Becoming a Good Ancestor: The Story of Political Misfits and the Power of Unleashing Community at Rivera Consulting
This past summer, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley convened her campaign staff from all her past election cycles in Hyde Park. It felt like a family reunion, and it brought us joy to see the Congresswoman in her element with her movement squad. For me, Ayanna is the brightest beacon of hope in the mess that is this nation. Everyday my chosen Congresswoman is using her gift of weaving our dreams of possibilities while doing the arduous work of co-building a new approach on the inside of Congress.
During our conversation, I lamented the current state of Washington and commented that “I don’t know how you do it down there.” She took a beat, looked me in the eye, and said “you know G, I’m just trying to be a good ancestor.” That moment invited me to reflect on how to re-imagine the chessboard of what is possible in my lifetime: to be a good ancestor. That reflection informed both how I understand Rivera Consulting’s prior political work, and the work that calls us in the years ahead.
Rivera Consulting’s capacity for political strategy and political bench building first gained public recognition after Founder and President Wilnelia Rivera spearheaded the playbook for Ayanna Pressley’s historic 2018 Congressional primary campaign. But to be clear this playbook never would have existed if it weren't for the countless activists, leaders, mentors she had at Neighbor to Neighbor Massachustess and former Tufts UEP Professor Babara Parmenter. Our work comes from the tradition of being good ancestors.
Before becoming the Strategic Engagement Director here at Rivera, I began my career in Ohio politics in 2014. After a brief stint in D.C. at EMILY’s List in 2017, I was ready to come home to Massachusetts. In what was a once in a lifetime opportunity, then-Councilor Pressley hired me to be her Finance Director on the 2018 campaign and—as my mom likes to say—brought me home. After raising $1.2 million dollars on the campaign trail, I joined Rivera Consulting in 2019. As my mentor and my manager, Wilnelia has guided me through the connective tissue of how to build relationships, create strategy, and use the trust built in relationships to stay emergent.
Together, we built a political strategy that is driven by the lived experience of candidates, staff, and community residents alike. It centers both the hunger and talents of young people committed to change, with aggressive fundraising goals to implement a true grassroots strategy. As a result, we worked with some of Massachusetts most talented elected leaders and now-political operatives, raising more than $2 million dollars for our candidates, most of whom are women, women of color, and queer people running for office.
Each campaign brought with it new challenges and successes. During Ayanna’s 2018 campaign, we learned how to foster talent and build a team that we still rely upon to this day. We helped a daughter of Roxbury and City Councilor Kim Janey raise almost $100,000 and win re-election in her November 2019 city council race with more than 75% of the vote. In 2022, we worked with Representative Liz Miranda, another Roxbury legend, to build a team that operationalized an emergent political strategy and raised over a quarter of a million dollars. None of that would have been possible without all the lessons learned from prior campaigns before, and the mentorship I personally received from years of working with Wilnelia and our team.
In the totality of my career, I have always learned the most from the losses. When Alejandra St. Guillen lost by one vote in her 2019 city council at-large bid, I was forced to truly reckon with my own blindspots and self-awareness as a white woman working for both candidates of color and a firm led by a queer woman of color. This year, Brookline State Representative candidate Raul Fernandez only received 37% of the vote in a race we gave our all. I’ve had to face the truth that no perfectly run campaign can beat the lack of competitive elections and the power of incumbency in Massachusetts.
While working on these campaigns, our firm was simultaneously coaching and capacity building with reproductive justice organizations such as the United for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE) and the National Latina Institute. We partner with these organizations to create participatory planning places that give staff, activists, and other core constituencies the time and pace to learn, unlearn, and operationalize playbooks for the future. In working with these national organizations, we placed equal value upon organizational development, learning, and trauma-informed practices and strategies needed to operationalized values and establish a culture for people, heart, and data in an ecosystem that is too often solely driven by the attainment of numerical goals.
To truly get out of the gridlock being offered by the status quo establishment, we know you need people, heart, and data. As I begin the next decade of my career of service, I want our political work to be centered on this knowledge and on being good ancestors. The professional and lived experience of our entire team lends itself to coaching, training, and co-creating strategies with movement organizations and their philanthropic partners who aspire to be more just, more strategic, and more healed.
Rivera Consulting is ready to be the partners and political strategists for those that desire bold, strategic, and transformative change in the face of political, economic, and environmental uncertainty.
Gina Christo is Rivera Consulting’ Strategic Engagement Director. They can be reached at gina@riveraconsult or on twitter @ginachristo.