John,
Welcome to another installment of 21 to Watch in ‘21 – a biweekly series where we spotlight and introduce you to some of the people and issues to keep your eye on in the progressive movement this year.
Our ninth spotlight belongs to Aisha Dew, national political and program director for Higher Heights for America.
Aisha and the incredible team at Higher Heights work to train, elect, and support Black women running for office. In a time when there are no Black women in the Senate, no Black women on the Supreme Court, no Black women governors, and no Black women who have ever been President, it’s clear that the work she does is critical because representation matters.
DFA and Higher Heights often support the same candidates and we’ve gotten to work closely with Aisha on some key races, like the first Black woman mayor of St. Louis, MO (and fellow 21 to Watch in ‘21 spotlight recipient), Tishaura Jones.
Since Aisha herself isn’t currently running for office, we’re not asking for a contribution this week, we’re asking you to like, comment, and share her story on social media to boost her message.
Check out a few highlights from her interview below:
On what motivated her to get involved in politics:
“I realized if you care about anything, you're always going to have to fight. And so that meant for me that I started to move back into the political space because I wanted to work in a space where I could help to affect the policies that were affecting my children, my students and their parents.”
On the challenges she saw that led her to become politically motivated:
"I started teaching theater. I was actually director of a performing arts program at Hall Neighborhood House in Bridgeport, Connecticut. And we were at the time, the largest daycare providers. . . And at that point George W. Bush was in office and they cut vouchers. . . So there were so many people who came to the facility and wanted to put their children into daycare and had gotten a job, and they couldn't take the job because they couldn't afford daycare because it was far too expensive to be offset by their actual going by their actual job."
On keeping the faith, even when elections don’t work out in our favor:
“You just can't lose hope and know that even when you lose the battle, you can still win the war and that our work really matters. And so that's how I kind of stay there.”
Thank you for checking out Aisha Dew in 21 to Watch in ‘21.
There was so much good stuff from our interview that we couldn’t fit into this email – like Aisha’s favorite self care methods – so be sure to check out the full video here, and then share our clips to social media to boost her message.
– Kelley
Kelley Jackson
Communications Director
Democracy for America
