that in order for Ruben Gallego to be effective, Kamala needed to be president. That was not the message that people took home. I think that represents the party’s inability to appeal to people and make people understand. There are a lot of things in context that were difficult without the party having an actual primary process and a whole year for someone to campaign and be chosen by people. 

So I think there are many reasons why the GOP won and why the right wing succeeded. It’s not just one thing. I still think our coalitions are not strong enough. We were able to turn up 5,000 volunteers to go door-knock. Great, but that’s not enough. Even if we turned up 10,000 people, that probably wouldn’t be enough. There’s actually more that our progressive movements need to do, and I think that some of that is about getting to scale and some of it is about messaging. There’s a lot we need to prepare for in the next four years to actually regain some of what we’ve lost.

Bioneers: Do you think progressives have a history of frequently misreading the electorate and public opinion?

Lee: In terms of the messaging, it’s not misreading or the electorate. It’s even if you read correctly, do you have enough power to actually solve it? I think part of it is that whether you identify with the Democratic Party or see yourself as outside of it, we have to really understand what everyday people are grappling with in their lives. I’m based in California, and I don’t engage with people often who disagree with me on politics. That’s part of the problem. What we saw by sending volunteers who largely come from blue states is that we have to get out of our bubbles and engage with people at a scale and breadth that hasn’t really been achieved previously. We can’t just do it every four years or every two years. You can’t really read the American electorate if you’re not engaging with the American electorate, if you’re not out there talking to people. Obviously, polls were not accurate in this election, and they haven’t been for many elections, so it’s not about polling. It’s not about focus groups. We have to get out there and engage with people on their own terms. 

We can’t just do it every four years or every two years.

That’s a real reflection for us, too. What does it mean for progressives to not just engage with swing voters or people who live in red or purple counties in our own state? How do we actually understand what public opinion is broadly, and not just that, but also how to shift it? Being on the doors, we were able to shift people’s opinions. We were able to move people who were leaning toward Trump to actually shift toward Kamala. We were able to actually talk about what people’s fears were and how electing a dictator wasn’t going to solve that. I think that there’s a lot of ability to actually engage with people and persuade them, but you can’t do that if you’re not on people’s doorsteps, or in a vehicle that engages people year-round on a regular basis. Obviously, it’s not good enough to come for a week, a month or two months before an election. So I think that’s something that we’re thinking about too. What is our role, given that we’re an organization that can make a difference when election results are really close, but when it’s as far as it was this year, it requires different approaches. That is why Seed the Vote partners with local organizations in swing states that do this work year round, and not just during election cycles. We need to build infrastructure that supports long-term investment in building power in working class communities before and after election cycles.

Bioneers: The cabinet picks give us some indication of where the new administration is headed, but are there specific types of threats or attacks that your organization and allies are expecting and trying to prepare for?

Lee: In our sector, there’s a lot of fear for nonprofit organizations because of HR 9495 (which the ACLU states could be used to chill political advocacy and target nonprofit organizations that express viewpoints the government doesn’t like). I think in some ways, it is possible to predict the future. It’s Project 2025, it’s Project Esther. They spelled out exactly what they were going to be doing. We’re trying to prepare in a way that doesn’t preemptively capitulate. I think the goal is not for all nonprofits to suddenly become a fee model or to encourage people to change structures entirely, but how do we make sure that we’re preparing to fight back against it? We will have to be creative because there are very clear threats and attacks on organizations fighting for undocumented immigrants and other vulnerable communities, or just very basic democratic norms. It’s difficult to say exactly how people are going to be targeted in the undocumented or immigrant community, or if non-citizens here legally might be targeted. 

I think what this requires of us is actually to be very nimble because what we expect may not happen. It may happen in different ways, so being nimble and ready to pivot is the attitude and orientation we’re trying to take. I think the best defense for progressive movements is to really build a broad united front against these attacks. Even if an organization isn’t directly impacted yet, it’s important for us to recognize that it is a divide-and-conquer strategy. We must stand in solidarity and support fights that, while not directly affecting our base or constituents, resist the dismantling or weakening of democratic movements.

Bioneers: Do you think there’s a chance that the Trump administration might overreach so dramatically that they suffer at the next mid-terms, and how critical will those elections be to prevent the complete consolidation of authoritarian and kleptocratic rule? Is Seed the Vote working on new ideas or new directions regarding those next mid-terms?

