Puppies and Politics (with Sherry Luce & Stacy Kunkel)

Extremism lost big in Pennsylvania last week, from ICE-loving sheriffs to the State Supreme Court to school boards across the commonwealth. And it didn’t happen because of pundits on cable news or DC-based strategists. It happened because regular Pennsylvanians stepped up, ran for office, and talked to their neighbors and friends about what was on the line.

This week on the pod, we’re joined by Sherry Luce, our PA Program Director, and Stacy Kunkel, our PA Deputy Program Director. They shared some inspiring stories from the ground, like a couple of moms who decided to set up their own tripod to stream their local school board meetings to show their neighbors how extremist their school board had become. And last Tuesday night, their efforts paid off! They won five seats and their school board is now full of common sense candidates who care more about kids than culture wars.

Sherry and Stacy are also our favorite “self-care resisters,” as LaFonda puts it. But their conversation shows that there’s no one way to balance work and self-care. No matter what, community is at the heart of it all.

We hope you enjoy today’s episode and are as inspired as we were by the amazing work being done in Pennsylvania!

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

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Transcript

How To Not Lose Your Sh!t Episode 8: “Puppies and Politics (with Sherry Luce and Stacy Kunkel”)

LaFonda Cousin: Hi everyone, I’m LaFonda Cousin, a part-time yoga instructor, self-care advocate, and the Chief People Officer at Red Wine and Blue.

Katie Paris: And I'm Katie Paris and I'm the founder of Red Wine and Blue. 

LaFonda: In a few minutes we'll be joined by Sherry Luce and Stacy Kunkel. Stacy is our Pennsylvania Deputy Program director, and Sherry is our Pennsylvania State Program director. We celebrated some awesome wins in Pennsylvania last week, so I'm super excited for them to tell us all about it.

How are you doing Katie? How have you been resting and celebrating? We had a lot of wins last week, how's it been going? 

Katie: I just still feel so relieved and I, you know, I was working really hard locally on our school levy. There was really a chance we were gonna face some huge cuts in my children's schools. And I worked really hard with members of the Red Wine & Blue community and moms and dads throughout this district, grandparents too, who don't have kids in the school district anymore, but know the value of our schools. And it just felt amazing to have everyone come together. 

And of course, there's no polling. There's no polling in these races. You know, like we might've known that Abigail Spanberger was ahead in her race for Governor, but we have no idea what's going on in these local school board races and levies. And it felt, I mean, we won almost 67%. 

And, you know, I really put myself out there maybe more than ever on a local race, tapping my own network. You know, my husband and I hosted a red wine and blue event here at my home that we had about 40 or 50 people at, doing our relational organizing thing. And so of course I was texting everyone in the lead up to the election, making sure they were not only voting, but talking to all their people. You know, doing the thing.

And I'll share with you, like, here's one of my like, mom friend text chains. Look at all the hearts, look at the heart emojis on these, you know, like one of them wrote, I don't know how many moms are on this one, but she wrote, “Katie, I hope you're feeling good after some pretty decisive and historic wins that's just here, but across the country yesterday. Thank you for leading on behalf of all of us.”

That is so nice! But that means so much more like coming from one of my mom friends than like, I don't know, anyone else, you know? Because it's about our kids and our community. It's just so dang personal. 

So how about you? How's it feeling down there in Texas? 

LaFonda: It feels good to see the wins everywhere else. We had a lot of, I mean, we did vote last week and we had a lot of propositions, changes to our constitution, and it did not feel as good because they all passed. And some of them should not have because they were unnecessary. You know, we know that it's, it's intentionally confusing language. So people go into the booth, they read the language, they're not sure what it means, and you know, they're putting things into writing that are unnecessary to include in the constitution because it's already there.

So I was happy to see the wins in other places like Pennsylvania and in Mississippi and in New York –

Katie: – and Virginia and California, and Ohio and Michigan. We could go on and on and on. 

LaFonda: Yeah. We talk about how, I don't experience FOMO, but I did have a little bit of political FOMO last week. 

Katie: What have been your observations of our team in experiencing such a good night in so many places, you know, everyone has been so wound up, working so hard. And now to get, I mean, let's be honest, pretty much a better result than any of us predicted. I'm curious about your perspective, like coming from a place of like, wanting to keep everybody, you know, kind of in tune and okay, grounded… how are we doing at that? 

