ATIMA OMARA

MAKING HISTORY, ONE VOTE AT A TIME

By Atima Omara for Black Girls Allowed

Originally published March 2018.

In 2013, I was elected president of the Young Democrats of America (YDA), the nation’s largest partisan youth organization, representing young people in the Democratic Party from 14-36. The organization formed in 1932, and has served as a youth arm for the larger Democratic Party. Despite African American voters being a powerful base for the Democratic Party, the YDA had never elected an African American to serve as president.

After 81 years, I was the first Black person, and only the fifth woman to hold that role. The experience of running for a national party office, raising money for travel to meet voting delegates, engaging and organizing young people in the political process, cemented my thoughts about the importance of not only having people who look like us at the table; but, at the head of the table! Today, I am an elected Democratic National Committee (DNC) member from Virginia and a vice chair of the DNC’s Women’s Caucus.

“When women run for office there are undeniable double standards.”

Though I knew of how hard it was for women to run for office, I truly began to understand how hard it was especially for women of color. I, myself, experienced hardships and roadblocks as I ran for a state house seat in a special election in 2014. When women run for office there are undeniable double standards, higher expectations, and gendered remarks of what women are capable of doing versus men. If you are a woman of color, those gendered remarks often take on a racial tint.

It was these experiences, plus working for other candidates that empowered me to be an agent of change I wanted to see. I founded the Omara Strategy Group — a D.C. metro based consulting firm, providing strategic political services to progressive people of color, women and LGBTQ candidates. In addition, my film will also offer political and capacity building services to organizations that center women and people of color in their work to build progressive political power and enact a more representative democracy.

We Can Shatter The Glass Ceiling

Why? After 2016, it was clear that African American women were the most solidly pro-Democratic block in the 2016 general election against Trump. In 2017, Black women brought it home decisively in the 2017 statewide elections in Virginia for Democrats. And Black women did it again as a decisive voting block in Alabama’s hotly contested special election senate race, in which Democrat Doug Jones was the victor over GOP Roy Moore. In fact, African American women gave Jones such a stunning victory that #BlackWomen was trending on Twitter!

In 2018, if we’re going to make history and get Trump out of office, it will take members of the Rising American Electorate – that is, young people, people of color, and women to be a part of the turning of the tide in many congressional districts and states. Black women voters cut across all these demographics. Elections in 2016, 2017, and 2018 have shown it happening already.

“Real progressive change requires diversity of thought and leadership”

I’m honored to be in the history books for YDA; however, I can’t rest on my laurels! I want to do my part in helping women shatter the glass ceiling, and people of color break racial barriers to achieve success and progress in politics. In this Trump Administration, I encourage everyone to #StayWoke. I believe that activism along with electoral politics can affect the best change in creating a fully representative democracy.

Real progressive change requires diversity of thought and leadership, and this country will move even closer to living up to being a representative democracy if more women, people of color, and younger Americans are represented in federal, state, and local government. I intend to be a major part of making that change happen one vote at a time.

About Atima Omara

To learn more about Atima Omara and the Omara Strategy Group, visit OmaraStrategy.com.

Atima Omara is an award-winning political strategist, advocate, writer and speaker who has spent 15 years engaging youth, women, and people of color in the political process and related progressive causes. She is the founder and president of Omara Strategy Group — a D.C. metro based consulting firm, providing strategic political services to progressive people of color, women and LGBTQ candidates.