In our latest episode, we sit down with Mare Ahmed, the Operations Director at Bluebonnet Data, a non-profit focused on leveraging data and technology to support progressive political campaigns and organizations. Mare discusses her initial exposure to and fascination with political science and her previous experience as the Special Projects Director at the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
We then highlight the origins of Bluebonnet Data as a student-led mission and how the Bluebonnet Fellowship bridges the gap between young-tech driven people with the desire to make a meaningful impact and the need for data support on campaigns. Mare dives into how during the 12 week fellowship, fellows are matched with projects which address pain points on political campaigns such as voter targeting, district analysis, donor research and field tool set-up by developing projects such as Generating Voter Turnout Scores from Scratch and Calculating a Win Number after Redistricting.
We discuss how the Bluebonnet Fellowship builds a diverse talent pipeline in progressive politics and how Bluebonnet Data showcases its fellows’ career journeys into the political tech space through its newsletter series, Bluebonnets in the (Progressive) Field. We close the episode by discussing the economic impact of Bluebonnet Data’s support in the political landscape along with the case study of Ohio Voice's campaign to protect reproductive rights.
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