Lauren Baer worked at high levels of the American foreign policy establishment...an aide to former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and in the Obama State Department as Senior Advisor to Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry...until the 2016 election drove home the importance of political campaigns. She then put her own name on the ballot as the Democratc nominee in a targeted US House race in South Florida. That experience drove her decision to join Arena as their Managing Partner to recruit, train, and support the next generation of political campaign staff. In this conversation, she talks her time at the upper echelons of American foreign policy, her experience as a political rookie running in a targeted US House seat, and the work and thinking she's doing to invest in a more diverse and skilled next generation of political operatives.

IN THIS EPISODE

Lauren’s late-in-life decision to get involved in politics…

Lauren’s time as Senior Advisor in the US State Department…

Lauren’s experiences working with Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry…

Lauren talks the legacy of Madeline Albright…

Lauren’s thoughts on the most under-discussed foreign policy issue facing the U.S….

Lauren runs for Congress in 2018, learning about campaigns as she goes…

Lauren’s take on Florida’s status as a swing state…

Lauren talks about the work being done by Arena train political operatives…

What is the hurdle that makes a diverse pipeline of campaign staff so challenging…

Lauren on the staffing "crisis” in political campaigns…

Lauren’s response to the idea that the Democratic staffing class tilts too liberal…

How Lauren thinks about the movement toward unionizing political campaigns…

AND…air quotes, Yasser Arafat, Joe Biden, bright blue bathing suits, Val Demings, End Citizens United, golden retrievers, Al Gore, Hacks, Henry Kissinger, Harold Koh, Hard Nos, The Marshall Plan, Brian Mast, moral authority, Debbie Murcasel Powell, pink cowboy hats, Samantha Power, relational organizing, Alex Roarty, Bernie Sanders, Donna Shalala, David Shor, Elissa Slotkin, Donald Trump, Raphael Warnock, WhatsApp, white-shoe law firms, wonkish outward facing orientations & more!