Acknowledgments

Thanks to all the people I have met on the campaign trail since those early days in the stroller. Special thanks to the friends and mentors I met growing up in politics, who taught me how to fight, how to win, how to regroup, and how to persevere. You shaped the insights that went into the making of this book, and the campaign advice that I hope will inform a new generation of leaders.

Deep appreciation to the dozens of contributors who took time from your own service to our country to lend the benefit of your thinking by contributing interviews and insights for the book. As progressives, conservatives, and muckrakers, you do not share a common philosophy, but you do share a similar belief in the power of individuals to shape history and the need for more people to become fully engaged in our democracy. I particularly appreciate the wisdom of my grassroots and netroots allies who are thriving in this new era of asymmetrical politics, bringing old school politics and new media together.

Thanks to the excellent candidates who run for office, putting yourselves out there for what you believe and trying to make a difference for the rest of us. The campaign lessons here are built on the work of the team at AFSCME who help prepare people to fight for people who work for a living: they include Jerry McEntee, Lee Saunders, Larry Scanlon, Linda Canan Stephens, Ricky Feller, Brian Weeks, and Seth Johnson. Thanks to them and to the campaign mavens at the New House PAC and all my boot camp partners whose trainings in public service elevate candidate trainings to an art form.

This book would not have been possible without my networks, especially the dozens of campaign boot camp conveners who have welcomed Isabella and me into your communities, and organized trainings in your homes, union halls, conferences, and classrooms. A salute to my DNC colleagues and cofounders of the DNC Veterans and Military Families Council, my “HUD women” from Washington, D.C., former Capitol Hill colleagues, California grassroots allies, and Rod Snyder and all the Young Democrats of America. Thanks also to my editors at the Huffington Post and POLITICO, to Bernard Ashcraft for making the UC Extension connection, to Lizbeth Hasse for providing legal counsel, and to Brad Martin for training and editing advice. Great thanks to Berrett-Koehler publishers for encouraging this second edition, to Neal Maillet and Kirsten Sandberg for their editorial guidance and BookMatters’s Dave Peattie and Tanya Grove.

As always, lots of love to my parents and siblings: Nancy and Paul Pelosi; Nancy Corinne, Jeff, Alexander, and Madeleine Prowda; Jacqueline, Michael, Liam, Sean, and Ryan Kenneally; Paul Pelosi, Jr.; Alexandra, Michiel, Paul, and Thomas Vos; Phil, Octavio, and Isabella Kaufman; and to my extended family.

A final thanks to my wonderful husband, Peter, for all you are and all you do.