“Don’t join my cool kids club if you’re not coming to vote. This club votes.”
Erika Harrison built Black Girls Who Brunch as a food blog. Over ten years, it became a platform where she talks about politics, policy, and culture with an ever-growing audience.
She recently started using a tool called Sway to do something most content creators never attempt: turning her followers into an organized voting bloc.
The results have been striking. In the primary, her Sway group had 83% turnout. In two races, her group’s votes exceeded the margin of victory.
She’s using Sway to help people navigate Harris County’s 100+ item ballot. She’s moving people to vote in down-ballot races they didn’t know existed. She’s doing her part to change how elections work in Texas.
Claire Shorall, Sway’s founder, joined her to talk about what happens when you give creators the tools to actually organize voters — not just talk to them.
Key Takeaways:
- You don’t need a massive platform to move elections. You need an organized one. Erika’s 2,400 followers with high intent beat millions of passive followers.
- The backend data matters. Knowing exactly where your voters live (down to state house district) changes what you can do.
- Down-ballot races are where organizing can really move the needle. Most people don’t pay attention. If they know the name, they vote differently.
If you’ve got a platform — whether it’s 500 followers or 500,000 — Sway was built for you. Learn more about turning your followers into voters with Sway.
Listen to the full episode right here, or wherever you stream podcasts.
Big thanks to our sponsors:
Civic Shout. Learn more about the great work they’re doing to help Democratic campaigns and progressive nonprofits build their lists ethically at civicshout.com/partners.
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Episode Transcript
This transcript was automatically generated and has not been copy-edited. While it can serve as a helpful guide to our conversation, it may contain errors or omissions. For the most accurate representation, we recommend listening to (or watching) the full episode.
Josh Klemons: Erica Harrison is an attorney in Houston, Texas, who spent the bulk of her career working in diversity, equity, and inclusion, supporting communities in higher education and corporate America. In her spare time, she created the blog Black Girls Who Brunch, originally intended to h uh highlight the vibrant uh Houston culinary scene with special attention to black businesses. In the 10 years since its inception, Black Girls Who Brunch has grown a vast audience made up primarily of black professional women. The blog’s topics have grown to include travel and lifestyle as well as politics. One of the tools in her digital toolkit to mobilize voters in Texas and beyond is called Sway.
Josh Klemons: Sway, a nonpartisan platform that lets people organize voting blocks, was built by Claire Sher Cherel, sorry, Cheryl, is that it? Yes. Got it. Um, I invited Eric and Cla on the pod today to talk about how all of us can do more to turn our audiences online into voters. So, thank you both so much for joining uh the pod today. Uh, Erica, you started Black Girls Who Brunch as a food blog. When did politics over Is it fair to say politics overcame uh food as your focus? and talk about the process. How did that
Erika Harrison: And I always tell people at some point things are going to calm down.
Josh Klemons: happen?
Erika Harrison: I can go back to food. And I always like I want to go back to food.
Josh Klemons: One day.
Erika Harrison: But um I one day I really feel like when I think back to it,
Josh Klemons: One
Erika Harrison: I I really can’t think of like one moment.
Josh Klemons: day.
Erika Harrison: But I started the blog 11 years now.
Erika Harrison: And I’ve always kind of put put in like a little bit more in-depth things. Food is inherently political in a lot of ways, too. So I always gave my audience something more in depth to chew on.
Josh Klemons: Sure.
Erika Harrison: So it wasn’t just like this place is cute. It was like this place is cute. And you know, the owners also had a lawsuit and this that and the third. So people were kind of used to coming to me for more detailed analysis about different things. And then over time I used to just put it in my stories and I just would share like you know my thoughts on the impeachment trial and things like that. And over time it became where people started asking me questions and really wanting to um and and really wanting me to kind of explain things. And I think the big I I’ve shifted a bit and then I always go back. I shift and always go back. This last time I’ve had to do a hard shift after I kind of shifted in 2024 when Kla Harris was uh became the nominee and I haven’t looked back since.
Erika Harrison: I if you scroll through I I’ll throw a food thing in there occasionally. But but that’s kind of how it happened. It just it kind of happened over time and the takeover really did happen probably 2024 where I haven’t made the hard shift back to food just yet. But this moment to me requires people that have knowledge and are able to communicate well to to audiences. It requires us to to um like this is our our role in the movement. You know how everyone kind of had their role in the civil rights movement. That’s how I see myself as a person that’s can communicate what’s happening in digestible ways. And so that’s part of why I’ve really been doing this uh you know for the most part consistently since then. So, but at some point you’re going to look up like five years from now after we have fought back against all the crazy and black girls to brunch will be a food blog again
Josh Klemons: I I mean may we all live in a world where you don’t have to talk about politics on the internet,
Claire Shorall: What’s
Erika Harrison: fully.
Josh Klemons: right? Like that’s the goal, right? For all of us, I think. Um well I I was very interested because like obviously in 24 like the whole like Trump podcasting thing it wasn’t about the podcasts it was about the audience and like what he was doing was going to non-political places to reach people who weren’t interested in politics. So the idea of leading so I I very much on social like lead with politics. It’s just like I work in politics. That’s who I am. But what I love is people who don’t lead with politics necessarily, but like it’s there. And yeah, the idea of like food being political obviously like already was a context, but like you know somebody can find your page be like I like brunch and then all of a sudden they’re listening to you know you talk about the guminatorial race in Texas. So, you know, it’s like a cool way to bring people in who might if you were like black girls who care about politics might turn people off, but like instead you’re bringing folks in in a different way.
Josh Klemons: And I don’t know, it sounds like that wasn’t necessarily intentional so much as just kind of like
Erika Harrison: So the the framework of how I think about Black Girl Brunch because I’m an attorney,
Josh Klemons: happened.
Erika Harrison: I’ve always been a magnet for other black professional women. So like, oh, she’s a lawyer. Like, you know, she does the things that we do. And so I’ve always kind of had that audience. And this is how I think about it. Black Girls Who Brunch is about what black women would talk about at brunch. So if you sit at a table with a whole bunch of black professionals, like the tables that I was set in and for my birthday in Morocco, I was 12 of us in Morocco for my birthday trip. What I talk about on my page is what I talk about with my friends who are super intelligent women who I just admire. And so I think what I this is my page in some ways in many ways is a reflection of the conversations I have with my family, my friends, my uh you know co-workers and all of that.