LaFonda: I think you're doing great. I think we, I think we are doing great. I mean, I think that it was fun. It was fun to see people have a good time on election night, it was fun to see people say– 

Katie: Not always! LaFonda, do you remember? 

LaFonda: No. That's what I'm, that's what I'm saying. It was, it was a very different situation in November 2024 than November 2025. It was good to see people saying, you know, they got to go to bed early. It was good to see people celebrating the wins. It was good to see people, you know, crying for a very different reason. I think people are feeling the effects of some wins. 

And I think from a self-care perspective, it feels like just what you need to take the next step forward. The losses motivate you to push hard, but I think those wins help you feel like, “okay, there are people in this with us. Like, let's keep doing it.” 

Katie: And I think those wins, it's not just because… look, I'm not down for politics being just about the game. Like I'm just not, I'm not interested in that. That is not what is going to protect our country. But these wins represent a feeling for me that's much deeper. I'm not alone. All these communities, all these states across the country, people stood up together and they said, you know, “Enough. This is not okay.”

LaFonda: Yeah. This is not normal. What we're seeing is not okay. Mm-hmm. 

Katie: And I just, that makes me feel more okay than processing the losses. I think that was more of a, “Okay, we have this team. Who do I turn to? Who do I kind of get that sense of firm ground again, that assurance we're gonna make it, we're gonna make it somehow, we'll make this okay?”

But wow is it just a broader sense of… at the end of the day, isn't just a sense of community and belonging. So much of what makes us feel safe and secure. Right. It's like, I feel like I can look across this country from sea to shining sea and it's like, “Let's do this people.” This is still a country where it's about we the people and as much as I have lost faith in so many politicians and in, you know, a lot of our institutions, as so many Americans have, I haven't lost faith in the people.

LaFonda: Yeah, it definitely felt like a We The People night, it was very much a We The People night. We the people are sick of it. 

Katie: So we are really lucky to have with us today a couple women that we get to work with day in and day out, and they do it from the ground in Pennsylvania. Let's hear from Stacy and let's hear from Sherry about how hard they've been working. How they do it, how do they manage it all?

LaFonda: Okay. Thank you for being on the pod!

Sherry: Thank you for having us. 

Stacy: I’m so excited.

LaFonda: We’re excited!

Katie: Everyone's excited. We love doing this together. I am really excited to have you guys here too, especially because there were tons of headlines, we've all seen it. We're still seeing them about election results and things like the New York Mayor's race and the Virginia New Jersey Governor's races. And every now and then you would hear a whisper about the State Supreme Court victories in Pennsylvania, which I know we’re all very relieved to see that things like election integrity and reproductive freedom and public education still have a shot to be protected. And so congratulations on that. 

But what I'm really excited to dig in with you all today is that I don't know the extent that people may realize the total havoc and chaos that the state has had to deal with over the last four or five years or so of extremists taking over school board after school board. Most of that happened in 2021, coming off of lockdown around COVID, but you all have been working so hard on the ground and I am so excited about these local elections in Pennsylvania. And you guys know so much about them. 

So first of all, are you tired of winning yet, Sherry and Stacy? 

Sherry: Hell no. We would like to ride that victory train all the way through the midterms into 2028. 

Katie: Is it just making you lose your shit a little bit less every morning that you wake up since last Tuesday?  

Sherry: A friend of mine texted me right before the election and said, “thinking of you and knowing that soon you'll have some downtime and can relax.”

Katie: Ha!

Sherry: And I sent back, “ha ha ha ha ha.” And yes, I slept well on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I woke up digging into the numbers. Slept well. Thursday I woke up thinking, “oh my God, what are we doing for 2026? How do we keep this going?”

Stacy: You know, welcome to Pennsylvania, the swingiest of the swing states, right? 

Katie: It always makes me feel like I'm gonna lose my shit a little bit less every time I hear stories of amazing women in the Red Wine & Blue community on the ground who you all empower through the team just doing amazing things. Do you wanna talk a little bit about, I don't know, choose your favorite, favorite district – I don't know Sherry, you're gonna say Pine Richland? Is she gonna say Oxford? 

Sherry: I think we've got a couple that were just really powerful. I think everyone knows Central Bucks and Bucks County was the epicenter in 2023, and we had the privilege of working with women there who started groups and just took over their communities, flipped their boards in 2023 and then last Tuesday just solidified that. Extremism is off the table there completely. 

