jeudi 29 mars 2018
How 1 Activist, Survivor, and Mom's #MeToo Story Led Her to Launch Her Own Super PAC
Sarah Sherman was fed up. The Baltimore mother of two was already politically active - she helped launch her local Indivisible chapter in the wake of Donald Trump's election in late 2016 - but when the #MeToo movement exploded online in late 2017, something changed.
"I think it was just a giant reckoning," she told POPSUGAR. "My husband was pulling me off the computer at 1 or 2 in the morning. I just could not stop reading, because it made me feel like I was among a community. This viral, giant community of women where I could finally [feel] kind of freed up to tell my story."
"Why should the bad guys have all the PACs?"
Like one in six women, Sherman is a survivor of sexual assault. As #MeToo stories flooded our collective timelines, she had an idea: what if the energy behind the movement could be harnessed in the form of a super PAC? Sherman saw to it that her moment of inspiration became a reality, officially launching the Vote Me Too PAC earlier this month.
Sherman is well aware that her approach might draw its share of skeptics. After all, super PACs have been widely criticized for their role as vehicles for the super rich to veil their political contributions. But, as Sherman is quick to point out, her super PAC is unique. Her website asks for donations of as little as $5, her effort is a grassroots push, and at the heart of her PAC is a desire for social change through politics rather than financial gain through politics. "Certainly, I'm up against the Koch brothers and whatnot," she quipped, "but why should the bad guys have all the PACs?"
There's a clear goal in Sherman's mind: to elevate women to political power. But her strategy is also specific and sharp. What will set the Vote Me Too PAC apart, she said, is its sole focus on creating "edgy, powerful video content" to support women running for the US House and Senate in the 2018 and 2020 elections. It seems in keeping with the PAC's inspiration to leverage a medium - video - that is so prime for storytelling, sharing, and connecting via social media.
Sherman had an "in" on that front: her husband of 17 years is in video production. As she watched him create videos for campaigns - she said Doug Jones is among his recent clients - she realized not one of them was a woman.
"I am an activist, and I am a feminist," Sherman remembered thinking. "And every day, he would come home, and I'd look at his face and I would think, 'I can't. These are all men. What are you doing? This is not who needs help. Women need help. Women candidates need help. And we need to figure something out or else I'm going to kind of explode.'"
Sherman also knew how impactful the medium could be.
"I think anybody who is any kind of human being on the planet Earth, especially during these political times in our country, knows that video is the most solid, and most kind of moving component being watched," Sherman said. And while she said she's relying on help from her husband's existing team and resources in bringing her eventual campaign videos to life, she said she's "hell-bent on having women be part of the crew." Sherman said her aim is to secure production services for little to no charge, and use the PAC money to purchase ad space and get their videos in front of more eyeballs.
While the PAC plans to announce the candidates its supporting this Summer once primary races have wrapped up, there are a number of criteria women must meet in order to receive its support. In the initial Vote Me Too PAC press release, they're listed as the below:
1. Must be an outspoken champion in the fight for women issues including: protecting women from sexual violence, the right to reproductive choice, health care, equal pay, family leave, [and] workplace protection from harassment.
2. Ideally will be a woman running for the office sought for the first time. Women of color and other minorities are also given preference.
3. Diversity in color, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, issue agenda, and geography will be taken into consideration.
(While the PAC's guidelines say it's open to supporting women of "all parties," Sherman admitted she doesn't expect to fund the campaign efforts of any GOP women per the issue guidelines she's set forth.)
One challenge Sherman has faced is making the link she sees between #MeToo and the 2018 vote clear. "I don't think that the movement is going to have lasting, effective change unless the policies do change," Sherman said. "And so far, out of touch men in Congress and Senate are not helping us. So we just need to do it ourselves. This power that we all felt as women or allies needs to be harnessed, and we need to walk into that booth and vote."
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