Sunrise Candidate Program

Right now we are recruiting for state/local offices with elections in 2021 and 2022. If you’re not sure what office you’d like to run for or not 100% convinced it’s the right move for you, we encourage you to apply. Often young people are told to wait on the sidelines until they have the right education, career, or age to be able to hold elected office. If you’ve been involved helping to improve your community and want to fight for a Green New Deal for the people and places you love, you likely have what it takes to run for office!

Our goal is to remove as many barriers as possible so that young without previous political experience can run for office. Here’s the training and support our recruits can expect up until the point they announce.

• Candidate Bootcamp: You’ll get trained by movement leaders in campaign planning, messaging and communications, public narrative storytelling, fundraising, voter contact, how to build a team, how to run a field team, volunteer recruitment and more.
• Strong Creative Assets: We’ll make sure you have everything you need before you launch your campaign, from headshots, to a logo, to a high-quality launch video that will set the narrative and tone for your campaign.
• Volunteer Training: We’ll support you to build a team and train communications and field leaders to support your campaign.
• Finding a Campaign Manager: We will help you connect with a campaign manager early on (if this is right for your scale of race) who understands progressive political campaigns and can help you make the most of your time as a candidate.

Applying for the program is completely free.

We’re particularly looking to support leaders from within the Sunrise Movement, but we are willing to look at other young leaders who align with our values and who would benefit from our support.

You definitely don’t need a resume full of election experience to be a candidate. We’re looking for candidates who are leaders in their communities in some way, and want to run for office because they want to better the lives of their neighbors. Community organizing especially around the Green New Deal is a plus. We’re also looking for candidates with relevant life experiences that will help them tell a moving story about why they’re running for office. If you’re reading this and you’re not sure if you’re qualified, please still apply! There’s no one path to politics.

While we encourage all supporters of the Green New Deal to seek office, our movement is focused on supporting young people, so we’re looking for candidates who are under 34, and over 18/21 depending on state regulations for minimum age.

Applications for folks interested in running in 2021 are now closed, applications for folks interested in running in 2022 are being accepted on a rolling basis

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions! Email: [email protected]