When Women Run, Communities Win- Spotlight on Emerge KY

In this episode of the Blue Dot Podcast, hosts Natalie MacDonald and Brian Koehl sit down with Blair Haydon, Executive Director of Emerge Kentucky, to discuss the organization’s mission of recruiting, training, and empowering Democratic women to run for office across the Commonwealth.

Blair shares how Emerge Kentucky, one of the earliest state affiliates of the national Emerge network, has trained nearly 400 women leaders through its intensive six-month program. The conversation explores the barriers women still face in politics, including fundraising challenges, work-life balance, childcare responsibilities, and the persistent representation gap in Kentucky government.

The discussion highlights Emerge Kentucky’s impressive track record, including dozens of elected officials, judges, prosecutors, and community leaders who have emerged from the program. Blair also explains how Emerge continues to support alumni long after graduation through mentorship, candidate training, and a powerful statewide network.

Plus, hear about the organization’s ongoing efforts to recruit diverse women leaders, the importance of representation at every level of government, and why Emerge graduates continue to win races across Kentucky.

#BlueDotPodcast #EmergeKentucky #WomenLead #RunForOffice #RepresentationMatters #KentuckyPolitics #WomenInGovernment #CivicEngagement #Vote #Leadership

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Blue Dot, Northern Kentucky's premier political podcast. Brought to you by the Kent County Democratic Executive Committee.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

You know, I was having coffee with uh former Lieutenant Governor Crit Lou Allen a few days ago, and she reminded me of this, and she has numerous times, that she thinks Emerge is the single best thing that has happened to the Democratic Party. Throughout the six months of training, not only do we want to see them run for office and win, but we encourage them to be involved in their local county parties and Democratic Women's Club. And I would say we are a large part of continuing to strengthen the party statewide and beyond, obviously, when you look at the other states and the work that they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

And one organization that shares that commitment is Emerge Kentucky. Emerge is a state affiliate of Emerge, a national organization that has trained more than 4,000 women to run for office since 2002. I'm proud to say that I'm one of those graduates.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Blair Hayden is the executive director of Emerge Kentucky. A Springfield, Kentucky native, Blair has spent her career serving children, families, and communities through education, social services, public policy, and political leadership. She previously served in Governor Bashir's Office of Early Childhood, where she helped implement the strengthening families framework across the Commonwealth. Today she leads Emerge Kentucky's efforts to recruit, train, and support the next generation of women leaders. Blair, welcome to the Blue Dot Podcast. We're so happy to have you.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Thanks so much for having me, Brian and Natalie. I am thrilled to be here. I love what the podcast is doing and the information you'll are providing to the listeners.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Thank you so much for being here. You've been serving in a leadership position with Emerge since 2016. And prior to that, you were in public service and doing other things. How did you get involved with Emerge, Kentucky?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Well, I had been volunteering for the Democratic Party for years, and I knew of Emerge because of so many other women who had decided to go through the training. I had gone to some of their uh Emerges events, and I had thought about going through the program myself when they were looking for an executive director in 16. One of the alums uh and graduates, uh graduate of the training told me I should apply for it. And it's not something I had thought of, and I said, why not? This is work I'm doing outside of my job anyway, and maybe I should take a shot at transitioning into this uh political role from from really social work and uh and public policy, and it it turned out to be a great fit.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, that's great. I mean, Emerge Kentucky's mission is simple, at least when you read about it. I'm sure it's not it's quite as simple to implement, but that is to increase the number of Democratic women from diverse backgrounds serving in public office through recruitment, training, and just an incredible network of support. Uh so tell us a little bit about the EMERGE program overall.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Sure. Uh and Natalie, as you mentioned, it started in 2002 on the national level. What a lot of folks don't know is Kentucky was the ninth state out of 28 states at one time that were uh boots on the ground. We were actually one of the early states and the first southern state. And our training is a six-month signature program. It's 70 intensive hours of training that is solely focused on the campaign skills it takes to run successfully and win. It's one Saturday a month from January to June, and then one weekday where we go and shadow the Democratic women legislators during the session in Frankfurt. And we uh we have an application that we're normally looking at around 70 applications per calendar year. Uh, we review those every fall with our volunteer board of directors, some of our alums, and we do in-person interviews where we select uh around 25 women per class year uh to go through this six-month training.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