Erika Harrison: It it it kind of is that and that’s how I think about it. So it’s who what black women who brunch it’s what they do. And uh and so now I feel like I’ve gotten to the point where I I’m my page is more preaching to the choir kind of page.
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Erika Harrison: It’s not really the people I I haven’t I think I’ve moved past sneaking in the politics in the vegetables, you know, like sneaking in vegetables. I think it’s kind of moved to like it’s it’s okay, we come here for politics. I think it’s kind of moved to that point. But initially that that is one of the the the benefits of it is you are kind of sneaking in political content into people’s feeds who wouldn’t normally follow a political
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: page.
Claire Shorall: Oh.
Josh Klemons: And I mean even that idea though like the idea of like you know leading with it like this morning I did a Tik Tok and an Instagram post about the fact that Wisconsin has a gubernatorial race coming up in a few weeks but like hey there’s also a lot of other things on on the ballot and the people who follow my content want to talk politics.
Josh Klemons: Like they know anybody who knows me knows it’s like going to be political. It is wild how many people thanked me for posting about this cuz they didn’t know, you know? So it’s like even the folks who are following it aren’t following it the way I’m following it where I do this for a living or you’re following it like as an attorney who’s like spending their time creating content. So it’s like even if we’re preaching to the choir, the pre the choir is not necessarily like it’s our job to help make sure the choir knows the story too, right? Like because they’re, you know, who are we without the choir, you know?
Erika Harrison: We’re preaching to the back row of the choir who may be coming up sometimes and not paying attention. That’s that is that is true.
Josh Klemons: Exactly.
Erika Harrison: True. And so there’s like nuance and layers that I bring into people. And some people don’t always have the capacity to pay attention until it gets closer to election time.
Josh Klemons: For
Erika Harrison: And so um like right now I’m building capacity about some things that are happening locally in Houston when it comes to
Josh Klemons: sure.
Erika Harrison: our our mayors up for re-election. And so I’m building people’s capacity and like dribbling out,
Josh Klemons: Mhm.
Erika Harrison: okay, this is what he’s doing. So when it’s time to vote again, I need you all to remember this. So um but yeah, because they can’t pay attention the way that I do at this point. It’s like it’s part of the job.
Josh Klemons: Um, and Claire, we’re going to bring Sway in in a minute, but Erica, do you think um is it different building trust around political organizing than it is around like cultural organizing in your opinion? Do you think about it differently or is just it was such a natural shift? And I love the way you frame that. this is less a story about like politics and it’s more a story of like here is the soundtrack of my life that I’m bringing you into like this is what we talk about at brunch so like just join us you
Erika Harrison: Yeah. Which is why my friends always laugh because they’re like,
Josh Klemons: know
Erika Harrison: “No, like this is who she is. if you if we’re all hanging out, this is what we’re talking about, you know. Um,
Josh Klemons: right
Erika Harrison: and he so many of my friends are lawyers because we we attract we attract each other,
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: black women lawyers. And so I even one of my friends, she’s always like, I was waiting for you to get on there and explain what happened with this lawsuit. And I was like, you you also are a lawyer. You can read as well. She’s like, yeah, but I knew you were going to explain it. Um, but no, I I don’t really think about it from that kind of strategic standpoint. Uh, and I know people are often surprised that I’m not as strategic when it comes to my content and how I think about the kind of, you know, community that I’ve built. I think I’ve just always shown up in an authentic way and authenticity, you know, it it we connect in that way and that’s just kind of how it’s it’s been.
Erika Harrison: So, I haven’t really thought about it that way, but that’s interesting. I may need to outline like how does how do those things play into each other, you know? But, uh,
Josh Klemons: Well, if for no other reason,
Erika Harrison: but yeah.
Josh Klemons: just because I know for me, so you want to live in a world where nobody’s talking politics, which I would love as well. I want to live in a world where there’s a hundred other people doing what I’m doing on TikTok in Wisconsin. Like, I’m telling everyone, I’m like, you should do this, too. Like, it doesn’t just have to be me. So, the more I can kind of like try to show that there’s a path like people are looking and I don’t have a massive platform, but like I have a platform. It is wild to me that there’s not more people doing what I’m doing because what I’m doing is not complicated.
Erika Harrison: Okay.
Josh Klemons: It’s hard, but it’s not complicated. It’s like I keep up with the news for a living.
Claire Shorall: Yes.
Josh Klemons: So, like I’m just telling people what I’m seeing online. And yeah, I would like there’s no competition here. I’m not making a living doing this. It’s like I do it solely because I believe in the work. I have to be joined by more. And I’m not saying I’m alone, but like there’s not enough of us. Lord knows. Uh specifically in Wisconsin. I mean, nationally there’s tons of people, but like for Wisconsin specific, it’s it’s less. So Claire, you first of all, give us the sort of like 30 second overview. Like what is Sway and what problem were you trying to solve when you like rolled out this
Claire Shorall: Yeah. So,
Josh Klemons: platform?
Claire Shorall: Sway is a voting group platform where people vote together and actually win elections. So, Erica’s case in point, but the problem we were trying to solve, it’s layered. I think one thing that we knew was voting groups work. There are national organizations like the NRA for example that puts out a scorecard and gets their people to the polls and now 1% of the population writes the gun laws for 100% of the country.
Claire Shorall: So like this mechanism of organization it’s tried and true. We were just trying to democratize access to it. Um but more notably uh I worked on the 2024 election and I saw two things. So, one, we were doing total disservice to the down ballot candidates. Partially because I was in Pittsburgh and a bunch of people came in from out of state and they were definitely there for Kamla. Thank you. Love you. Appreciate you. But like they weren’t learning the intricacies of what was happening on the ground. I was doing for field organization in my hometown. So, I knew our local state rep candidate who’s awesome. Uh she’s one of these target district people to watch. Uh her name’s Hadley Hos. She’s amazing. But like other people who were coming in, they were obviously there for the top of the ticket and that just it like hurt my heart. Like we’d often send out volunteers with the wrong lit. So that was one thing.
Claire Shorall: I think the other thing is that like you know I was part of a 9 million doornocking operation and I cannot say with my full chest that it was more important than one three-hour episode with Rogan. And like that was really painful. And you know I think I just saw us leaving a lot of relational trust on the table. And so what sway is is essentially like a partle or like a evite for the election. I’m saying, “Okay, Erica, like I’m in a parasocial relationship with you. I understand your values. Uh I understand like how you come at things and I know that you know everything about Harris County. Uh instead of me doing all this research, I’m just going to join your voting group.” In turn, you’re going to have leverage because candidates are going to know that people follow you. uh like you know there’s a there’s an actual cotification and aggregation of like Erica’s influence in this way that’s slightly different than how it exists on an Instagram or on a Tik Tok because like these are actual voters who are saying yeah send me that voter guide right anyway uh I saw that relational trust as a currency that was being underutilized and definitely not cashed in on um and tech is incredible at doing certain things and this is just like a way for anyone to organize and make voting feel like a group project.
