Episode 40

She Hated Networking. Then She Ran for Congress.

In 2018, Lauren Baer ran for Congress from Florida's 18th District.  She won the Democratic primary handily and came close to unseating her rival in a deep-red district.  While she had a stellar professional background, including stints working directly for two Secretaries of State and for the Ambassador to the United Nations, she was a first-time candidate and her district had never had an out, lesbian mom candidate running for the seat.  She now runs Arena.run, an organization that prepares new candidates for office and trains staff to be effective.  But years before all this, Lauren found herself in a career transition, wondering what she could or should do, and how she would accomplish that.  That's when she and our host met, and it's when she was confronted big time with the anxieties and satisfactions that come up in networking.  In this episode, Lauren talks with Coach Michael about her initial views on networking, how she made the process work with her, and how she took it to the next level when running for office. She also has great advice for people thinking of public office but who haven't quite taken the first step.  An extra-delightful and interesting episode!

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About Lauren Baer:

Lauren is a nationally recognized civic leader who has built her career generating social impact at scale. An attorney and foreign policy expert, Lauren served for six years as an official in the Obama administration, acting as a senior advisor to Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, and to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.

In 2018, Lauren was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress in Florida’s 18th District. One of the earliest candidates placed on the DCCC’s prestigious Red to Blue list, Lauren received dozens of endorsements, earned national media attention, and won more votes in the district than any Democrat had during a midterm election. She was supported in her run through the Arena Fellowship.

A staunch advocate for diversity in politics and LGBTQ+ rights, Lauren sits on the Board of Trustees of the Florida Democratic Party, the Jewish Democratic Council of America NextGen Leadership Council, and the LGBTQ Victory Fund Campaign Board. She was a 2014-2019 Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a Fellow of the Truman National Security Project. She also previously served as a strategic advisor to political data firm Hawkfish. In 2020, she founded More Like America, an organization dedicated to electing leaders who are more reflective of the diverse communities that they serve.

Lauren holds a B.A. from Harvard University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and an MPhil from the University of Oxford, where she was a Marshall Scholar.

Lauren and her wife, Emily, have a young daughter, Serena, and a terrier, Biscuit.

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