A’shanti F. Gholar is a force in American politics. As the president of Emerge, the nation’s only organization dedicated to recruiting, training, and empowering Democratic women to run for office and win, Gholar has been instrumental in changing the face of politics. Before taking the helm at Emerge in February 2020, becoming the first Black woman to lead the organization, Gholar co-founded Emerge Nevada in 2006 and served as Emerge’s national political director starting in 2016.
Under her leadership, Emerge has experienced unprecedented growth with affiliates in over two dozen states, more than 1,200 alums in office, and over 6,000 Democratic women trained to run for office and win. Her vision centers on the New American Majority – Black, Brown, and Indigenous women, women of color, LGBTQ+, young, and unmarried women – recognizing them as a political force for winning elections.
What is your superpower?
I definitely feel that I am a connector, I love bringing people together. I’m an organizer at heart, but something a lot of people have said to me lately with my work is that I make them feel seen, that just always makes me smile, and I think that is my big superpower, because it’s coming from people, when I didn’t expect them to say that at all.
Every year at Emerge, I call our alums that win, and I also call our alums that don’t win. Because when you don’t win, the phone stops ringing, no one really cares anymore, and I think that’s upsetting, and I want to call them and let them know I’m so grateful that they allowed Emerge to be on their journey. I’m so grateful that they put their name on the ballot, and I’m so grateful for them running a great race, and particularly last November, the 2024 election.
I had so many of our women say, thank you for seeing me, but especially our black women, they said, thank you so much for seeing me, so I think that has become one of my superpowers. I just see great women, and I want them to run for office, I want for them to be involved in politics, because we definitely need more of us in the political ecosystem.
What inspired you to champion women in politics?
I never, ever thought I would be leading a National Women’s organization. I never thought I would be in politics, but I just fell in love with politics one day when I was a kid, and I discovered C-SPAN. I was just so intrigued by all of these people that were passionate and arguing about the future of the country. I was just so fascinated with this thing called politics, didn’t know what it was called, but immediately, as a young girl, I knew that I didn’t see a lot of people that look like me. I didn’t see a lot of women. I didn’t see a lot of black and brown people. So it automatically makes you think, okay, I love this, but can I be involved in this.
I had an amazing government teacher, Mrs. Sam King, in High school. She was very politically engaged. You never knew what side of the aisle that she was on, because she just knew everyone, and she would bring them in to talk to us. We could volunteer in their campaigns, and I would always volunteer on the campaigns of women, because back then, pretty much, whenever a woman was running, it would mean she would be the first.
Then one day Emerge came, they were setting up their Nevada affiliate. By this time I had graduated high school. I was working for Congresswoman Shelley Berkeley, and I knew that I wanted to be engaged with changing the face of politics in our home state, and what I liked is that it was building infrastructure, which meant that they just weren’t going to come in, do some work and leave, which I saw all the time with the Presidential races.
There was just so much energy, and then, after the election, everyone left and abandoned us, and I knew this was going to be different, and I wanted to focus on having more women in these positions, and it just became my passion whenever I had the opportunity to work for women, I would jump at the chance, and now, just to be here during this time, when we have a Federal government that strikes out the word female and woman from words that the Government uses. It only fired me up more to show the importance of meeting women in leadership and especially in politics.
Why is representation of the new American majority so critical right now?
When I took over Emerge, we were just finishing up our previous vision, which was expanding our affiliate reach and starting to expand new programming. So I had to create the new vision with the team, and we knew we just wanted to get back to the basics. Going through that process, I knew I had to look to the future. What is the country going to look like in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? And it was very obvious that the new American majority was going to continue to rise.
Black, brown, and indigenous women, women of color, young women, unmarried women, LGBTQ women, they are a growing political force at the ballot box. So many of the victories that we have seen, especially with putting diverse women in office have come from this group, and it’s our job to make sure that they just don’t go out there and vote, to let them know that they can put their name on the ballot as well.
In our Emerge 2035 vision, it’s a 15 year vision that we created, we just finished the first third, now we’re in the second third. We’ve actually seen an increase in our new American majority numbers at our national level for trainings, at our State level for trainings. People have said, okay, just the fact that you all are so bold about this that you centered an entire vision around us lets us feel seen, and we know that you want us here.
We even have a program called Seated Together, which is an expansion of our programming, and that is for black women elected officials who want to run for higher office because we know that is extremely important.
What advice do you have for women who want to thrive in this challenging political moment?
The burnout, the non participation, the disengagement is what they want. These are the people who are striking woman and female from words the government can say and focus on. Part of the plan is to make us feel unseen, and the best feeling is letting them know that they did not do that, that we are still here, that we are fighting back.