Stacy: Yeah. I really think we saw that in a resounding way across the state. I think people are tired of the culture wars and they're tired of the right wing talking points. And in my community where we saw wins, we saw them because the candidates didn't use that kind of messaging. They talked about the real issues and a lot of communities in Pennsylvania have schools that are falling apart, that are filled with mold, and they focused on infrastructure and taxes and real education, as in scores and what needed to be done. I think we are done– let's hope we're done – talking about the nonsense issues. 

Sherry: What we saw is out in, you know, deep red Chester County, Oxford, it's a rural community and they have been fighting extremism for a while, including in 2021. A woman was elected to the board without people realizing she's married to a convicted pedophile. On top of that, at her first board meeting, she demanded that the Hispanic kids, “those kids shouldn't be educated in the district.” And they're explaining to her, the law says they have to be, they have a right to be here. “Well, then I want those kids' scores removed from our, they're bringing down the scores in our district.”

There were petitions to have her removed from the board, but it doesn't work that way and she wouldn't step down. Well, a group of a couple of parents got together and said, “Why is our school board not live streaming the board meetings? You're banning books. You're harming L-G-B-T-Q kids.” They went out and bought a tripod. They bought backup batteries and they started streaming those school board meetings from their own iPhones through their Facebook accounts. And when you would click on it, there'd be more than a thousand people watching them streaming this school board meeting. 

Katie: I love that. 

Sherry: I mean, it was amazing. Tuesday night, they got five seats. They now control that board with really good non-extremist candidates. They did it by working in the community. We supported their efforts through our rally impact teams, where we connected with all of our members there, and we taught them about friend to friend organizing and why they needed to be talking to everyone they knew in that school district and explaining the cost of extremism. 

What's happening? Why are these school board meetings month after month focused on banning books and other stuff? While, as Stacy said, the infrastructure is being ignored, the budgets being ignored. And the numbers were massive. I mean, the numbers were massive. We all went to bed on Tuesday night already knowing the numbers and knowing there were not enough provisional ballots to overturn their victories. They did it. They did it. 

LaFonda: That's such an incredible story. 

Katie: That's amazing. I mean, a couple of moms and a tripod, you know, and the streaming for their Facebook accounts, like this is what we hear over and over. And to me, this is what politics is. Imagine if, when everybody thought about like, “oh, do you wanna get involved in politics?” they thought of things like moms and a tripod, you know? Like there's other moms over here getting their Google spreadsheets together and like figuring it out. 

Sherry: Pine Richland did that too. It was a group of parents who said, “We've had enough.” They swept it. And two years ago they had a seat win by seven votes. On Tuesday night, they won seats by a thousand.

Katie: We have got to amplify every single one of these examples. Like, this is how we create FOMO. Like, I wanna be a part of that parent group. I mean, I probably won't have me 'cause I don't live there though, would be weird, but you know what I mean? Like, I wanna be friends with these, with the two women in the tripod. Like, let's go hang. 

You know, this is… to me, politics needs such a rebrand and putting these kinds of women who are just getting it done through friends in their communities, this is how we do it. You know what I mean? I don't wanna hear anymore from pundits on MSNBC or Fox or CNN, I wanna hear from those women.

LaFonda: This is the kind of hope that builds movements, right? Like you think about the Barack Obama movement and the Zohran Mamdani movement, these are the kinds of stories that swell and build the kind of hope that people want to be a part of that change. How we look at things that change, how people get involved, that actually change the outcomes of politics. That's what people wanna be a part of. 

People don't wanna be a part of the culture wars. People don't wanna be a part of the arguments. People don't wanna be a part of CNN versus Fox. People don't wanna be a part of the division. They wanna be a part of something that builds hope and brings people together and lets people know that we can do what is best for everyone. We just have to find the thing that moves us along to get people wanna be a part of a story. I wanna be a part of a story like that. 

Katie: LaFonda and I are both gonna land in Western PA and show up at that parent meeting.

Stacy, you wrote a series of beautiful… I'm gonna call them love letters to the PA community of women following these victories. And what I loved about it so much is that you weren't like, “Hey y'all, look, we run a bunch of races. Here's the results, da, da, da.” Like, yes, of course we're communicating the data and everything, but what you captured in those letters, those emails, those notes to your community, was a sense of sisterhood. Can you talk about what the work feels like? 

Stacy: The sisterhood that red wine and Blue has allowed so many communities to build these past couple of years is critical. I came from a place where many women have come from recently or are still there, and they do think that politics is something that's not for them. That it's too much, it's too hard. 

