Always Moving Forward: A Conversation with Cecile Richards
America Votes founding president Cecile Richards discusses how far the progressive movement has come and where it must go from here.
“I have been enormously privileged to always do progressive work. It’s what feeds me, it’s why I feel like I’m on this earth.”
America Voters founding president and progressive icon Cecile Richards has spent her entire life standing up for what she believes in. From her early days organizing in the labor movement to her time at the helm of Planned Parenthood through today, Richards has been a trailblazer in the progressive movement, constantly working to move the country forward and stand up for equality and justice.
It was this drive that led Richards and her colleagues, well over a decade ago, to pose the question of what progressive organizations could achieve if they joined forces to coordinate their efforts with one another. The idea was novel at the time, but Richards remembers being stunned that no one had done this before.
“It became obvious that we could do better if we were willing to actually create one goal, and then divide up the work and divide up the resources,” Richards recalled. This was the beginning of America Votes, the coordination hub of the progressive community that today works with more than 400 state and national partner organizations to advance progressive values, win elections and protect every American’s right to vote.
“What became so important was to begin to support that work and support the convening of the folks from the labor movement, from the women’s movement, from the civil rights community, from the LGBTQ community, so that in fact, the people who were really going to get this work done could feel like they were supported.”
-Cecile Richards
Richards and her colleagues soon brought together the leaders of major progressive organizations — the first time that many of these individuals had ever been in the same room. It soon became clear to the group, Richards said, that they needed to focus on the grassroots organizing happening from the state level up.
“What became so important was to begin to support that work and support the convening of the folks from the labor movement, from the women’s movement, from the civil rights community, from the LGBTQ community,” remembered Richards, “so that in fact, the people who were really going to get this work done could feel like they were supported.”
She believes that realization was, and continues to be, the key to America Votes’ ability to bring together organizations from across the progressive movement. “People just had to recognize that winning is more important than any individual organization or person getting credit, and that if we could win, that success is something everyone could take credit for,” Richards said.
Fifteen years later, America Votes and the entire progressive movement continue to evolve to best advance the values they represent. Looking to the future of America Votes and other progressive organizations, Richards believes that it’s incredibly important to invest in young and diverse leaders, something she prioritized during her time at Planned Parenthood.
“It was imperative to me that we had to build a board and a staff that reflected the vast community that depended on Planned Parenthood,” Richards said. “We can’t settle for anything less than full inclusion, and we must intentionally lift up folks who have been excluded from leadership positions and opportunities within the progressive world.”
Richards also spoke to the importance of lifting up the voices of young women leaders making waves in the progressive space.
“Young women are my inspiration,” said Richards. “They’re just so much further ahead, certainly more than I was as a young woman, and to see them not waiting until they are asked to participate, or asked to run for office, I think that is the most inspiring thing happening in America.”
She also understands that including young leaders sometimes means that people like her, who have often been doing this work for decades, “need to move over and make space for other folks.”
“It’s part of the reason I left Planned Parenthood when I did,” Richards said. “I felt like I had this enormously rewarding, rich experience as the leader of Planned Parenthood, and it was time for someone else to have that opportunity.”
“We can’t settle for anything less than full inclusion, and we must intentionally lift up folks who have been excluded from leadership positions and opportunities within the progressive world.”
-Cecile Richards
To continue on the path of advancing progressive values, Richards urged advocates to loudly and clearly speak up about the change they want to see in the world.
“Assuming Donald Trump is running for re-election,” Richards said, “we’ve got to be very, very clear, not just on all the things we hate about this administration and their policy — and there is a lot to complain about — but we’ve really got to say, ‘What kind of world do we want to live in, and what are we doing to try to build that?’”
And when faced with setbacks, such as the recent Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, Richards encouraged women to remember their power.
“The important thing is how this [confirmation] is making sure that women understand the power they have when they don’t give up,” said Richards. “That’s what this is all about.”