It was just such a great experience from you know, you you teach and give skills on everything from fundraising to networking. And I'm sure now there is a social media component to it that wasn't there when I went through it because, you know, I'm dating myself being in that first class.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Not only that, it was uh right, Brian. But uh not only that, it was the camaraderie and the networking that was part of it. And I just had such a wonderful experience with it, and it's it's so great to hear that it's going so strong and you're getting so many applications every year. It's amazing what you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

And I mean, and you know, then the the results speak for themselves across 26 state eMERGE alumni who have won more than a thousand elections and serve at every level of government. But despite that progress that we're seeing, there's still a significant represent uh representation gap, especially here in Kentucky, you know, where women make up more than half of the population, yet they only hold 41 of the 138 seats in the General Assembly. So that's why that's less than 30%. So, you know, this the numbers are even lower in the Senate. But what do you think is really the biggest barrier to women being able to break through in politics so that we have more equal representation in the legislature?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Rutgers University used to tell us that statistics showed it took asking a woman seven times to run for office before we would decide to do it. Women are always thinking about when is the right time, getting everything in place in their jobs, with their families. Um they're they're putting those things first. And also the the disparity really in the jobs and pay that are out there is a big barrier to women now. I've seen many of our alums who are running have to decide between whether or not they get to keep their job or go to elected office when they win. It it's difficult for us to find a top of type of job that will allow you to take that leave to campaign and do your duties as an elected official outside of that. Not to mention many of us are working and raising our families at the same time. That does continue to be a barrier for us.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

I would imagine even there's a funding component too, right? And that women statistically, I've read uh different research papers about this, that women I have a harder time raising money as well. And I don't know if that's from a viability standpoint, but it's it's a problem because you need money to run for office.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Unfortunately, in uh today's campaigns, yes, that is still a large component.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Yeah, and I you and speaking of the money, I mean, you have a low tuition cost. The trains are all throughout the state, and there could be some overnight stay for people who have to travel, and you do offer or try to help with some of that financial support if you can, but you know, that's that that burden and just the schedule itself for women and everything they have going on, I'm sure, can be somewhat of an obstacle.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Absolutely. And we want to make sure there's every type of woman and a demographic background represented um in our elected offices, and therefore uh we're recruiting hard to get those women in our trainings. That includes some single moms where childcare becomes an issue. Obviously, transportation, as you mentioned, and um, we do everything that we can to provide resources so that these things aren't a burden to those women. We are a nonprofit, we are fundraising a lot uh to offset the cost of what the tuition is, and so that is not um keeping women from applying and going through the training. I will say, once you have done six months of our training, eMERGE candidates most of the times are excellent fundraisers.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Yep, absolutely. We can need new skills, it's hard it's hard to do, it's hard to do, and once you learn and you go through it with the program, I remember we would sit there and we're like, okay, we're sitting down, we're making calls today. And it made you feel comfortable about that and gave you the confidence to do it. So it's definitely makes a difference. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Well, and and the ultimate goal I know is to is for women to win elected office. But when I was looking through the curriculum, uh those so many transferable skills, I mean, it's just a very valuable program overall from like a professional development standpoint.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

We have eMERGE alums serving in so many leadership roles and capacities across Kentucky outside of just elected office. Um, I know the Northern Kentucky chapter of the Women's Network is led by one of our alums, Debbie Flowers. And many of our alums' board members are involved and serve in in leadership roles uh with the women's network. Of course, Democratic women's clubs, democratic executive committees in each county. We certainly see these women come through the training. And if the time is not right for them to run for office, there's not a position open that we we don't want women to run just for the sake of running. You have to find the office that's right for you and that when the time is right. And so we see them go on to do so many other things after they've had this training. It's been beneficial in so many ways. And that network that you talked about, Natalie, we have trained nearly 400 women across the state at this point, and it has built such a robust network where uh we've seen women transition into other positions of of leadership in their communities and across the state.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, it's interesting. The uh you said you mentioned executive committee leadership, and uh, I was going through the alums on your website. It's amazing how many names I recognized, only really kind of being involved in the podcast and really in the Kentucky Democratic Party, you know, at any depth, just for a year or two. But like Danielle Bell, our own Kenton County chair of the executive committee, went through that and I mean talk about those transferable skills to a to a democratic, a political organization like that. I mean, that's amazing training there. And then that those skills go out across such a broad spectrum of people, then if so many people can benefit from that training that one person had. So really a very important program.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