And Red Wine & Blue has given us the opportunity to teach women that what they have to contribute is enough. It's enough, whatever it is that they can contribute. And we have women coming to us from all different types of backgrounds, whether they've been doing this for a long time or whether they have never once dipped their toe into politics before and we're giving them their legs and we're giving them their confidence to be able to do this.

And I, I did tell our team a story about a woman who had come to a couple of things last fall, but remained really, really quiet and didn't wanna talk when there were opportunities to share. And that eventually came last spring and started sharing a little, which was huge for her. And then came to our big in-person event that we held in Lancaster this summer. And I was shocked to see her there because she was very quiet and introverted. And I saw her on the Capitol steps a few weeks ago for the No Kings rally. 

Katie: No way. 

Stacy: In her yellow, with her signs. And she said to me, “All my friends called me to see which protest I was going to because I'm the person they call now to get the information on the latest thing that's happening in our communities.” And I was so proud of her and so proud that I had just a tiny part in that growth that she had. So that's what we do.

Katie: That's what we do. It's for women who thought, you know, politics was never for them. Shifting to this place of like, “wait, if this is politics, I'm all in.” Making it feel like friendship, making it feel fun, making it be a sisterhood that totally kicks ass together. With a tripod or not. 

Sherry: We had a woman in Boyertown school district show up to our organizer, Amy, who handled that area, held an in-person event where it was at a great place that has puppies. And so it was “come and learn about politics and then pet puppies.” And while they're petting puppies, she decided “I'm running for school board.” Because of what she felt at that meeting. She just won. 

Katie: Wait a minute, this thing is like a new rule. New rule, all Red Wine & Blue events from here on need puppies. It’s an official proclamation from me.

LaFonda: Puppies and politics. Done. 

Katie: Puppies and politics. I mean if you're not tired of winning and you wanna win some more, like puppies and politics is the way. 

Sherry: Well, that district won two seats two years ago, and then this year she threw her hat in the ring and won along with one more Democrat. So they're now a 5-4, whereas a few years ago they were completely on the other side. And she just jumped in while petting puppies. 

Katie: Who can we partner with to bring puppies to every single event? Like I, I'm not just saying it 'cause it sounds nice and I would like to pet the puppies. I want more winning and I think the puppies are really key to it. 

You know, but this is the whole, this is the whole point. I mean, we created this podcast to explore, could there be a way to engage in politics where we do it, where we take care of ourselves in the process and we don't just… you know, it's hard work to get to the end of an election. And like you all said, we wake up the next day and we're digging into the data and the work continues. But if you're doing it as part of his sisterhood, boy does that make a difference. I know it does for me. 

LaFonda: I mean, that feels like the perfect balance right there. We talk about activism and self-care and what that balance is. That's what this podcast is about. And we sometimes talk about them separately, right? Like how are you doing the activism and the self-care, and then what does that look like on both sides, but like puppies and politics sounds like you're doing both at the same time. And I'm here for that. 

These kinds of events to me feel like the perfect blend of those things. And then they actually get results. And some of these things that Stacy and Sherry are talking about are like, we've been talking about planting seeds. I know y'all are sick of me because I've been gardening this year, y'all, and so we are talking about planting seeds. Cause, you know, I have my hyper fixation. I can't let some things go. But like year over year, you're getting closer and closer to the result. And it sounds like that's what's happening in your communities. And I love to hear that that's happening. 

I am curious to know, 'cause you know, Sherry and I are a little bit different. Sherry is my favorite self-care resistor. 

Sherry: I view self-care differently, let's put it that way. I'm like, “Yeah, kumbaya’s not gonna cut it with me.”

Katie: I mean, amen to that. I'm there oftentimes too, Sherry, we're all on a spectrum here.

LaFonda: Yes. Sherry views self-care a little bit differently.

So how are you celebrating and using your vision of self-care in this moment to balance keeping yourself mentally sane and also keep pushing because you're waking up, you're looking at the data, but also is that, is that also feeding your soul? You're not burning out? 

Sherry: I would say a couple things. Number one, the Barbie movie from a few years ago. One of my favorite lines is when someone congratulated her and she said, “thank you. I worked hard for that.” 

And that was something important this year. That in the past when someone said, “Oh wow, that was amazing. You did a great job.” I'd be like, “oh, well, well no, because, well, you know,” and I didn't take my flowers. This year, I said, “thank you. My team and I worked really hard for this.”