Josh Klemons: And so just to clarify,
Claire Shorall: Anyway,
Josh Klemons: I mean like obviously like I dug into the project. Um like when you say voting group, it’s like Erica lays out who she’s voting for and like is essentially advocating that her people should go and vote for them as well. How is that? Correct.
Claire Shorall: Yeah, I I would say the advocation is uh it depends on who the actual
Josh Klemons: Lost my network.
Claire Shorall: leader is. In Erica’s case, and Erica, you you’ve forgotten more than I know about like how you’re coming to this work. So, um but like people are saying, “Hey, you know, I’m a leader for X, Y, and Z reasons.” And they are influential folks. like there’s a reason that people will join their groups and then they go and they make a slate of the people that they’re voting for and it’s a resource really like advocating for people to vote a certain way you know some people are more forceful about that than others but for the most part I would say uh
Josh Klemons: so explain the tech behind it.
Erika Harrison: Okay.
Josh Klemons: Like the idea is it’s a voter guide thing. Literally, Erica says who she’s voting for so that she she is essentially endorsing canes in her
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: area so that folks who live in Harris County or wherever can say, “Great, I want to support them.” Erica, you sort of made my face. Is that not how you think about it? Even if it is how Clare thinks about it,
Erika Harrison: I I don’t like I don’t like to call it an endorsement.
Josh Klemons: or did I misread that?
Erika Harrison: It’s it’s Lissa’s recommendation.
Josh Klemons: Okay. What do you call it?
Erika Harrison: This is a recommendation. My goal is to make people in help people be informed voters. And so if my resource is a tool that you can use to help help you get you started, that’s how I like to see it. Do I know people, especially my good friends, are going to print what I say and walk down there and just just vote with what how I voted? Yes. But they also, you know, trust this currency. They also know me and they know the kind of research that I do and they know more behind the scenes stuff. But if a person’s like, I don’t know, good. I want you to question it. I want you to say, why would she pick this person over that person? And I want you to go do your own research. And if you end up picking different than me, that’s good.
Erika Harrison: I actually love when people message me and say like, “Okay, I used your list. I made a different choice for county judge.” Great. Because that meant that you went and made an informed decision. So that’s so it’s not like I I do like the idea of like, you know, coming behind certain candidates I really believe in. But more than anything, I like it to be a a resource that you can use to make you a more informed voter. And if you go and pick everything different than me, it’s a little contrarianism, but you know, um there’s there’s a it made it challenged you.
Josh Klemons: We’re talking primaries.
Erika Harrison: It made you Yes.
Josh Klemons: They can make they can make different choice in the primaries, not in the general.
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: Right.
Erika Harrison: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: I just
Claire Shorall: Although I will I will say if somebody is making different choices than Erica across the board
Erika Harrison: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: didn’t
Claire Shorall: then they probably shouldn’t be in Erica’s voting group because in the interim Erica has lobbying leverage because uh she is saying hey I have this many voters in your jurisdiction and so uh I would we don’t track and obviously you never know how somebody acts in the actual polls and I would say even for my own sake I use sway in uh in our primary here in California and there were you know insurance commissioner I don’t know anyway there were people who put these like very
Claire Shorall: thoughtful writeups in their guide um and I might have had five people recommending one person and then one person recommending somebody else and I went with that one person because I was so compelled by their description so We can’t even really say like ah they had five recommendations for this one person and one for another and so we can like you know just guess that they went Yeah.
Josh Klemons: It’s not quantitative like there’s a qualitative component,
Claire Shorall: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Klemons: right?
Claire Shorall: We agency is agency and consent are like two of our biggest pillars at Sway. So go and do what you want in in the voting booth. But I would say like this idea of somebody joining Erica’s group and then being like nah I’m not taking anything
Erika Harrison: This is true.
Claire Shorall: doesn’t really make sense.
Erika Harrison: They probably should go. They probably should go make their own group if they’re doing that.
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: They really should.
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: I do try to tell people I’m always like if somebody one thing I tell people if people ask you for
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: ballot recommendations which a lot of like if you are even a a smidge politically active or that people know that you go vote they will ask you for recommendations and so if you are that person I’m like just make a sway well
Josh Klemons: Yep.
Erika Harrison: I only have like three people I said but those three people they send they sent it to others as well make a way makes it much easier for
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: you. Other big thing too that we’ll probably get to, but I just want to note here. I live in Harris County, Texas. We have the longest ballot in the country. There were there are a hundred items on our ballot.
Josh Klemons: Oh my Oh my goodness.
Erika Harrison: Hundred. And so, um,
Josh Klemons: Literally,
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: there’s a hundred things on your ballot.
Claire Shorall: No, literally.
Erika Harrison: over a hundred over a hundred. We have because
Claire Shorall: Wait, Josh,
Josh Klemons: Oh my goodness.
Claire Shorall: can I also say one more thing?
Erika Harrison: we
Claire Shorall: When I met Erica the first time, and we can share more about that story, but Erica was like, “Okay, so there are hundred things on the ballot, and we can’t take our phones into the polls.” And so our killer feature in Texas was a print to PDF.
Erika Harrison: That’s what did
Josh Klemons: Oh, like you could Whoa.
Erika Harrison: it
Josh Klemons: Yeah, that’s W. I mean, yeah. How do you even remember a hundred things on your ballot?
Claire Shorall: You
Josh Klemons: That’s wild, you
Claire Shorall: don’t.
Erika Harrison: that so so and okay so let’s tell I want to tell a story about how I met Claire because we’re sitting here so
Josh Klemons: know?
Erika Harrison: I get it this is a food blogger Claire hosts an event in Houston to introduce content creators to
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: Sway they think that that this can be a way to activate Sway I don’t even know what this app is but they they have at this this place called
Josh Klemons: Sure.
Erika Harrison: Margo Club. I love Margo Club. It’s a very nice restaurant in Houston.
Erika Harrison: So, I go because it’s Margo Club. So, I get there. Usually, I’m a very wellressearched person. I don’t walk into events and not know what’s going on. I get there and they’re like, “You probably have pulled up the app already.” I hadn’t. I was like, “Okay, what does this app do?” So, I’m sitting here letting them like I am I come in blind.