You know, I was having coffee with uh former Lieutenant Governor Crit Lou Allen a few days ago, and she reminded me of this, and she has numerous times that she thinks EMERGE is the single best thing that has happened to the Democratic Party. Throughout the six months of training, we encourage these women not only do we want to see them run for office and win, but we encourage them to be involved in their local county parties and Democratic Women's Club. And I I would say we are a large part of continuing to strengthen the the party statewide and and beyond, obviously, when you look at the other states and the work that they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Yeah, and it's it's so important. And they talked about the diversity of the people who you bring in to the program. And I think what it really does is it allows when we do get women in office into these positions, as you said, to have a seat at the table. I mean, they're bringing their experiences, their pers their perspectives, how I see discussions on things that maybe don't get a voice without their representation, like childcare and maternal health education, family, all of that, all of that and very important stuff. So what kind of initiatives do you work on to help communicate that out to women across the state that that we need you at the table? And this is why.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

And and and I'll piggyback off that uh before by saying that, you know, when women run, they do win. Yeah, stats are high for that, and they work across party lines to uh put policies into place like helping with families and childcare, health care, education. And the more types of diverse background at the table, the better. So we do a recruitment tour almost yearly in every region of the state where we are there as an organization face to face to recruit women into this program. So we are working with the county parties, Democratic Women's Clubs, but various, various organizations, uh Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the Women's Network, as I had mentioned earlier. And I sit down with an ad hoc committee on my board of directors every so often, and we do some mapping to see what all organizations are we involved in. NAACP, Plant Parenthood, uh and not just progressive and and democratic organizations, banks associations, nurses associations. We want to talk to every type of woman, but we are getting folks in the community to recommend these women to us. They're saying, Oh, Natalie McDonald, have you seen the things that she's doing in northern Kentucky? Do you see how she cares about her community? And these women are already involved, and someone in the community is saying this woman needs to run for office. So we're going to all the regions of the state to try to talk to these women, find them, and let them know that we can help to support them and give them the skills it takes to run and win. And then go back and serve their communities and make the changes that we want to see. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Yeah, I would recommend that, Natalie McDonald. She's awesome. I'm telling you. She's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

I didn't even have the pain to say good things today. I think we need to turn this around and interview Natalie and find out what got her to go through in the first place because I would be willing that someone encouraged her to do it.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

All right. So uh I think we have inside the blue dot, and you know, then we can have that interview. Natalie thought.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

No, you know what? You know, I was I was interested. I started to get interested. I wanted to get more involved, and the program had come up. Kathy Groob is up here in Northern Geth, I think she was really involved with it at the beginning there. And I was so timid and not scared, but not confident at the time. And I was like, well, you know what, I'll try. I'll see if I get in, and one of those kind of things. And I did it. It was so very empowering. And again, the skills that you get in the leadership and the the kind of that confidence to say that, hey, you you can do this. I could say I can do this. That's right. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

You know, and there's been so much progress made over the years with women in leadership roles, uh, not only in politics, but across the board. But recently with the Republicans and the MAGA movement, there's you know, pushback. We uh uh it's just so refreshing to look at the website and see uh we were talking about diverse backgrounds and you know, socioeconomic, sexual orientation. It makes no difference. We want women uh from across the spectrum, we want that representation. So refreshing to see that in today's environment where it's anti-DEI and I'm just so tired of all that. Have you seen that uh be an obstacle or uh detriment to your program or your efforts?

