"We have electoral skill in the party that can take on the bigger establishment parties and leave them in awe"

Chris Williams is the Green Party's Head of Elections. He writes here about being the party's first ever Field Organiser and joining when we had only 68 councillors, to today where we have 750 councillors and have built the foundations to get more Green MPs elected.

When I joined the Green Party in 2004, I had been thinking about it for a couple of years. To say I was reluctant would be an understatement. I wanted to change society for the better and the Green Party had no effective route to do so if it wasn’t winning elections.

A conversation I had recently with Janet Alty, a member in Leamington Spa, reminded me of the decision I made when I joined – to help the Green Party become an effective election-winning machine so our very essential policies could be implemented.

As a fresh-eyed twenty-year-old, I met many other members who were committed to get people elected. There was a concept called ‘target to win’ that was explained to me – essentially picking a local council ward, working hard in engaging voters and putting all your resources there rather than trying to win everywhere.

In the first campaign I managed, from 2007 to 2008, I was told there was just no point as we weren’t going to win. The team was me, my mum, a candidate I’d persuaded to stand and four other local members, one of whom – a key leafleter - was in her 80’s.

I was armed only with the belief that the Green Party was so critically needed and so the risk was worth taking.

We won. We won in a very working class, deprived post-war council estate in Solihull. 

Winning was hard. We were a really small party fighting against parties who have set the system up to make it hard for anyone else to win. It feels revolutionary and daring to get a radical politician elected to be in the room where decisions are made and to speak truth to power.

 
I found myself at party conference giving people hope on how to win and soon I was on a nationwide tour delivering training.

It was party member Janet Alty who suggested I became the party’s first ever Field Organiser – for the West Midlands region. As a region, we won many more councillors, building year after year at a rate several times greater than the rest of the country and eventually my role shifted to a national focus.

The party has come a very long way since 2004.

As Head of Elections, I’m proud to say we now have 750 councillors rather than the 68 when I joined. We have a large and experienced elections staff team and electoral skill in the party that can take on the bigger establishment parties and leave them in awe.

In 2023, we measure our progress not in how many increments we move forwards but in in how many great strides forwards we can make at each election.

Graphic illustrates the growth in Green Party councillors over the years.

I never use the term ‘target to win’ anymore as it no longer means anything very specific given that the party’s collective learning and sharing of election know-how has grown immeasurably over the past couple of decades.

Yet I find myself feeling right back at the start of my journey.

Here we are, again trying to face down a huge challenge and take on other parties far better resourced than we are, fighting to win seats at the General Election in a system set up to make winning for small parties incredibly challenging. Once again, it feels daring but worth the risk, even more so given the stakes and the state of the other parties now. And again, I know we can win.

I'm still armed with the belief the Green Party matters hugely but now the team of members I am working with is so much bigger. What keeps me motivated is the belief of what’s achievable in the coming months ahead of the General Election. We have incredible candidates in Sian Berry, Carla Denyer, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns.

Right now, I need your help - because the commitment of our members - is the biggest resource we have to take on and win against the establishment. This coming General Election matters more than ever. It’s only with our work that the climate and future generations will have a voice in Parliament secured for years to come.

In solidarity,
Chris Williams

Deputy CEO and Head of Elections and Field

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