Josh Klemons: He
Erika Harrison: I know nothing. They start talking about what the app does. And one of the examples they had on their like a little card there was uh Christian Miny who was a candidate that we that I strongly support and all his different races.
Josh Klemons: Mhm.
Erika Harrison: And so they start talking I was like oh wait I need that be because for me the big thing was the backend data. The fact that I could see if I had a hundred people in my group, I could see what districts they were in. And in Houston, Harris County, we’ve got like seven or eight congressional districts that come through Harris County.
Erika Harrison: They’ll get like a little tip of it and go out to Brazoria or whatever,
Josh Klemons: #jerrymandering.
Erika Harrison: but I can Yes. So, I can me knowing,
Josh Klemons: Yeah,
Erika Harrison: okay, I’ve got 10 people in that district. This interview does make sense was super helpful. So, that’s kind of how we how we get started.
Josh Klemons: that’s cool.
Erika Harrison: But we’re talking and um I said, Claire, we can’t bring our phones into the polling location. She said,
Josh Klemons: That’s
Erika Harrison: “What?” We’re t we’re talking like two three weeks before election and they
Josh Klemons: wild.
Erika Harrison: push out a feature where you can download and print your ballot. That was lifechanging for like that. Like that’s really what got Sway activated in Houston because we it’s so long. And so then so what happens is for us, one of the reasons why Sway is me even great for us in the general, we have a extreme undervote because our ballots are so long and the bulk of what’s on our ballots that’s really long are
Josh Klemons: Oops.
Erika Harrison: judges. We we’ll have probably seven like it’s like 60 judges on our ballot. It’s crazy. So from like Supreme Court, state Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and then our local courts. So people are like, I don’t know who these people are. The straight party ticket thing. We can’t just vote Democrat and go or Republican and go. So people will say, I am a Democrat, but I’ve seen these things on the news about judges. I don’t want to vote for the wrong judge, so I’m going to skip that race. So our undervote is is really harmful in Harris County when it comes to judges and it has been had a huge impact on black women judges. So my fellow black women in the of the bar, women I know, I respect, they have lost races by like 300 votes simply because people are not voting all the way down because they don’t feel informed. And so even going into the general, I’m going to be able to really push sway.
Erika Harrison: You were worried about those those judges. I’ve got all the judges on here. Just take the list and go on there and feel confident that you’re making a smart decision on who you pick for a judge
Josh Klemons: That is wild. Um, talk about the Texas, the land of uh personal freedom and whatnot, saying you can’t bring your phone into the ballot box. That’s like that’s some straight big government b*******, man. That’s wild.
Erika Harrison: with ballots that long with limits.
Josh Klemons: Uh let let me hear.
Erika Harrison: Yeah.
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: I mean that’s not good for anybody. Like it’s not Yeah. I mean obviously that is a different story that we’re talking about, but like seems bad for Republicans and Democrats. I don’t know. That’s just a wild decision to make. Uh Wisconsin used to have um single party voting. You could say vote for all Dems or Republicans and Republicans got
Josh Klemons: Okay. Um, so let me Okay. Uh Claire,
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: you talked the difference between the paras social relationship and the relational. I’m very interested. Do you see Sway as a relational tool? It feels like kind of traditional to me, but like you’re feeling it like and honestly the way Erica discussed it was more relational. She’s able to like look up which districts her friends are in and talk to her. Was that part of your intention or is that just something that’s kind of come about as folks have started using
Claire Shorall: Well,
Josh Klemons: it?
Claire Shorall: it’s interesting. Um, and Erica, you’ve said some really like fascinating feedback about this. When someone joins a voting group, their default is anonymous.
Claire Shorall: They can decide to make themselves public, but this is not like a traditional CRM. Erica can’t know exactly who her 2,000 followers are on Sway,
Josh Klemons: Got
Claire Shorall: but what he can do is say she’s,
Josh Klemons: it.
Claire Shorall: you know, canvasing for state rep 117, right? She can go into her Sway, select state rep 117 and only text the people who are registered in that jurisdiction. So, um I mean obviously I come from a relational organizing background. there. I think relational organizing in general works, but this is a slightly different dynamic in the sense that like identity is not as central. It’s more uh messaging the right people and then people have control over how much information they’re sharing with the
Josh Klemons: Um,
Claire Shorall: leader.
Josh Klemons: I’m curious because I’ve worked with relational programs where you can see that people follow you so that you can know like did they reach, you know, did they open my email? Did they see my text? Was that a choice you made to maintain privacy or did you just think it was since we’re talking about folks with like big platforms like Erica, she didn’t need to necessarily like dig into the weeds?
Josh Klemons: Why? Why did you not make it to where Erica could see the 2400 people following her and like figure out who they could be voting for? I’m
Claire Shorall: Yeah. No, this was definitely a choice. Um,
Josh Klemons: curious.
Claire Shorall: a lot of our initial product decisions wanted to mimic the ballot box in the sense that like you have agency, you have privacy. The other thought here is that if I’m an individual and I’m following Erica, like I might really trust Erica, for example, on judicial races in Harris County, um, but I might have, these are all hypothetical because this is not true. I might be a homeowner and have like different thoughts about property rights or something. I, you know, um, and I might follow somebody who has like a rather different tilt on that, right? um for the individual who is coming to Sway and following folks, they can kind of put together a basket of leaders that they are following and make essentially what amounts to a micro party for themselves. Now, they can only cast one vote ultimately, but they’re basically like giving leverage to each of these leaders depending on the the topics or the values that they espouse and saying like, “Yeah, actually I’m going to put some leverage behind this.” This makes the pure count.
Claire Shorall: Like, you know, if I have 10 things on a Yimi group and 10 things on a something that’s counter.
Josh Klemons: Something else.
Claire Shorall: Yeah. then like you know uh it’s probably not actually that that each of these sides are getting 10 votes. But that being said, when someone’s joining, like they have a lot of control about how they show up on sway. The backend data Erica still gets, but she gets in the aggregate. So, she is able to see, which this is incredible. Like, this is a mind-blowing stat. Erica had 83% turnout in the primary. Like,
Josh Klemons: That’s self-reported like folks who follow how do Oh,
Claire Shorall: no, no,
Josh Klemons: you’re able to connect to the voter file.
Claire Shorall: it
Josh Klemons: So, you know that 83% of So, there’s 2400 people follow Erica and you know that 83% of them voted in the primary. Okay. Yeah, that is pretty awesome.
