Friday Power Lunch

For the September 20, 2024, Friday Power Lunch co-hosts Katherine White and Finale Norton engage in conversations on being fired up and ready to start voting early.

GUESTS

SIMON ROSENBERG (Political strategist and author of the Hopium Chronicles) discusses the importance of voting early and how Virginia is leading the nation in making early voting a celebration with its parties at the polls.

SKYE PERRYMAN (President and CEO of Democracy Forward, that uses the law to build collective power and advance a bold, vibrant democracy for all people) speaks about how Project 2025 is already here, who is behind it, and how we can track these connections.

MAGGIE O'NEILL, MEREDITH WELLS and SALLY MCBRATNEY (Vote for Your Daughter, a national public art campaign harnessing the power of art to encourage people to prioritize their daughter's futures when voting) discusses their program uniting moms and dads to spread the word they are voting for their daughters this election. The team shared their activist kit and other creative and artist ways to give voice to what's at stake for our daughters this election.

On the September 13, 2024 Friday Power Lunch, co-hosts Katherine White & Finale Norton lead a discussion on how people are using their passion and skills to reach voters where they are.

GUESTS

• Michele Hornish (Lawyer, communications consultant, strategist, Executive Director of Every State Blue, and Founder of "Small Deeds Done" Substack newsletter)
• Reid McCollum (Program Outreach Director of Progressive Turnout Project and Founder of Postcards to Swing States)
• Ken Mitchell (Congressional Candidate VA CD 6)
• Jeanne Russell (Social Media Manager for Mitchell for Congress VA CD6)

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

On the September 6, 2024 Friday Power Lunch, co-hosts Katherine White & Finale Norton leads a discussion on voter protection to identify what we are up against and how to fight back this election.

GUESTS

LUISA BOYARSKI (Leader, Virginia Grassroots Coalition) gives an update on early voting actions in Virginia where early voting begins September 20.

ELISABETH "LIS" FROST is a Partner and Litigation Chair at Elias Law Group, a mission-driven firm committed to helping Democrats win, citizens vote, and progressives make change. She has successfully litigated cases involving redistricting, voting rights, ballot access, candidate qualification processes, and in the 2020 election cycle, defended against the historic and baseless attacks on the election outcome in federal and state courts around the country. Lis speaks about the type of voter suppression litigation they fought and won over the past couple of years and the tactics being used in 2024 based on the lie that non US citizens are voting 20.

AARON MUKERJEE is an Associate at the Elias Law Group. In 2023 he served as Voter Protection Director for the Democratic Party of Virginia. Aaron tells stories of voter protection efforts in 2023 in Virginia and what we can expect to see in 2024 from voter intimidation at the polls to baseless vote casting challenges.

KATHLEEN MURRAY leads the Virginia Grassroots Coalition's Voter Readiness Working Group and discusses ways to get involved.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

In Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, she challenged all of us to follow the words of Kamala Harris' mother: Don't just sit around complaining. DO Something.

On the August 30, 2024 Friday Power Lunch, show co-hosts Katherine White and Finale Norton speak to four amazing grassroots organizers on their thoughts on how women are uniting for Kamala Harris what each of us can DO from now until the election.

Guests

• Lauren Burke - Founder Black Virginia News, Media entrepreneur and independent journalist
• Mary Rarick - Super connector and TikTok influencer
• Vee Richardson - Loudoun badass, creative activist
• Barbara Jones - Virginia's own joyous organizer

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

On the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton gave a rousing speech honoring women past and present: "This is our time, America. This is when we stand up. This is when we break through. The future is here. It's in our grasp. Let's go win it." The August 23, 2024 Friday Power Lunch (8/23) co-hosts Katherine White and Finale Norton lead a discussion of how women are meeting this moment with joy and determination as we rally behind the first black woman candidate for President, Kamala Harris.

GUESTS

A lot has been made of Harris being a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority, part of the group of black fraternities and sororities known as the Divine Nine. KRYSTA JONES, one of the founding co-hosts of the Friday Power Lunch, leads a conversation about the Divine Nine--who they are, what they do, and how they are mobilizing their members this election--with DELEGATE DEBRA GARDNER and SHELLINDA MILLER.

TONJA ROBERTS, from Vote Equality, talks about the new documentary "Ratified" about the 100-year struggle for constitutional gender equality, and it's an inspiring story of a multi-racial, multi-generational, bi-partisan effort to make Virginia the 38th and final state to ratify the ERA.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

On the August 16, 2024 Friday Power Lunch, co-hosts Carrie Short, Katherine White and Finale Norton explored the topic of how best to work with volunteers: What motivates them, what types of actions keep volunteers going, and how to make it meaningful for the volunteers, while ensuring that what they are doing is needed and makes a real difference.

GUESTS

SUSAN LABANDIBAR, (Co-founder, Swing Blue Alliance) has compiled a list of actions volunteers can take in support of political campaigns and movements, and has graded them based on levels of engagement. Carrie and Susan talked about how these actions are perceived in terms of investment of time and personal risk taking and how those perceptions might influence volunteer willingness to do them.