LaFonda: I love that. 

Sherry: So that helped. The other part is like talking about planting seeds… You know, I gardened this year too, had my one amazing tomato plant that created a bountiful harvest of tomatoes to where next year I might plant two.

But the seeds from this election, I called Stacy and said, “Hey. We are seeing victories across Pennsylvania in some of the reddest areas that we never thought possible beyond our courts, beyond our school districts. We saw a Black woman elected to mayor of Johnstown. We saw just some of the craziest results coming, flipping sheriffs. We have an engaged populace right now.” 

And so I went out and looked and found out that in 2023, because we reelect our entire Pennsylvania House every two years, 43 Republican seats won because they were uncontested. So Stacey and I are digging in. We're looking at the counties where they are. We're looking to engage our membership there. We're looking to see what amazing races happened in these rural areas that maybe flew under the radar. 

And we are going to remind people we need to find candidates. Nobody should have a race where they don't have a choice. And so in Potter County, we have a wonderful Trouble Nation group in Potter County. Our TroubleNation leader contacted us to say, “oh my gosh, guys, you're not gonna believe this for the first time in 40 years, when people in Ponder County vote, they will have a choice for every race on their ballot.” So we are going to see what we can do with other coalition groups and all to find people to run in these 43 seats. No one should win without a contest. 

Katie: I mean, I think if you have an event and bring puppies, like that will be the key. Find a puppy. Puppy for candidates. Hug a puppy. Find your sisterhood. Change the world. What do you guys think? I feel like we just need to build this out. That's what I'm feeling in my spirit. 

All right. How about you, Stacy?

Stacy: Um, you know, Sherry and I are kind of like-minded in our, in our self-care routine. But I do enjoy, you know, when I'm able to tune out, I enjoy reading and curling up with a book more than about anything. Now, sometimes what I read isn't the most relaxing, so I need to be better at sometimes choosing, you know, different books. But I like to learn. And so a lot of the books that I read do have social justice themes or are, you know, historical fiction and that sort of thing.

But my self-care is, and I don't wanna say it's my work, but it's my need to be informed. And to be with like-minded people, to build those relationships, to spend time with those people. It doesn't have to be talking about politics. It can just be, yeah. Being with those people. And I've come from a place in my life where I didn't have the luxury of being with those people. And I had to sever some ties and I had to change the way that I've done things over the past couple of years. But that has created an amazing amount of peace for me. 

So, you know, being the go-to person in, in my friend group for information, that brings me the kind of peace that I need. And when I go to bed at night, I sleep like a rock. So I'm, I think I'm doing okay. 

LaFonda: That's great. I think that's great. I think we, we, we focus on that too. Having that community make change and continuing to build that community around you, and having that community either doing the work or just having that community around you is self-care. And so that is an acceptable answer, Stacy and Sherry. 

Stacy: And it feels good whether it's positive and we're celebrating the wins. And it feels good when it's negative because you have each other.

LaFonda: You have that support around you. You have that bubble around you. I'll allow it. 

Sherry: And now we're gonna take this community into 2026.

LaFonda: There it is. 

Katie: Yes ma'am. Can't wait to ride right alongside you both. 

So I'm so glad you came here. I loved this conversation. I think the self-care resistors may be, I dunno, low key embracing it in their own way. And I, I'm loving that because we all have to find our own way in this. I love it and I love rejecting the binary, you know, I do. Always. Like it's not one or the other, we can do this in our own way. And the key being friendship and sisterhood. It's so beautiful. 

But y'all, you worked so hard and I know that work is continuing. Let's lean on each other in this community and continue to make it beautiful, and let's keep winning. 'cause that, that part's fun too.

LaFonda: Absolutely. Congratulations. Yeah. 

Sherry: Thank you. My team and I worked really hard. 

Katie: Yes, that's the answer we're looking for. Nailed it. Love it. Done. Thank y'all. 

Sherry: Thank you.

LaFonda: Thanks everyone for listening today. Before we go, we want to leave you with our self-care tip of the week. This week our tip is to breathe.

That's it. Deep breathing and watch your heart rate drop. Love that. Take a deep breath. Try to remember. 

Katie: Okay. Like right now? 

LaFonda: Yeah. Let's take a deep breath in and out.

Katie: Everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you’re enjoying the podcast, share it with a friend!