Claire Shorall: Wait.
Erika Harrison: It was less than it was less than 24 during the primary,
Claire Shorall: And
Erika Harrison: but and then and then I had to I told people I said,
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Erika Harrison: “Don’t join my cool kids club if you’re not coming to vote. This this club votes.
Josh Klemons: Hell yeah.
Erika Harrison: Don’t don’t don’t my number.
Josh Klemons: I love
Claire Shorall: you said you were you were like 12 or 15 times the turnout.
Josh Klemons: that.
Claire Shorall: your group was 12 or 15 times the turnout like than the average in the the state average in the primary or sorry in the runoff. So like yeah, you might be disappointed by that,
Erika Harrison: What?
Claire Shorall: but but realistically you’re crushing
Erika Harrison: My runoff number went down and I was floored. It was like 30%.
Claire Shorall: it.
Erika Harrison: I said, “Don’t be in my group ruining my numbers.” But it we we had to wait for for a day of voting. And it went up a bit. But Clara’s like, “This is really good.” I said, “Is it?” They didn’t go vote in the
Claire Shorall: Sorry. Yeah.
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Claire Shorall: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t like one of the things we talk about at Sway is making voting feel like a group project because it is and like that feedback loop was not there. So even if you can’t like you know go into Sway look up Sally Sue’s phone number and text Sally Sue like you have a sense of how many people got out and Erica can send as like early voting starts in October y’all were at 15%. We’re at 30%. Like we like it’s a drive to 100. And then what’s really cool, like honestly kind of the reason I’m so stoked about what we’re doing is that in the primary multiplied by the turnout, Erica’s group exceeded the margin in two races. So you can look at that person and be like, “You’re ours.
Erika Harrison: I have and the two people that that were I I have personally told them that told them
Claire Shorall: We brought you across the line.
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: that one of them I knew like I he we went to the same college uh uh different times but but we are both Missou alums and so I really supported his campaign so it was really exciting to see him on that list and one of the other people I didn’t know her but she ended up winning by three votes.
Erika Harrison: The the original number we had was like six. So that’s other thing I the down ballot thing.
Josh Klemons: Wow.
Erika Harrison: And then to her point about the the um the messages because we we got this redistricting and the gerrymandering and all that that happened Texas people don’t know what districts they’re in.
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: So a good example if you guys have been following what happened with ICE here in Houston, Lorenzo Tagado Rujo was murdered on the east end of Houston. This area is a democratic stronghold. like very um historic Latino neighborhoods. This area has been redistricted and moved into a district that could be rep be represented by a Trump MAGA candidate. And people don’t know that. But I actually had met the person who is running, the Democrat that’s running for that seat, Leticia Gutierrez, and I was like, I’ve got to interview you because I don’t think people know that they’re in your new district. They have no idea what’s at stake. And so, um, interviewed her and then I went on my I went to Sway before I interviewed her and said, “Hey, I went and filtered it for District 9. You’re in District Nine. You’re in the new nine.
Erika Harrison: This is your candidate. I’m interviewing her today. Uh, uh, you may miss it, but I’ll put it on YouTube. Go watch it so you know what’s at stake.” And so that’s been really helpful as well, just to kind of like really be specific. Um, our state house seats, most people don’t know who their state house reps are. In Texas, we have this goal to flip 14 seats in order to take over the state house.
Josh Klemons: Yep.
Erika Harrison: That’s going to change so much of what the Republicans are able to do in the state. And so we have this goal. What I’ve been doing, I I’ve gone if I see a little clip about a state house rep, I’ll message their people, hey, this is your state house rep. This or this is a candidate’s running. Did you know that? Because they don’t know. So, I’m saying look for this name. So, the first time that you see this name won’t be when you’re pulling up your ballot or when you or when you go vote.
Erika Harrison: It’ll be because I sent you a text message saying Mon’nique Scott is your is your rep. And Monica Scott, she went viral for a a speech she gave during our convention here in Texas. I sent that clip to the the 30 people in my swag group that live in her district because I thought it was
Josh Klemons: So yeah, I Love that.
Erika Harrison: powerful.
Josh Klemons: So you’re a that’s just like a really cool application and b so you’re able to message your entire like you can message your whole voter group or just folks in a specific district broken down by congressional or state house. Um are they able to reply?
Erika Harrison: No,
Josh Klemons: Is it or is it monoirectional? Because it’s anonymous.
Erika Harrison: not at
Josh Klemons: I would think it would be hard for them to like respond but you’re able to like share that and then you can also say I
Erika Harrison: all.
Josh Klemons: I love that. One of my next questions was like how are you actually like using like both social in general but sway also to organize and I love that application like hey I’m interviewing this person that could be your state rep or your congressional
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: candidate um tune in and so you can like go to Sway and tell them to tune like you’re not doing the live in Sway you’re doing that on Instagram but you’re sending folks to Instagram All
Erika Harrison: No, it’s it’s on Yeah, I’m sending it to them, but I because I recognize you’re scrolling.
Josh Klemons: right.
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: You don’t know what district you’re in. So, you’re thinking, “Okay, that’s cool. She’s interviewing that lady. I don’t know who she is.” Um, other thing is because the the Texas 18th race became a really big deal in Harris County. Uh this was to replace this is the historic black district in in Houston. It was we have like we had it was on the ballot like four times the last six months. So a lot of people think they’re in the 18th and they’re not. So I have to also help move them from being hyperfocused about oh Christian Miny won. Okay, Christian Miffy is not your rep. You’ve got an opportunity to vote for other people.
Erika Harrison: I need you to to know that. That’s also been a big part of it as well because people see and Christian men I should say Congressman Christian Minipy sees himself that way. like he’s like, “Oh, you’re my, you know, I I support everybody.” No, they got to go vote for the person on their ballot. So, that’s also been part of why I’ve been doing this as well, so people can know.
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: And and that was other big thing for Sway when we uh because that the new maps went in place and most of the websites were not updated. updated. So Sway got updated before a lot of other websites and when you logged in the very top it will tell you you were in the ninth you’re now in the 18th. Vote
Claire Shorall: Yeah, we uh yeah,
Josh Klemons: That’s that San Francisco energy right there.
Erika Harrison: accordingly.
Claire Shorall: we were like we we have to get this right.
Josh Klemons: I like that.
Claire Shorall: We we’re going to put a banner at the top.