KRIS NELSON (Warren County Democratic Chair & Regional organizer of the Coordinated Campaign) is known throughout rural Virginia for her creative and caring approach to volunteer coordination. She also has a talent for building super volunteers. Finale and Kris spoke about her approach to empowering volunteers.

SUSAN LOESBERG (Vice Chair, Virginia Beach Democratic Committee) takes a grassroots approach to volunteer management. She finds unique and meaningful actions that sometimes fall through the cracks in campaigns and offers relational leadership to her volunteers. Carrie and Susan talked about the lasting benefits of using a grassroots approach.

Susan explained the codes she uses when working with volunteers:

• Don't waste a volunteer's time. Be ready for them. Make sure you have everything that they need, so they're comfortable, and they'll come back

• Make sure volunteers receive the necessary information and/or training to be successful at the task they have been asked to do

• Gratitude. Make sure that these volunteers know that we are so grateful

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

On the August 9, 2024 Friday Power Lunch, co-hosts Katherine White and Finale Norton had conversations with four courageous women who are fighting for freedom by speaking out, organizing their communities, and running for office in tough districts.

GUESTS HOLLI HOLLIDAY, is a formidable leader of WinWithBlackWomen (WWBW), a collective of black businesswomen, President of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote, and founder of Holliday Advisors workplace culture firm. Finale Norton spoke with Holli about how black women leaders are organizing their networks to educate and inform black women about issues and candidates.

Congressional Candidates LESLIE MEHTA (Virginia CD1) & GLORIA WITT (Virginia, CD5) are running in two of the reddest districts in Virginia. Katherine White spoke with them about what inspired them to step up and run in these difficult districts and what we can do to help them ride this current wave of fighting for freedom.

JADE HARRIS (Special Projects Coordinator, RURAL GROUNDGAME), former GenZ candidate for Virginia state senate in southwestern Virginia, shared her views on this exciting moment in time and the actions we can take to support rural and/or young candidates.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

On the August 2, 2024, Friday Power Lunch co-hosts Finale Norton and Carrie Short talked with our guests about the energy fueling young voters since VP Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign and how young voters are spreading KamaLOVE.

GUESTS

LUISA BOYARSKI of the Virginia Grassroots Coalition gave her popular event updates and insights on election 2024.

TY CHAMPION (President, Hampton Roads Young Democrats) has been omnipresent in coastal Virginia rallying and recruiting young Democrats. Carrie Short talked to Ty about how young voters are fired up to volunteer and elect Harris.

DALEY GRUEN (Founder, Fan Out) explained how he came up with the idea of turning pop star and sport team superfans into super political organizers. These superfans know how to connect with their networks so Fan Out incentivises them to use this skill to get out the vote. Carrie Short talked to Gruen about founding "Fan Out" to raffle off tickets to coveted events to superfans in exchange for getting their friends and family to register to vote or check their voter registration.

LAYLA ZAIDANE (President & CEO, Future Caucus) spoke with Finale Norton how Future Caucus works with young, elected officials to bridge the partisan divide and transform American politics. Layla discussed how Future Caucus builds relationships along generational identity and not partisan identity. They have chapters in 34 state legislatures and worked with over 1800 young election officials to help them restore trust in democracy.

MAYA LUNA gave an update on the Virginia Beach stop of the GenZ Tour to Save Democracy on August 6 at Virginia Wesleyan University.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

On this historic week when President Joe Biden passed the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Candidate for President, we had a lot to talk about on the July 26, 2024, Friday Power Lunch.

GUESTS

Jess Piper (Executive Director of Blue Missouri, author of "The View from Rural Missouri" newsletter on Substack, TikTok influencer, and host of the weekly podcast "Dirt Road Democrat") discusses the rural perspective on the new energy in the election.

Kyle Spencer (Former New York Times contributor, author of Raising Them Right, and founding editor of "Reporting Right" newsletter on Substack) discusses how we can help local media get the story right by becoming trusted sources of information. She walks us through how to establish a relationship with reporters and then presents story ideas to pitch to local reporters.

The July 19, 2024, Friday Power Lunch addressed the 2024 election roller coaster's twists and turns.

GUESTS

DAVID PEPPER (Former Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party and author of Laboratories of Autocracy and founder of the Substack Newsletter "Pepperspectives") spoke about Trump's VP pick, Ohio Senator JD Vance.

DEEPAK PURI (Co- Founder, The Democracy Labs) continued our post Women's Summit training by presenting tech tools that will up your organizing game.

Deepak shared 2 free tools that make it easy to make and share audio messages. Both tools have paid versions, but the free versions are really all you need.

1. BigStage Teleprompter is a free, easy to use on-screen teleprompter. It does not require any software installation and works on phones, tablets and laptop computers. - See how you can use what others create

2. Audyo.ai helps you can create audio files as easily as writing an email or a document. https://www.audyo.ai/

GAYLENE KANOYTON (1st Vice Chair, Organization, Democratic Party of Virginia & President of the Hampton NAACP), fresh off her fabulous talk at the Women's Summit, shared her views on the importance of women recognizing and using our power right now.