Connecticut Governance Director

Socket.dev; Hartford (CT); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unionized workplace

In-state travel

Job summary

Working Families Party is seeking a Governance Director to lead advocacy and legislative strategy in Connecticut. The role focuses on organizing elected officials, developing a unified platform, and coordinating with WFPower alliances to advance paid family leave, affordable housing, and progressive revenue measures.

The position requires building relationships with legislators, managing campaigns, and ensuring compliance. Regular in-state travel and late-evening commitments are expected.

Qualifications

• At least 4 years of relevant professional experience in advocacy, politics, or organizing.
• Demonstrated track record of commitment to social, economic, and racial justice.
• Ability to work closely with elected officials to pass progressive policy.
• Excellent facilitation skills and ability to build solidarity across differences.
• Willingness to work late evenings and weekends, including at the State Capitol during session.

Responsibilities

• Organize and align legislators around a clear vision for Connecticut policy changes.
• Lead WFPower meetings of elected officials and coordinate retreats.
• Develop partnerships with allied legislators and coalitions for priority legislation.
• Track and lobby priority bills and deliver WFPower testimony when needed.
• Raise funds and manage grants for governance work and PAC formation.
• Oversee compliance and reporting for registered lobbyists on the team.

Skills

Advocacy

Policy analysis

Legislative lobbying

Coalition building

Public speaking

Tools

Microsoft Office

Google Suite

Job description

About the Working Families Party

Working Families Party (WFP) is the progressive party for the multiracial working class, fighting for a nation that works for the many, not the few. We recruit, train, and support transformational candidates up and down the ballot — and run them to win.

We believe that no matter where we come from or what our color, most of us want the same things. We want to earn enough to thrive, not just survive, and leave a better future for our kids. We want healthy food and clean water, safe neighborhoods and a safe world. We want to be free.

The Working Families Party is regular people coming together across our differences to make a better future for us all. We’re a multiracial party that fights for workers over bosses and people over the powerful. We want an America which realizes the promise – unrealized in our history – of freedom and equality for all.

ABOUT THIS ROLE

Working Families Party (WFP) and Working Families Power seek to build a powerful, left political force that can win real governing power: the durable capacity of the multiracial working class to shape and wield government in its own interests. In Connecticut, we’ve been winning elections for champions for working people for two decades, and organizing to leverage those electoral successes into legislative victories for working families — including paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, immigrant protections, and equitable state budgets.

The Governance Director will lead our work aligning and organizing elected officials around a clear vision for Connecticut and how we can get there through explicit policy changes and a unified platform. From cohering newly-elected legislators to convening aligned allies, this role will take the lead in organizing our legislative champions. The position is also responsible for crafting and implementing a legislative strategy for the organization. Electoral responsibilities for this role predominantly include incumbent defense, with other elections as Party priorities dictate. The role will require the staffer to be a registered lobbyist with the state of Connecticut.

This position is supervised by the Connecticut State Director, and will work closely with our team of five, as well as with staff in similar roles in other WFP states around the country. The role includes local and national professional development opportunities.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Organizing legislators
• Organize and run regular WFPower meetings of elected officials
• Develop trusting working relationships with allied legislators
• Develop bi-annual WFPower legislator retreats (pre- and post-session) to debrief and plan
• Regularly host skill and/or issue training spaces (such as on press relations or housing policy)
• Lead development of a public WFPower legislative agenda or platform
• Identify opportunities for shared messaging
• Lead WFP staff team in supporting aligned legislators (ie communications and social media work with Comms Director)
• In conjunction with the organizing staff, develop pathways for activists to support WFP electeds and legislation
• Analyze and strategize the evolving legislative landscape
• Organize substantive new legislator orientation event series to build community and recruit newly-elected legislators into organizing with WFPower
• Meet monthly with newly elected aligned legislators for at least a year after election
• Coalition work and legislative lobbying
• Lead WFPower involvement with coalitions working on tax equity, progressive revenue, paid family & medical leave, housing, and more
• Craft legislative strategies and build campaigns to pass priority legislation
• Track priority legislation and manage/deliver WFPower testimony on key bills
• Lobby legislators on WFPower priority bills
• Electoral responsibilities
• Support incumbent elected officials in planning re-election campaigns
• Lead WFP incumbent electoral defense work
• Manage WFP electeds showing up for each other in election season
• Coordinate group endorsement efforts in primary elections where possible
• Support candidate recruitment efforts
• Municipal elected responsibilities
• Track and manage ongoing opportunities for municipal elected officials to engage WFP
• Support governance of aligned municipal elected officials by connecting them to each other, coalitions, and national resources
• Identify and coach municipal electeds with potential for running for higher office
• Raise funds to drive CTWFPower and CTWFParty work
• Support the state director in researching and obtaining grants for governance work
• Lead efforts to help aligned legislators create PACs
• Raise funds from legislator PACs into WFP
• Compliance
• Manage registrations and monthly/annual reports for all registered lobbyists on the team
• Create and use tracking systems for lobbying hours
• Report to funders lobbying time as required
• Other duties as assigned.

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• At least 4 years of relevant professional experience in advocacy, politics, or organizing
• Demonstrated track record of commitment to social, economic, and racial justice
• Demonstrated ability to work closely with elected officials to pass progressive policy
• Excellent facilitation skills, and the ability to build solidarity and shared strategy across differences.
• Ability to quickly learn new contexts and policy areas.
• Ability to make decisions with consequences in nuanced political settings.
• Strong sense of empathy and ability to build collaborative relationships.
• Excellent problem solving skills, with excellent judgment in moments of conflict.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and manage complex projects.
• Ability to manage multiple projects at once and prioritize work.
• Basic computer skills including Microsoft Office Suite & Google Suite
• Driver’s license, reliable transportation, and willingness for regular in-state travel
• Ability and willingness to work late evenings and weekends, including at the State Capitol during legislative session

Preferred

• Experience with the Connecticut legislature
• Experience managing electoral campaigns
• Fluency in Spanish

Location: The position requires weekly in-person work with opportunities to work remotely when possible. The role requires that the staffer become a registered lobbyist with the state of Connecticut.

Schedule: Full time

Union Affiliation

WFP is a unionized workplace. This is a bargaining unit position. WFP union employees are represented by Workers United affiliated with SEIU and the affiliated Local 1115, Workers United.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor, or take over sponsorship of, employment visas at this time.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Working Families Party is an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to economic and social justice. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and members of other historically disenfranchised populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Any applicant who requires an accommodation in order to apply for or perform the essential functions of the job should contact us at [e-mail] with the subject line "Application Accommodation" to request such an accommodation.