Lee: We’re engaged with many other national partners in this conversation, and I think this is part of the understanding we need to get more clear on. What will the midterms look like? Do we expect a swing back toward Democrats in the House like we saw in the 2018 midterms? I don’t think we can assume that. I think we have to actually look at the data. This is what I mean about not jumping to a lot of conclusions. We actually have to look at the election data that came in, and how certain races, certain districts performed this past November, and do the analysis to determine which House races we think could swing, which will be difficult to swing, and which we think might be safe. Obviously, Republicans have a very small majority in the House, and so I think it’s very possible to win back the House. The most important political move is preparing for that, so that we can actually have one vehicle at the federal level and remove their trifecta, as a way to stop the worst of the worst. That’s the base minimum: for us to win back the House decisively. Any organization seeking to stop the complete authoritarianism that we’re marching toward should prioritize winning back the House by a significant margin. That’s the only mechanism we have right now, and I think it’s critical for all of us to engage in building political power, even organizations that don’t typically engage in elections. 

It’s critical for all of us to engage in building political power, even organizations that don’t typically engage in elections. 

How does winning back the House in ‘26 set us up to win the presidency in ‘28? Those are the kinds of questions I think that we all need to be looking at hard to prevent the continuation of four years of unbridled authoritarian rule. We’re looking at some new ideas and exploring what we can do in 2026 that sets us up well. Part of it is that we want to launch a new training program. Since the first Obama campaign, there just hasn’t been much large-scale volunteer mobilization across the country. A lot of organizations rely on paid canvassers, which is definitely part of the equation, but we need people who care about what happens in this country to actually do something. Part of that is volunteering during elections and talking to voters. Many of our volunteers felt like it was a very transformative experience. They felt like they understood so much more about what was going on in the country, and they could understand how someone like Trump could come to power. Until we understand why it is that he has come to power and why he has been able to maintain a hold over not just the GOP but also certain swaths of the electorate, we’re not going to understand how to dismantle him and beat him. So we’re really looking at how we can bring large-scale volunteer field programs back as a tool of progressive movements but also the Democratic Party. It’s really needed, in our opinion, and we need to go at a bigger scale than we ever have before. We need to support those volunteers from all over — from swing states to red states to blue states — to get involved. 

Bioneers: Could you explain what the “Block and Build” strategy that a number of progressive organizations are involved in is all about? 

Lee: For us, the block and build strategy is just being very clear that we not only need to play defense and block MAGA and Trump but also build our ability to win. Obviously, we’re in a worse position than we would have been if we had won the election, but blocking is continuing to wage those fights to prevent the rise of a white Christian nationalist agenda. At the same time, we need to build more strategic political power and our movements. For us, it means blocking hardcore MAGA Republicans from taking power in any national federal races but also working with communities and movements on the ground. We’re building up independent political organizations that are actually pushing for a real progressive shift and building progressive power. It’s both the short-term and the long-term goal, and we try to do that by partnering specifically with organizations in those battleground states. That way we’re not just parachuting in, doing an operation and then packing our bag the day after the election and saying, “Okay, so in two years…” Instead we’re considering how to build the capacity of local groups on the ground to continue fighting. Our commitment is to block, build, and support progressive candidates who truly share our vision and values for building a broader progressive wing of the Democratic party. 

A lot of the assumptions that are being made just aren’t bearing out yet.

In a couple of months, we hope to have more data about the impact of campaigns, where people actually ran strong campaigns and the best use of resources. But what came clear from talking to many, many working-class communities, from white to communities of color, is that these people who voted for Trump, they’re not Trumpists. I think we need to be very clear that these voters are people who we need to re-engage with and win back. We need to make a case that their problems actually won’t be solved by Trump, and that we actually have a solution for them. We need to articulate that. There’s been a lot of hand wringing about the working class or the multiracial working class moving to Trump. I think that there’s definitely a lot to be feared in that because we see that he has made inroads in particular working-class communities of color. But I think the data also shows that his biggest gains have actually been with evangelical, college-educated white women. I think that a lot of the assumptions that are being made just aren’t bearing out yet. It does require closer scrutiny and closer analysis, and so there’s a huge task ahead for progressive movements, to really think about how we articulate a vision and values and push an agenda that actually shows working people that the Democratic Party, but also progressive movements, is where they belong and where their interests are going to be fought for. There’s a lot of work ahead for us, and we’re taking this time to be very humble about what we can do and where we need to pivot.