A New Chapter for Arena

New years are times for new beginnings, and so I write to share some exciting news.

This month, after five years as Managing Partner and Executive Director of Arena, I will be passing the baton to my incredibly talented colleague Santiago Martinez.

When I stepped into this role, Arena was still a startup, grounded in the audacious belief that by inviting more people into politics we could transform our communities, our country, and our democracy. Today, we are a powerhouse organization that offers bold proof of this vision.

Arena has now recruited, trained, and deployed more than 9,350 campaign staff and volunteers, from all 50 states, to more than 3,000 campaigns and movement organizations.
We’ve delivered a 72% win rate on campaigns staffed by Arena-trained staff, consistently overperforming national electoral trends.
We’ve developed sophisticated training curricula and campaign tools to address advances in digital and data strategy and artificial intelligence.
And we’ve built the largest political job resource hub in the Democratic ecosystem, with 1.03M annual page views and 145K unique users.

As my tenure draws to a close, I’m proud to have led this organization through a period of such immense growth and impact. But what I’m proud of isn’t just the numbers, it’s the people they represent—each one is someone who has found their place in politics, their way to be a lever for change.

The Arena I’m leaving is in a position of strength and in incredibly capable hands.

Our recent merger with Zinc Collective brought the two leading Democratic talent pipeline organizations under one roof. Our combined resources, reach, and expertise position us to radically expand the Democratic talent pool and drive Democratic victories up and down the ballot. As we do so, we will be steered by a talented group of leaders.

Arena’s new Executive Director Santiago Martinez has been with Arena since day one. Many of you know him from the Arena Academy main stage, or have benefited from his brilliant work on the Arena Toolbox. He is a skilled practitioner and a values-driven leader whose commitment to this community runs deep.

As a member of Zinc Collective, Arena now also benefits from the powerful leadership of Zinc Collective CEO Alicia Rockmore and President Sarah Kleinmann, who bring vision and drive to their work to transform the Democratic talent ecosystem.

Together, Santiago, Alicia, Sarah, and the entire Arena and Zinc Collective teams are poised to take our organization to new heights, and I am excited to support them.

To that end, as I move on to new professional endeavors, I will also remain a strategic advisor to Zinc Collective, providing guidance on our critical work to recruit, train, and deploy Democratic talent and build persistent Democratic majorities.

Arena has been a part of my life and political journey for nearly a decade. It was at an Arena Summit in Detroit in June of 2017 that I signed a pledge card committing to run for office, and it was the support of Arena that turned my long-shot campaign for U.S. Congress into one of the most competitive red-to-blue races of the 2018 election cycle. Helming this organization for the last five years has been an immense honor and privilege, and I will always remain a champion and supporter of Arena’s work.

Thank you for standing with me, and for, in so many different ways, stepping into the Arena yourselves.

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