Claire Shorall: Let me say a couple more things about messaging. So, yes, right now it is monoirectional. We are adding uh like some React capabilities and um
Erika Harrison: Oh, that’s
Claire Shorall: Okay, good.
Erika Harrison: cute.
Claire Shorall: Uh, and then, uh, some of this is just we’re going to see how people like there is there is no shortage of places to talk politics on the internet. Um, so I don’t know how much Sway needs to be the hub for conversations, but it would be nice to like think you’re the leadership of groups that you’re in. So, we’ll see what that ends up looking like. Um, secondly, like people should know Sway is free and the messaging is free. If people have the app downloaded, it shows up as a native notive. If they signed up with their uh phone number, it shows up as a text. And if they sign up with email, it goes to their inbox. Um, but you know, Erica is doing cool applications. So are other people. People send mobilized links.
Claire Shorall: Um, we’ve had candidates reach out and be like, “Oh my god, you know, somebody sent a link on Sway and we had 10 times the normal show up for volunteers.” because like some of this is, you know, you don’t want to hear from the the fear-mongering text messages or whatever. You want to hear from the people that you’ve opted into and and trust. So that that’s really cool. There’s some leaders who send basically like daily messages being like, you’re in this person, this Congress person’s seat and they are like a key vote on whatever. Call them. And they just put the phone number in there. And I’m like, I love this application. And like I I want to be in a group that is just giving me one action a day. Let’s go.
Josh Klemons: Yeah, that’s interesting because you’ve on the site it’s very much geared around like voting,
Claire Shorall: Um
Josh Klemons: but that’s true. It can also be about like pressure after the fact. Like if you want to like organize people to be calling your state rep uh or your congressperson
Claire Shorall: yeah.
Josh Klemons: or whatever, you could be like pinging them directly in there. That’s an interesting application. I hadn’t considered
Claire Shorall: Yeah. I we actually think of ourselves as citizen lobbying.
Josh Klemons: that.
Claire Shorall: So we are more like while the election is important right now and it’s the the mechanism by which change I think gets most clearly communicated um no this is ultimately a play at power and getting people to voting together is is the
Josh Klemons: Interesting.
Claire Shorall: the final step of turning in the group project but there’s a lot of things that go into um and and for what it’s worth this is my probably hottest take but I feel like most people are not looking to be more civically engaged. So, in many ways, this is a way of putting a superhero cape on the people like Erica or on you and knowing that my values are getting exercised in the world and not trying to make every single person have to be you or an Erica. Now granted, like I want more people to be.
Claire Shorall: So, I I taught high school for a decade. I used to tell my bio students on day one like, “Why do I need you to get really good at science and like analyzing evidence and whatever?” And they’d be like, “Cuz you want me to be a doctor.” And I’d be like, “Cool if you want that.” But no, I actually need you to be a good juror and voter. Like, these are the things, right? And so, you know, this is not me saying everybody just, you know, become a sheep and follow follow folks. That’s like the last thing we would want. But I also knocked on so many doors in Pennsylvania where families were like getting all kids into the car for a soccer game and what like not everybody needs to be needs to be added in
Josh Klemons: So I again I got loads of friends that text me morning of election.
Claire Shorall: as
Josh Klemons: Who am I who am I supposed to vote for? Like I get that all the time.
Josh Klemons: So, and I no judgment. Like not even an ounce of judgment for me.
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: Me
Josh Klemons: Life is freaking hard. Everybody’s freaking busy.
Erika Harrison: either.
Josh Klemons: And I I feel honored that somebody trusts me to like reach out.
Claire Shorall: Just the polls.
Josh Klemons: But like yeah,
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: I mean I’m sure there’s not a lot of people in people’s lives that like can do that for them.
Erika Harrison: No.
Josh Klemons: So like you know like
Erika Harrison: That’s why the thing about Sway that I love too and and I’m not sure where in Wisconsin you are if this is the
Josh Klemons: I
Erika Harrison: case, but Madison. Okay. So, you probably have a couple, you know, state house districts and what have you. What I like about Suave, I people are like, “Well, why don’t you can you just print print the list on your Instagram again?” I’m like, “No, because I know what you all are going to do. You think that you’re in the 18th and you’re not.
Erika Harrison: You’re going to write down the 18th candidates and you’re going to go on there and not know what like not know Sway is going to filter
Josh Klemons: right
Erika Harrison: for your ballot. So, it’s going to take my whole list. You have to put your address in to get on there and it’s going to filter for your specific ballot. So, all you’re going to see from my list is what’s on your ballot.” So, we don’t have no confusion, especially with a hundred things on the list. And the Houston metro area is is hu I mean I’ve got f I wanted to focus on Harris County and I got bullied to adding
Josh Klemons: Good.
Erika Harrison: some of our neighboring counties our suburban and I do mean bullied. So the um so I had to start adding those in in as well. But that means they have to filter for what’s on their specific ballot.
Josh Klemons: Right.
Erika Harrison: And that is that’s like the really big benefit there for Sway is that filter piece because people
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: people don’t know what’s on their ballot.
Josh Klemons: No, that’s really cool. How are you moving folks from social media? And I mean I it seems like you hadn’t blogged in a bit. Like it seems like most of your energy these days on social fair enough. Me too. How are you moving people from social media to Sway uh in order to be able to have these
Erika Harrison: One,
Josh Klemons: conversations?
Erika Harrison: the big thing was when it was time for recommendations, I had done recommendations before. People were looking for them. So, I’m like, they’re on here.
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Erika Harrison: The other thing I keep saying, if you want updates that are specific to your districts, this is where where you should go.
Josh Klemons: Got
Erika Harrison: This is where I’m going to be sending those updates. And so, um, if you’re interested in flipping the state house, I’m using Sway.
Josh Klemons: it.
Erika Harrison: I went through, there’s 150 state house reps in Texas. I went through and added all 150 to my SW.
Erika Harrison: Now, is it annoying to scroll past all the like to scroll? Yes. But they’re all on there because I want everybody from Texas to know that you can come on here and see who your Democratic candidate is and get familiar with their name. Um, and then just kind of building capacity about what’s happening in the upcoming election. So, I would say things like, um, I ask people open people love a open-ended question. Who’s your stay half for it? And if you don’t know, here’s the link. And then who is the next action item? Okay. Okay. Your rep is this person. Okay. They’re being challenged by this candidate. Join my SW. I’m sending updates about them as well. So, uh I also have it tagged. Uh it’s it’s it’s pinned. It’s in my on my bio link. So,
Josh Klemons: Got
Erika Harrison: when I get like a kind of influx of new followers from a video, people people start clicking.
