Shasti knows how to build winning coalitions and campaigns. While the country swung toward Trump by six points in 2024, Shasti’s leadership ensured that Washington State swung by only .25% - the smallest shift in the country. In fact, if you look at every statewide race, Washington state actually shifted 0.15% towards the Democratic Party in 2024. That's a ~6-point over performance compared to the national trend.

Shasti’s commitment to year-round communications and field organizing helped Washington Democrats compete in every race, up and down the ballot. As Chair, she raised nearly $9 million in her first 2-year term empowering the state party to continue its winning year-round programs in 2025 and beyond.

As Chair, Shasti developed a new media communications strategy that enabled the WA Dems to reach diverse audiences. While Republicans dominated the online conversation this past election cycle by engaging in authentic conversations with content creators (especially podcasters), Shasti was already in those spaces. Shasti understands that new media has the potential to persuade and mobilize the voters we need and will focus on supporting digital content creator communities as DNC Vice Chair. The Beyonce-inspired sashes she helped develop for the first night of the DNC Convention garnered more than 100 media hits and were even collected by the Smithsonian Institute for inclusion in their political campaign collection.

Shasti has been a life-long coalition builder and unapologetic standing up for progressive policies and values. Shasti is unafraid to talk about the issues that voters care about and encouraged Washington candidates to directly address those issues, like public safety and the cost of living. Washington state’s track record of progressive accomplishments benefitting workers (highest minimum wage, strong union protections and membership, cap and invest carbon market) gave Shasti and other Democrats in her state concrete wins for voters. While conventional wisdom assumed that Democrats lose on economic issues, Shasti prioritized these issues in media appearances and in party communications while linking them to bedrock Democratic values of justice, equity, inclusion, and freedom.

The Democratic party needs to be transparent about how we’re raising and spending dollars. This starts with an inclusive budget process and a renewed, strong emphasis on grassroots fundraising. Shasti will fight to “open up our books” so grassroots donors and all DNC members understand how the DNC is raising/spending money, and give them more of a say and stake in the process.

We need to ensure our Party’s processes are democratic and accessible to every corner of our big tent. This means addressing inequities like the delegate process by ensuring that all delegate positions, including at-large-members, are state-elected.

Rebuilding a strong democratic base means a commitment to uplifting and empowering new leadership. For too long, the Democratic Party has relied on existing leadership rather than creating space for a new generation of leaders.The time for change is now. Fresh voices must not only be heard but also have a seat at the table to shape the future of our party. It is this new generation that will bear the brunt of the consequences if we continue to cede ground to regressive, authoritarian forces. Together, we must rise to the challenge, ensuring our movement is ready to meet the demands of tomorrow.

The Democratic Party needs to build real trust with the communities that make up our big tent and show them respect by listening to them, learning from them, and meaningfully engaging them in our work. Much of Shasti’s success in Washington stems from championing multi-cultural and multi-generational working-class voters, prioritizing ideological diversity as a driving force, not a dividing line. It’s essential that we bring working class voters and priorities back to the center of Democratic conversations and governance. 

For too long, the DNC has given meager “allowances” to state parties and caucuses. We have to rethink this approach completely. Shasti believes that the DNC needs to invest in state parties and caucuses, and empower them to run effective, year-round programs—drawing on their connections to their communities. That’s why she supports the “Committee on the Future” proposal that would invest at least $30,000 / month in every red state party, and prioritize listening to red state Democrats on how to build local power in their communities.

Democrats need to innovate how we communicate with voters, prioritizing long-form, unscripted conversations with content creators on every platform. From podcasts and livestreams to artificial intelligence, Republicans have prioritized new media tactics and strategies. Democrats, to our detriment, have stayed glued to traditional media. That needs to urgently change. The fact that Republicans came off as more trustworthy and authentic this past election cycle is a damning indictment against the status quo.

American families are being screwed over by the status quo in which the mega-rich get even richer every year while the rest have less and less, no matter how hard we work. For-profit health insurance companies deny valid claims by the thousands to pad their profits while American voters lose our health and our lives. Corporations jack up prices on Americans to increase their quarterly earnings, and the rest of us have to pay more just to eat. Private equity oligarchs are gobbling up homes across the country, and now most of us struggle to afford a place to live. Democrats need to take bold action to unrig our economy, and be in the business of massively improving people’s lives. And we need to take on the wealthy special interests that are preventing us from taking meaningful action.