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Absolutely not. And in fact, our numbers increase every year on the diversity of the women, the type of women that apply. The only thing we're asking is, you know, do you identify as a woman? And are you a Democrat? And then we're looking through the application for do you truly have a passion to serve? You don't just want to be a politician or just run because you are looking for this power or but do you truly care about the serving your community? And you know, I was gonna mention Natalie and you talked about how Kentucky is still low in our uh percentage of women serving, especially in roles such as the legislature. And you know, we've had over 16 alums that have served in the Kentucky General Assembly. And one of our very first classes, we had former state representative Rita Smart from Madison County in 2016 when we lost the presidency Trump for the first time, and when Kentucky lost the state house for the first time in a hundred years, eMERGE actually elected two women to the state house that year with Attica Scott and Mackenzie Cantrell. Not only that, we elected one of the youngest and female mayors, which was Brandy Harless in Paducah and Paducah City Commissioner Sarah Stewart Holland. And from each election cycle since then, when Democrats are losing in various positions up and down the ballot, eMERGE women are not, we're seeing a very high win rate year after year. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Yeah. And I it's interesting with the question about have you seen MAGA be an obstacle or any kind of detriment to your recruiting? It's actually, I think it's the opposite effect. Sounds like it is there. We're seeing that in like voting, right? I mean, look where these districts where they've uh gerrymandered after the Supreme Court decision, and the black turnout in these districts is like through the roof because people are like, you you know, don't take away my rights. And when you do that, people stand up and push back. And I think it actually has the opposite effect. So sometimes I'm kind of like, yeah, go ahead and do that because we're actually going to benefit from it.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Mm-hmm. We have uh the first black county female attorney in Fayette County with Angela Evans, first black female Commonwealth attorney in Jefferson County with Jeren Weathers. We had the first uh Hispanic American judge in the state of Kentucky with Ellie Kurtstudder. Uh many, many first when we start looking at LGBTQ, women of color. So I'm very, very proud. I'm sorry I keep giving those plugs.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

No, I love it. It's fantastic. That's that's what we want. That's what we want.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah, exactly. Plug away. And you're you don't stop there. So there's the training program, but there's also alumni support. So, you know, it it doesn't stop once you leave the program. So can you talk to talk to us a little bit about what you do to help support your yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Well, other than the six months of skills we're building and how to run um a successful campaign and win, we are also building this network and we are continuously working to give support to the alums of our program once they are uh running for office, once they are in office and really in in other areas that they are looking for support like getting appointed to a board or a commission. Um right now we are running a bi-weekly Zoom for all the candidates that will have on the ballot this November, and we do refreshers from our six-month signature training, go back over those topics and and other things that they're asking for. You talked about social media, Natalie. That's ever changing. Should should a candidate be on TikTok? Should a candidate be on Blue Sky versus Twitter or X? And um, and so whatever things are coming up, we try to address those in these bi-monthly Zooms and continue to support them as they're running.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah. So do you have alumni cabinets running in the midterms uh coming up?

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Who's on the docket there, Blair? Who you got going?

SPEAKER_00 20:39

We have fifty-two women on the ballot this November, and you all that's become an average for us. The last two to three cycles, we've seen a around that. And of those 52, a good number of them are seeking re-election, many of them running without opposition and and then many first-time candidates. So it is a very busy time, it's very exciting time.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

That's that's an amazing statistic. I didn't know there were that many who were running on the on the ticket this year. So that's absolutely fantastic. Brian, I think maybe we need to talk to Laura about this program a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Well, I like that you're really getting me in trouble now.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Let's do some Oh, don't let me meet her. I'll have her, I'll have her in the 2027 class.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah, I know. Well, you won't have to ask her seven times. And and by the way, I had to ask her eight times to marry me. So, you know, I was like, and finally she's like, this guy's never gonna leave me alone. Uh okay, name urge.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