Josh Klemons: it.
Erika Harrison: People click on I wouldn’t click on that. So, people click on the most random things without any instruction and they just join. I had someone join me from Hawaii recently, Claire.
Josh Klemons: That’s
Erika Harrison: Now it’s it’s messed up my
Josh Klemons: awesome.
Claire Shorall: Saw your map. Yep. Yep.
Erika Harrison: mood.
Claire Shorall: Yep. I know. I know. We’re gonna fix it.
Josh Klemons: Yes.
Erika Harrison: The a little like zoomed out now
Josh Klemons: I I’m curious.
Erika Harrison: because
Josh Klemons: So, you said you added all 150 state me state house members to yours, but how do you handle that in a primary?
Erika Harrison: so I didn’t do it for the primary. This was just for the primary. I really focused on Harris County because I wanted to focus on people I knew people I could give I could call.
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Erika Harrison: And uh like for judges, I sat down with people, friends of mine who really are in in court like you know and I said you know give me the rundown.
Erika Harrison: So every recommendation I have is not really somebody if I didn’t know personally and didn’t have enough information. I I made a call. Fort Ben County for example is one of our neighboring counties. I don’t it’s a suburban county. It’s it’s a it’s one of our it’s in the Houston metro area. I I called people in for because people kept saying what are we doing in Fort Ben? I don’t know.
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Erika Harrison: But I called someone in Fort Ben and got the information because I didn’t want to just be up here saying I don’t know I have no history. I mean even though I grew I grew up down the street couldn’t tell you. So I I got information from from them.
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: So that’s part of what I what I do when it comes to that. But I didn’t for the primary I kind of kept it a lot tighter the general because I want people to be familiar with the candidates. I want them to be invested with the down ballot because I think if you are invested if you know for example a young man name is named Tyler Smith he’s running to flip a seat in the uh Houston suburbs.
Erika Harrison: He’s running to flip a seat held by a woman named Lacy Hull and I want you if
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Erika Harrison: you like okay I’m coming here to vote for the Senate governor. I may get I may go vote D for some of these other statewide races then I’m out. But if you have heard Tyler’s name and you’re like but Erica told me Tyler’s on my ballot. let me keep going till I find him because now you have a familiarity with that name and that makes a difference uh when you start seeing names that you know and you be like ew because these are people they don’t they’re not going to have a commercial they may not be even able to send you a mailer if you’re lucky you may get a door knocker but that but that’s kind of the gist of it you know and so we know that name recognition does make a big difference with people feeling invested in those down ballot races
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: Yeah. No, I I love all that. Um, so I work a ton of races.
Josh Klemons: I work statewide stuff in congressional, but a ton of down ballot races.
Erika Harrison: Mhm.
Josh Klemons: And I actually, like I mentioned, I do a lot of like organizing and mobilizing on social. I pretty much maybe never um endorse in primaries.
Erika Harrison: Mhm.
Josh Klemons: I won’t even tell people to vote for the candidate I’m working for often because I want folks to vote in November. candidate got through and if I told them to vote for one and that person doesn’t win I don’t want to be the reason they were like well Josh only you know so I for me it’s like as long as everybody’s engaged whoever gets through gets through and you know I work really hard to get candidates elected and then folks are like who should I vote for in this race I’m like there’s a couple great people you know like I’m actually very uncomfortable like advocating for the candidates I’m working for and there’s also like a disclosure thing like should I be saying I work for them so I just I’m actually very careful to not do that but it’s also a challenge For me, it sounds like you have a very different situation because you’re I mean, you’re not working in politics the way I am.
Josh Klemons: You’re doing politics, you know, and so it’s like easier for you to just like say, “Okay, yeah, I like this person.” But yeah, I was very It’s hard to imagine being able to pick winners in 150 primaries. So, I was curious if that was something you were trying to do because that’s a freaking full-time job right there.
Erika Harrison: is even the judges.
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: I mean I mean I tell you crowd sourcing I had to sit down with several friends that are lawyers and walk through these different ones uh because it like that’s like it’s like 60 or 70 judges that that are on our ballot and
Josh Klemons: I mean, we have judges here and they’re nonpartisan and it’s so hard, but like a dozen is a lot.
Erika Harrison: and
Josh Klemons: Like,
Claire Shorall: Yeah,
Josh Klemons: normally it’s a couple. So, yeah, doing five dozen like I don’t even know how you start something like I mean, yeah,
Claire Shorall: we’re we’re looking to fix this productwise.
Josh Klemons: that’s wild.
Claire Shorall: Well, one, uh, not making a recommendation on Sway is no issue whatsoever.
Claire Shorall: So, like if Josh, when you have your voting group, uh even if you didn’t make any recommendations, you’ll still see the turnout for your group, which I think is really powerful. Okay, putting that to the side, uh Erica went and did the yman’s work for Fort Bend, but by November and actually this functionality exists, but uh what will happen is that person in Fort Bend should go ahead and make their own Sway group and then Erica can join a coalition with that person on
Josh Klemons: Cool.
Claire Shorall: Sway such that all of those ballot recommendations get passed through. You can imagine that the power of coalitions across the country would mean that let’s say you know you’ve been watching Erica’s content. I I lived in Houston for five years so like I love it because a lot of the things that I see on Erica’s page I’m like oh I know that. Um but I could trust Erica and then receive recommendations in California based on my trust in Erica and her trust in other groups. So anyway, this is like a it’s it’s the internet as the internet was designed.
Josh Klemons: Right.
Claire Shorall: it’s a network. Um, but you know, previously we didn’t have that functionality in place. So, it was really incredible to watch Erica get bullied and like I realized that you actually did because I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, Erica. There’s so many extra people you have to
Josh Klemons: Thanks.
Erika Harrison: But my number Fort Ben doesn’t have as many people as to Harris County.
Claire Shorall: add.
Erika Harrison: So that made it easier. But then also too, the number of people I had from Fort Ben that were joining my group also justified it. I started looking and saying,”Okay,
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: I’ve got a there’s enough of you all here that it does make sense for me to put before been recommendations. You all came even though I was saying Harris County only. And then uh on the flip of that too, Brazoria County has a big suburb called Periland. And Periland has been a very popular suburb for black uh upperly mobile black folks for for some time. And they weren’t in my group.
