Lillian's List of NC

It's important that Lillian's List provides crucial strategic support to our Featured Candidates in addition to monetary contributions. We'll be teaming up with sister organizations EMILY's List and Planned Parenthood to host three different trainings in February for our candidates and their staff. Candidate Recruitment Coordinator Claire Giffin explained what the campaign trainings are all about - and why they matter in 2012.

LL: Tell me about the upcoming trainings for prospective candidates, Featured Candidates and their staff.

CG: We have a great campaign training lineup this month - we're starting on Thursday, February 2 with a jam-packed day of candidate boot camp with Muthoni Wambu from EMILY's List. She'll be sharing everything our candidates need to know to get started writing their campaign plans. We'll have about 40 participants running for offices at the state, local and national levels. The next day we'll be hosting a session with Planned Parenthood about talking about choice in political campaigns. And later in February, we'll host an intimate workshop for our candidates and their campaign managers on crafting campaign messages that resonate with voters.

LL: How do the campaign trainings help the candidates?

CG: Well, there's nothing quite like running a campaign. It's like creating a start-up company: you have to hire consultants, raise money, craft a message and determine your audience. Candidates who participate in our EMILY's List campaign trainings finish the day feeling prepared to take on the job of running a campaign. And when you start out the campaign year with a Lillian's List training, you really get to know the women you're training with. You know they're going through the same process as you. A lot of the folks from the 2010 campaign year kept in touch with each other until the bitter end. It's so valuable to be able to bounce ideas off of people in a supportive environment, where you know everybody wants you to win.

LL: Why should candidates learn how to talk about choice?

CG: We want to make sure our candidates feel confident talking about the issues that are most important to our members, but we recognize that talking about reproductive choice during a political campaign can be very challenging. The training gives everyone an individual opportunity to practice what their responses should be. Facilitators make sure our candidates understand both the research and public policy surrounding the issues and also the most effective messaging framework for reproductive rights. They learn how to talk about choice issues in ways that connect with diverse voters.

Don't forget to check our Facebook and Twitter pages next week for photos and updates from our trainings!