I don't want to get in a job of Ryan, but you know, notice I'm like, change topic. Let's have a sad bar about that later.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Oh, that's so good. Well, but thanks for so much for giving us all. the information uh about emerge is such a fantastic program uh but before we let you go we do like to ask all of our guests to participate in a little lightning round with us if you would be up for that of course just to get to know you a little bit better uh we'll start with an easy one if you if you're cool with that i am all right let's do it um let's see iced tea or iced coffee what's your drink of choice coffee yeah yes i'm one of those weird people who don't drink coffee that's probably better for you i know well i don't know i know it's thyako I'm sure that's way worse than uh than than we all have our vices exactly all right so who is your favorite female artist musician or actress right now oh gosh I know right that's so hard that's a tough one I am um grateful to see so many of our actresses and singers using their voice to talk about what's happening right now you know in our country and politically Ashley Judd serves on our advisory board and I've seen her you know she speaks out about women's issues frequently and I adore her. That's a good one I I I had for I heard that I knew that but I forgot it. So you know and you know if she ever wants to come talk on a podcast about stuff we'll let her know. I'm just saying I mean she's prompt with talking like yeah yeah she can she can sing her answers if she wants if that helps entice her all right so I don't know if you're a late night watcher but if you do is it the daily show with Jon Stewart or the late show with Stephen but yes I I'm more Colbert personality style.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Yeah yeah we were in uh in New York a couple weeks ago and we got tickets to Jon Stewart which was super amazing um but I would have loved to have had the opportunity to see Steven Colbert well that's awesome and I'm jealous I would have done that too it's a lot of fun somehow we got like front row it was it was one of those experiences oh wow um all right so what is the last show you bench watched oof um when I get a chance to sit down and really watch TV for a little bit I do like to kind of unplug and watch something really kind of fun and lighthearted and I'm looking forward to sitting down there's a new season of head lasso if you if you haven't been uh familiar with that it's it's cute yeah it's the most wonderful breath of fresh air on television exactly yes yeah it really is a sidebar if you like Hannah Winesworth she's in a show with Octavia Spencer right now called Ride or Die.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Oh okay if you have not watched it it's it's funny and just it's just lighthearted and they're both amazing to check that sounds great I'm gonna check that out.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Yeah I'll put that one on my list.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Yes put it on your list. And lastly and probably maybe the most important one here if someone wants to get involved with the merge what's the first thing they should do oh they should call me I'll take their phone call directly or text messages great 859-248-0847.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

I love to talk through uh with anyone if they're thinking about doing this and help them find the answer that's right for them. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yeah that's great. Well Blair thanks so much for joining us and I know you do have an event coming up in northern Kentucky soon and you're gonna tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Yes I would love that we are I mentioned one of those recruitment events in every region and this is going to be all-encompassing a chance for the alums of our program in the northern Kentucky area to get together and see each other in person we're honoring one of our longtime board members from northern Kentucky who is Virginia Johnson we are fundraising we are working to recruit more women from northern Kentucky and that is going to be uh this coming Thursday August the 20th 6 to 8 p.m and that is at the Lions Club in Florence I will see you there. Yay I have I have two more things to mention. Yeah please I was just gonna ask to make sure that we cover everything what else you got to do thank I love to bring up the founder of Emerge Kentucky which is Jennifer Moore and she is from Paducah originally she had been the state party chair and she is really responsible for bringing Emerge to Kentucky and and building this strong foundation that we have and Natalie you mentioned Kathy Groove. She was instrumental in um the early years and really um worked hard and built a strong um network there in northern Kentucky and with many partners in the area and across the state lastly uh we are getting a new chair of our board of directors which is a volunteer position and that is with Colonel Representative Pam Stevenson and fantastic Pam's one of our alums of course she is serves in the state house she was uh the first woman black leader in the minority caucus and also wanted to mention Senator Kator Heron Senator Karen Berg Cassie Chambers Armstrong anyway we could go on i have lots of I have lots of state house alums and so many women across Kentucky that are serving in office that are doing such wonderful things in their communities and for this state and so I'm very proud of the work that's happening and I'm I'm honored to be here to talk about it. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Thank you so much we really really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Hey I did want to mention yeah one more thing before we go that you can donate to the organization I noticed that it's not tax deductible you're a 527 political organization but you have like a for like a thousand dollars like a sponsor or leadership what is that we have a leader yes a leadership circle of uh members that choose to commit to giving a thousand dollars a year we we have every type of donor and although it is not tax deductible because we are a 527 we can um take money from businesses organizations uh foundations packs etc and we have five dollar monthly donors and then of course all the way up to that thousand dollar leadership circle but every little bit helps us to support of of course these 52 women that are going to be on the ballot this November and to recruit an a great new diverse group of women for every year. Emergeky org that's you can find our website you can easily sign up to give um a one time five dollar donation to a monthly and and you can also find my email and and any other information about our training emergeky org.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

All right well it's such a worthwhile organization and thanks for joining us to let everybody know more about it.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

We'll see you in Florence next week take care thanks we'll see ya okay bye bye and that's it for this episode be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our upcoming content or exclusive material and don't forget you can join the conversation at our Facebook and Instagram pages or at blue dot podcast dot com and until next time stay curious keeping focus never stop fighting for what matters peace out everybody