We convene, train, and support the next generation of candidates and campaign staff.
Background
2016
Arena was founded to support the groundswell of people entering the political arena following the election of Donald Trump.
2017
We launched Arena Summit to convene the activists, candidates, organizers, and donors inspired by the political moment. We’ve since hosted five Arena Summits across the country, reaching more than 2,500 people. In 2017, we also launched our candidate support program in Virginia, investing in 11 candidates running for the House of Delegates and helping to flip the chamber, consolidating Democratic power in the state for the first time in a generation.
2018
As Arena Summit participants began to announce their own campaigns for office, we grew our candidate support program, expanding it from Virginia to the country at large. We invested in races up and down the ballot, ultimately helping to elect 25 candidates, including 10 to Congress in red-to-blue districts. We also continued to break down traditional barriers to entry in politics: 67% of our candidates were women, and 48% identified as people of color.
2019
We surveyed the candidates we supported in the previous election cycle and learned that they shared a common challenge: finding and training qualified campaign staff who represented the diversity of the communities where they were running. In response we launched a talent pipeline that forms the core of our work today. It includes:
- Arena Academy, a best-in-class training program for aspiring campaign staff, focused on bringing women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community into the political process;
- Arena Careers, an initiative to connect Academy graduates with career opportunities on campaigns and in progressive organizations through 1:1 coaching, direct referrals, and our bespoke Arena Careers platform, the LinkedIn for politics;
- Arena Toolbox, a collection of free toolkits, tutorials, and templates for building winning campaigns; and
- Arena Candidates, an expanded effort to identify and support candidates in critical races around the country.
2020
We continued to build and scale our talent pipeline, graduating 5,277 people from our training programs, and matching our graduates with jobs on campaigns up-and-down the ballot, from the Biden campaign, to Senatorial and Congressional races, to state legislative races and beyond. We also teamed up with Future Now Fund to support state legislative candidates in five battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas. We ultimately raised nearly $6 million for these candidates, placed 133 of our graduates on campaigns in these states, and helped elect 27 candidates to office.
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Arena Careers is a platform for progressives looking for work and employers looking for talent. Create your profile in minutes and start connecting today.
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What people are saying
We need your support.
Republicans have spent decades cultivating talent and investing for the long run, and right now we’re paying the price. Republicans control 30 state legislatures, 28 governors mansions, and are just a few seats away from regaining control of Congress. Together with an activist Supreme Court, they’re enacting policies that turn back progress on everything from abortion to voting rights to climate change.
Arena is building a new generation of political leaders who will lead the fight to save our democracy and build progressive power for the long run. It’s going to take all of us to make change. Join us in this work.
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Paid for by Arena Summit, a section 501(c)(4) organization, and Arena PAC.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.