Pro Politics with Zac McCrary Zee Cohen-Sanchez on the Intersection of Social Justice & Practical Politics
Zee Cohen-Sanchez came to politics from an unconventional background…growing up in Australia as the child of “atheist, socialist American Jews”. Back in the United States she took her passion for social justice to work in the labor movement, for Bernie Sanders in 2016, and AOC’s upset primary win in 2018. In this conversation, Zee talks these early formative experiences and how they led her to start Sole Strategies as a firm that helps insurgent candidates – especially first-time candidates and women of color. Great conversation about how the small nuts-and-bolts of politics can fuel big social change.
IN THIS EPISODE…
The activist movement that led Zee to an interest in progressive politics…
Zee’s time growing up in Australia and working in Australian politics…
Zee’s initial connection to Senator Bernie Sanders…
Zee works on AOC’s insurgent 2018 primary win…
Zee starts Sole Strategies in 2020…
Zee gives her definition of “no-good consultants”…
Some of the big wins of Sole Strategies…
Zee on her transition from labor activist to owning and running her own business…
Zee’s 101 for first-time candidates…
Zee talks why the AOC model of political success is almost impossible to replicate…
Zee recalls getting grief from left-wing activists for her work in Democratic primaries…
Zee talks “learning to assert herself” as a woman working in politics…
Zee’s thoughts on how “branding” works in politics…
The best career advice Zee ever received…
AND 1984 RVs, Joe Biden, Charles Booker, Boulder City, CUNY, Dan Carlino, Shirley Chisolm, Joe Crowley, DSA, East Harlem for Bernie, election lawyers, Mike Esposito, explaining experience, John Fetterman, firm handshakes, the Flux Party, Lori Gonzalez, grad school misery, the Green Party, The Heights, John Howard, impossible races, Innocence Project, Gale Kaufman, Rodney King, leading the room, longshots, mandatory voting, mini-Americas, New South Wales, Barack Obama, Occupy Wall Street, Planned Parenthood, ranked choice voting, shoestring budgets, Staten Island, The Sunrise Movement, Tasmania, Torrance CA, Donald Trump, volume games, Wagner College, Amani Wells-Onyioha, What’s The Matter with Kansas, Mark Zuckerberg & more!