About us

Building Progressive Power Since 2016

We are a grassroots organization that aims to build enduring progressive power in state legislatures across the country, to improve people’s lives and support Democrats by filling critical gaps at every point in the political life cycle. Proudly founded and led by women, including women of color, Sister District has grown to 70,000+ volunteers nationwide. We have endorsed candidates in 167 races across 18 states, 107 of whom won and have gone on to fight for progressive issues in their state legislatures.

What Does Sister District Do?

Our flagship electoral program works to get Democrats elected to strategic state legislative seats by supporting campaigns with grassroots action. We “sister” volunteers from deep blue districts with carefully targeted races in swing districts, where flipping control of the state legislature will advance progressive policy. Our volunteers canvass, phonebank, write postcards, textbank, and fundraise for candidates. We welcome volunteers and candidates of all genders.

Since launching in the wake of the 2016 elections, Sister District has grown to nearly 70,000 volunteers across the country. We have endorsed candidates in 167 races across 18 states, 107 of whom won and have gone on to fight for progressive issues in their state legislatures. We have raised more than $5.3 million in small-dollar donations directly for our candidates and State bridges organizations. Our organizing efforts have reached out to more than 4.1 million voters through phones, texts, postcards, and door knocks. We also partner deeply with our campaigns to provide professional training, advice, and guidance to help candidates and staff build winning campaigns.

For a more detailed look at our work, check out our 2023 Impact Report

We’re also proud to be an organization founded and led by women, including women of color. Four out of five of us quit our jobs to be with Sister District full time.

group photo of the five Sister District founders Candis Mitchell, Rita Bosworth, Lala Wu, Gaby Goldstein, & Lyzz Scwegler
Sister District Co-Founders Candis Mitchell, Rita Bosworth Lala Wu, Gaby Goldstein, and Lyzz Schwegler in 2017

Mission

Sister District activates the passion, creativity, and resources of volunteers to win elections and build progressive power in state legislatures.

Vision

Sister District envisions a country where every person is welcomed and served by its government at all levels, and state legislatures are at the vanguard of progressive policy. In this world, Sister District directs engaged volunteers to help state legislators win and serve in governing majorities that reflect the diversity and viewpoints of the people they represent. This world is free of partisan and racial gerrymandering, voter suppression, and other policies and practices that diminish democratic participation.

Values

  • Integrity: We believe in doing what is right even when nobody else is looking.
  • Strategy: We are thoughtful and deliberate in forming our plans, setting our priorities, and deploying our resources, always ensuring that they advance us toward our goals.
  • Kindness: We work collaboratively and treat people both inside and outside our organization with respect and generosity.
  • Creativity: True to our scrappy beginnings, we encourage innovation and ingenuity at all levels.
  • Tenacity: We move forward with a curious and problem-solving attitude, and we do not give up.
  • Equity: We know that our mission is inextricably linked to achieving equity for all people, and we commit to dismantling white supremacy and structural oppression in everything we do.
We are still a small, lean startup non-profit, and we do not take a cut of the money we raise for our candidates. We don’t even have an office – we do all of our work remotely (spending a lot of time on video conference!). Your donation helps us keep running; paying staff to recruit new volunteers, work directly with campaigns, develop partnerships, and expand our services for volunteers and candidates. Thank you for being a part of our movement!

Racial Equity At Sister District

Sister District’s mission to build progressive power in state legislatures is inextricably linked to our vision for racial equity and justice in America. Racism and discrimination are embedded in our government infrastructure as well as the laws passed by our legislative bodies. In order to dismantle structural racism, we must organize at the grassroots level to elect progressive representatives who will enact policies that are unapologetically anti-racist. We must also ensure that we are electing officials who represent all the voices in our communities.

The bedrock American principle of “equality and justice for all” has never applied to everyone in this country, nor does it today. In one breath, the same founding fathers who declared “all men are created equal” also decided that slaves counted as only 3/5ths of a person. State governments have always played an outsized role in denying equal rights to people of color.

When slavery was abolished, southern states quickly enacted laws such as the poll tax, the grandfather clause, and literacy tests to prevent Black people from voting. As far back as 1850, anti-immigrant sentiment drove states to subject Asian-Americans to unequal taxes, bar them from public schools and hospitals, and prohibit them from serving on juries or testifying in court. When the Voting Rights Act went into effect, states restricted the Hispanic vote by making voting accessible only in English, and suppressed the Native American vote by, for example, requiring that voters have a mailing address. Today, states continue the legacy of structural racism through a myriad of facially race-neutral policies that have a disproportionately adverse effect on communities of color, such as voter ID laws, lengthy incarceration for non-violent offenses, gerrymandering, attacks on reproductive rights, and dismantling the social safety net.

To root out structural racism and address the centuries of oppression inflicted on communities of color, Sister District will conduct its programs and operations to make concrete and tangible gains toward racial equity:

  • We will build a portfolio of candidates who are not only running in strategic, winnable races, but also who represent all voices and will fight for progressive change.
  • We will cultivate a community of volunteers who are representative of the nation as a whole, as well as knowledgeable, curious, and intentional about how their work is connected to racial justice.
  • We will seek partnerships with allies who are incorporating equity into their work and holding themselves accountable to it.
  • We will conduct research that advances racial equity.
  • We will seek to achieve racial justice within our organization and create an organizational culture that is welcoming and inclusive. We are committed to viewing our work through a racial equity lens to assess the impact of all our internal policies and practices, including hiring, promotion, staffing, and budgeting.

We will hold ourselves accountable to this statement as we move forward, and we commit to constantly assessing how we can improve our efforts to serve the communities we aim to support.

Sister District Education Fund

The Sister District Education Initiative engages in charitable and educational programming to support the strengthening of our democracy on the state level. Programming, carried out directly by Sister District staff, includes non-partisan research and narrative change in storytelling about the power and promise of states.

The Initiative is supported by the Sister District Education Fund, a single entity fund at Tides Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity. The fund engages exclusively in grantmaking in support of the Initiative; all contributions to the fund are subject to Tides’ discretion and control.

Sister District Action Network 

Sister District Action Network is Sister District’s affiliated 501(c)c4, which runs programs in the areas of  research, civic engagement, narrative change, and state legislator support.

Meet the team

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LALA WU

Executive Director

Co-Founder

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GABY GOLDSTEIN

Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives

(SDAN)

Co-Founder

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LYZZ SCHWEGLER

Senior Vice President of Digital

Co-Founder

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LINDSAY WOLFF

Director of Development

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DEBBIE WINSTEAD

Director of Operations

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SARAH MERCY

Director of Digital and Creative

SUSAN FARRELL

Head of Organizing

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RAVEN DOUGLAS

Head of Civic Engagement

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SHAWN WERNER

Director of Organizing and Political

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TAYLOR HOGELAND

Head of Campaigns

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MARA HELMKE

Head of Operations

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BELA TRINGALI

Senior Program Manager

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TIFRAH AKHTAR

Senior Social Media & Digital Manager

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JILLIAN EVANS

Head of Research

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NICOLE ZAMBRANO

Senior Organizing Manager

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AVERY LUMENG

Development Manager

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CLAIRE DRAGON

Operations Manager

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CHRISTIAN MARROQUIN 

Organizing Manager

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JAMES JULIANO

Organizing Manager

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RITA BOSWORTH

Founder & Special Advisor

Interested in working for Sister District?

The Sister District is a grassroots political organization focused on state and local elections. Our fully remote team allows us to be flexible and efficient, while also enabling us to source talent from all over the US. By leveraging technology, we can work to get Democrats elected from any where in the country!
Zoom Gallery view of all 16 HQ members of Sister District