How a Political Strategist Funds the Women Nobody Else Will

What happens to the policies that shape women's lives when the rooms making them are 73% men? In this episode of Women I Want You to Know by Andrea L. Johnston™ Podcast, Andrea sits down with Jordan Zaslow, Founder and Executive Director of Her Bold Move, the fastest-growing support organization for women running for office across the country. Jordan started this work in 2020 with a volunteer coalition that produced more than 75 pro bono campaign ads for women candidates in red states. What she heard from those women became the foundation for a different kind of organization. One built around the front-end gap in the candidate pipeline. One that supports women in the races no one else is paying attention to. Jordan and Andrea trace the through line that Her Bold Move's research has confirmed: the states with the fewest women in government have the most dangerous policies for women. They talk about why a single woman in a room of men cannot move the needle the way a critical mass of women can, why local offices produce change faster than Congress and why building infrastructure for the women already running matters more than chasing the highest-profile races. This conversation goes well beyond politics. Jordan shares how she runs a fast-growing organization while raising young kids, why she has stopped trying to manage the chaos and started leaning into it and why the algorithm feeding women fear is one of the opposition's most effective tools. Her closing call to action is one every female founder and executive should hear: notice when women are missing from a room. Ask why. Then do something about it. This episode is for the woman who wants more than one seat at the table, who feels paralyzed by the news cycle and who is ready to channel that energy into something the algorithm cannot take from her. In this episode, you'll hear: Why the states with the fewest women in government have the most dangerous policies for women How Her Bold Move was built from hundreds of hours of postmortems with women who ran for office Why the front end of the candidate pipeline is the most underfunded part of the system How one woman in a room full of men cannot move the needle the way a critical mass of women can Why local officals produce tangible change faster than anything happening in Washington How a network of past candidates becomes infrastructure for the women running next Why image-based digital abuse is a blind spot for male legislators and why women see it first How 60 women Democrats in West Virginia are reshaping a state legislature that is 11% women today What lived experience teaches us about which policies actually get prioritized Why doom scrolling is the opposition's most effective tool against women Why asking "why aren't there more women here?" is leadership, not complaint Episode Resources Her Bold Move Volunteer or apply for the Fellowship Her Bold Move on Instagram Connect with Jordan Zaslow on LinkedIn Jordan Zaslow’s WIWYTK LinkedIn Feature Timestamps (0:00) Welcome and intro to Jordan Zaslow (0:12) Opening remarks and the mission's urgency (1:52) Defining the Her Bold Move mission (3:12) From pandemic ads to political advocacy (6:54) Candidate networks and digital community infrastructure (8:26) Empowering the next generation through fellowships (10:13) Why building the local candidate bench matters (12:14) Research on critical mass in governance (15:31) Addressing digital abuse and legislative blind spots (17:44) Women leading policy on their own bodies (18:47) Trailblazing at the Harvard WECode conference (22:10) Reshaping West Virginia with sixty women leaders (23:50) Tennessee political shifts and the Aftyn Behn story (25:31) Navigating motherhood by leaning into the chaos (26:40) Actionable ways to fund local female candidates (28:40) Questioning the absence of women in leadership (29:22) Combating doom scrolling to protect mental health (30:41) Final thoughts and host call to action