Think about the ways that you can incorporate activism into your everyday life, and that’s going to make it so much more sustainable for you. If you go to church every Sunday, let people know that you’ll be coming a little bit early, or you’ll be staying a little bit late, so you all can organize and talk about what is happening and how do you reach out to other community leaders, elected officials regarding those issues that are impacting you.
In this moment, community is so important, and it’s going to be those everyday small things that we do to stay engaged, to uplift others, to fight back, that’s what we need in this moment, just because you’re not planning a march with 10,000 people does not mean that you’re not being effective. Those little things are what will continue to make sure that we are a country that fights back and uses our voices, and that we’re a democracy.
Have you seen women stepping up to run for office since the 2024 election?
We have, right after the election we extended the deadlines to apply to our Emerge programs, and we had lots of women apply. They were the women who immediately knew that they wanted to run for office. We knew that it was going to come in waves, that there is going to be different moments after women rested. They have some time to reflect that they were going to step up and run, and I feel right now we’re seeing that next wave.
People really bank on people not running to stay in these seats. There are people who have not been challenged for decades, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that. A lot of those people aren’t serving, and you’re in that role to service your community, to service the people there. They work for us, as the voter.
There’s 520,000 elected offices in this country. The majority of them are at the state and local level, and that is where the big impact on our daily lives are at, and those are the races we really need women stepping up to run for.
What inspired you to create The Brown Girls Guide to Politics?
I created The BGG in 2018, and the idea came to me one day, I was up early on my way to do a training. I had an email from a young woman who wanted advice on how to get into politics, and at the time I was just the political director of Emerge, and I was just getting more and more emails like that.
I’m literally where I’m at because of other black women who lifted me up, believed in me, saw things in me I didn’t see in myself, and I’m very much about paying it forward, and I just started thinking, what’s the best way for me to share this advice, and that’s when The BGG came to me, and it just started off as a blog.
We did a series called Being The Only Brown Girl in the Room, and it was our most read series and remains our most read series, because we talked about what it was like, how hard it was very lonely, and the stories were the same for black women, Indian women, indigenous women, Asian women, Latinas.
Someone said, I would love to hear more about this, I love the writing, but I want to hear more. So we ended up turning the blog into also having a podcast and we launched The Brown Girls Guide to Politics podcast and the reception has been amazing.
What legacy do you hope to leave in politics?
Just to let women know that they belong, that there is absolutely space for them in politics. A lot of people like to reference the 19th Amendment and women getting the right to vote. We know that was for some women, not all women, and we have to realize it hasn’t been a hundred years for a lot of us, and we’re just getting started, but if we don’t continue to show up, be involved, hold our rightful place, hold power, nothing really changes.
So even if it’s donating $5 a month to a candidate that you love, to door knocking, to phone banking, to going to rallies, getting involved in a political organization, and of course, putting your name on the ballot to run for office, that’s just the legacy that I want, is that women know that they do belong in these spaces, and now I know I look really young. I just celebrated a birthday. So I turned 44, just really letting them know that there is space here, and we need for them to show up. So we can continue this work.
How do you practice self-care as a leader?
This is something I had to learn, I took over Emerge in February 2020, right when the pandemic hit, so it was very heavy. I was working from home, I was a new executive trying to figure this all out, and I wasn’t prioritizing myself. Everything was work, work, work, because I was sitting all day, I ended up having to go to the chiropractor.
And then one day, when leaving the Chiropractor, I had chiropractor, and then I had acupuncture, which are two of my favorite things now for self-care, but then, literally, after acupuncture, you’re all Zen, and you’re happy, and then I get the alert on my phone that I have a zoom call, so immediately all the Zen went away. So at that moment I just said, I can’t do this anymore.
It also just became little things that I would do every single day. I’ve been talking a lot about the app called Opal that I use to limit my social media to an hour a day, and it has been a game changer because self-care is not consuming all of this 24/7. I also have it blocked from twelve to one, which means when I’m eating lunch, I’m not on my phone because my social media is blocked. So I’m actually enjoying my lunch and maybe reading a book or listening to a podcast.
I’m just very intentional about closing my laptop at a certain time, so I can start to unwind and get ready for bed. During the day, it can just be shutting the laptop, and I’m just gonna walk around the house, if I’m working from home, or if I’m traveling like I am now, just take a quick walk around the block.
For me, self-care has become just those little things that we can do every day like I love massages, love getting my nails and toes done. I really want for us to reimagine that self-care can just be at home, watching Youtube having your candle lit, lighting our FORVR Mood candles, which is black owned, and just enjoying yourself. So even if you can get 5 min of quiet a day, I think everyone should consider that self-care because it is a game changer for your mental state.
