I want to formally announce that Pam Hersh – upon the advice of a recently formed ad hoc exploratory committee – has decided NOT to run for president in 2020.
But I reserve the right to change my mind. If I do so, I am contacting Susie Wilson and Barbara Coe, well known in Princeton as savvy campaign activists with all the right moves for electoral success. For the past year, they have had fulltime volunteer jobs to elect non-incumbent Democrats to Congress – Susie, specifically working on the campaign of Congressman-elect Andy Kim, New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, and Barbara working on the campaign of Congressman-elect Tom Malinowski, New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District.
Susie Wilson, 89 years old, and Barbara Coe, 75 years old, are both widows, both retired, both movers and shakers – in a literal physical sense, as well as within a variety of social and political organizations with the goal of changing the world for the better. Susie, who started running as a physical activity when she was 50, ran her first New York City Marathon at the age of 67, and is still running. Barbara has gotten her kicks out of dancing and in 2014 won a Young Audiences “Dancing with the Stars”-style competition at its Annual “Dazzle” Benefit.
Even though neither has ever run (or danced) for elective office, Susie and Barbara, longtime friends, are passionately committed to the viability of this country’s democratic form of government. Their mission is to get people to participate as voters, donors, campaign volunteers, and as candidates for elective offices. They agreed that winning is the ultimate reward, but the process of providing vital behind-the-scenes support to political candidates is gratifying and rewarding when one does it for the right reasons.
Their professions honed their skills as organizers, advocates, fundraisers, and networkers. Susie’s profession as an author and a sex education advocate (blogging, writing, teaching, speaking), helped her become a polished communicator, lobbyist and coalition builder.
Barbara, an advertising and marketing executive, was a senior vice president at Young & Rubicam, the international advertising and marketing agency, until 1994 when she moved to New Jersey with her husband, Bruce Coe. Soon afterwards, she began using her marketing and communication skills to assist non-profits in Mercer and Hunterdon counties. Her jobs taught her the value of networking. “Whether it is online or in person, networking continuously is key to achieving positive results,” she said.
Susie joked that a factor in winning support for her candidate has been her age. “At my age, people are afraid to say ‘no’ to me. They fear that it may be the last time they would see me.“ She and Barbara acknowledged that an unexpected gratification from the political volunteering has been the connection with and inspiration for their grandchildren to work selflessly on behalf of others.
“You should not be able to get out of high school without writing to your congressman,” said Susie, who was reassured by a grandson at Haverford College that he intends to carry on her political activism.
I met Susie and Barbara together in their social advocacy mode on a train to Washington, D.C., on Oct. 30, 2010, as we were heading to Washington DC to participate in the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.” Even though the two of them have a spent years advocating for a variety of social reforms, such as civil rights and affordable housing, they particularly were motivated this year to throw themselves into the insane world of electoral politics.
Expressing Susie’s emotional state as well, Barbara said, “I was very depressed about the results of the 2016 presidential election. What jolted me into action, instead of just passive whining, was (the documentary filmmaker, author, political and social activist) Michael Moore. I saw him on the Chris Hayes show (Upon MSNBC) where he (Michael Moore) said to get up off your couch, get out on the street, and do something that would lead to a different outcome in the next election. I actually saw Michael Moore at a NYC rally after that television broadcast – I walked smack into him. I told him how he inspired me to engage in positive activism rather than in unproductive anger. He helped me realize that I could not sit still and be angry for the next two years.”
“I was ready to do something more than just knitting pink hats for the Pussyhat Project,” said Susie.
Princetonian, Joel Schwartz, became Barbara’s partner in the goal of flipping the 7th Congressional District from Republican to Democratic. “Joel was great at the data analysis, and I was a networking machine. We were involved in both finding the right candidate for the district and then getting the candidate elected….We shared a restlessness in wanting to be more than participants in a ‘resistance’ group – we had to act, had to achieve concrete change,” said Barbara.
Now that these women are finished with the 2018 midterms, their hyper-kinetic personalities will push them forward to the next election. One might compare it to training for a marathon – or a dance competition.