Erika Harrison: They weren’t joining. And I said, “Okay.” So I I started adding Bersoria to get them more engaged. Uh and and we actually had a flip in Bora County. Um the Parland mayor is the first the first black mayor in Parland was elected maybe uh just a few months ago. So So there’s there’s some activity there second.
Claire Shorall: on May 2nd. Erica, wait, can I actually can I put this like just like if you’re looking at Texas,
Erika Harrison: Yeah.
Claire Shorall: it’s wild because they had an election, a special election in February. It was I think February 18th that you had that one and then another one on March 3rd and then they had a special for city council. Oh no, Josh, come back.
Erika Harrison: I don’t records when he’s gone.
Claire Shorall: I know. Well,
Erika Harrison: We had all those specials and I had someone stop me.
Claire Shorall: oh my god, there’s like eight
Erika Harrison: I had someone stop me at the Tal Rico town hall and she told me,
Claire Shorall: elections.
Erika Harrison: “Thank you for that message on Sway. We wouldn’t have known to go vote in that KDISD thing.” So, we were the people up there voting for school district without even having kids.
Claire Shorall: Wait,
Erika Harrison: So,
Claire Shorall: that’s the most quotable thing ever right
Erika Harrison: Oh,
Josh Klemons: Will you say it again because I didn’t hear it?
Erika Harrison: yeah.
Claire Shorall: there.
Erika Harrison: So the um we have a lot of special elections, a lot of smaller elections. So like especially for our our school boards.
Josh Klemons: Sorry.
Erika Harrison: So I was at the Ter Rico town hall which I something else I sent out to my followers like hey my Sway people because I can post it online but Sway these are these are voters you know. So like I know their interest level is a little bit higher. So it’s kind of like a little you know it’s like a segmented part of of Black Girl Brunch followers. But I had a um two people stopped me that were together. They were something like that.
Erika Harrison: They go oh thank you. We live in Katy, Houston, Houston suburb, and we went and voted in that Katy ISD school board race that you told us about. We didn’t know about we didn’t know what’s happening. You know, we don’t have kids. We we don’t have kids in school, but we went out there and voted. And those kind of things are huge. And that’s how how we’ve had um these crazy takeovers of our school boards in Texas because they’re these random Saturdays, these elections are happening and it’s there’s not a lot of conversation about it and people don’t know.
Josh Klemons: Yeah. Uh yeah, absolutely. Um Claire, can you talk a little bit are campaigns do you have any campaigns actually using Sway directly?
Claire Shorall: Uh I mean the short answer is yes but it has an asterisk on it. So we see sway as a three-sided marketplace. There’s leaders like you you both. There are uh the voters which is like the 99% who are coming here for information and to give their leverage and then candidates.
Claire Shorall: Candidates have been basically like jerryrigging a system for themselves. We need to build out more candidate tools and suite. Um but what they do frequently is come on to Sway and then find people who because you can like go into certain geographies and like look at who is making recommendations. Erica, you’ve been reached out to by candidates,
Erika Harrison: We It was very early on we were like we’re just like moving and grooving because like remember they kind of
Claire Shorall: right?
Erika Harrison: roll this out with Texas so we don’t we don’t know. And I started messaging Claire. I said oh the candidates have found this. They’re going on here to see who who’s been recommended. Then I started seeing people like especially judges putting me oh I was listed on their like endorsement list because they went on there and found it. People were like why didn’t you pick me? I was like okay. So it was very people people trying to figure it out but they went on there and they yeah the candidates definitely found
Josh Klemons: I mean,
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: it.
Josh Klemons: is that is it nice that they added you as endorser?
Claire Shorall: No.
Josh Klemons: Like is that flattering or you like pissed that like they took something from one place and put it someplace else or how’d you approach
Erika Harrison: No I wasn’t I wasn’t mad.
Josh Klemons: that?
Erika Harrison: I wasn’t mad at all. It just was like there are times, this is just a me thing.
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Erika Harrison: I this started very much as a fly on the wall situation, me talking about politics. It was me and my people, me and my followers. And over time, it has just become it’s a lot bigger than that. The candidates are following, they’re watching, they’re the electeds are following, they’re watching, they’re having conversations. So, it just sometimes I’m like, “Okay, this is getting a little more serious now. I’m on a list of endorsers.” So, it’s that that’s just a me thing. But it it but it is what it is.
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Claire Shorall: This is This is the goal.
Josh Klemons: Um,
Claire Shorall: This is the goal to have more more of Erica’s everywhere,
Josh Klemons: right. So, yeah,
Claire Shorall: including Josh’s
Josh Klemons: I’m I’m curious, Claire. Obviously, that’s the goal for you, Erica. Make the pitch. Why would a content creator who’s already doing so much work to like organize folks online, create content, moderate their content, engage in the comments, it’s a whole other job, right? Like obviously it sounds to you like this is worthwhile for you. Why should another political content creator think about doing this
Erika Harrison: on Sway. So,
Josh Klemons: also?
Erika Harrison: I I would say the also piece of it is is a little Sway is not a huge lift, right? It’s it’s not you you can go on there and you can build your page. You can make it as simple as you want to, make it as complicated as you want to grab a banner photo up there, use some something that you already have on other social media platforms. You can also reuse content from like I’ll they have now where you if you do like a a cute video with a candidate like for example I did a video with Genie Nosa.
Erika Harrison: Oh, I should go add that to Sway with our u we the Netflix trend with her. So you can you can reuse content there.
Josh Klemons: Mhm.
Erika Harrison: But what I would say is that if you for several things like one it’s it’s the the big thing that I tell I tell content creators that backend data is is is just undeniable. I can walk in to tell a member of Congress, I’ve got this group of of um 2400 people and 200 of them are 200 of them are no like in the 18th I think I may have it’s a lot maybe it’s like 400.
Claire Shorall: like Yeah. 400 or
Erika Harrison: Well, I can tell Congressman Christian Miny that I’ve got 400 people that live in your district that are in my group that I have
Claire Shorall: something.
Josh Klemons: Sure.
Erika Harrison: the power to message and me messaging them comes off a lot different than when they message them, you know, because it’s not like oh they want something, right? So that back-end data that can really help you um help you also curate your content and be specific in that way too.
Erika Harrison: It also helps you to be a it has this this the the text messaging tool I think is super powerful and also these are people who’ve opted into this who’ve opted into who we know are voters like that you don’t just hop on swag just because you’re bored that’s no you are interested you are you are more of a voter right and so being able to
Josh Klemons: Right.
Erika Harrison: zone in and kind of and have your little voter voting focus group is is super valuable so yes I think
Josh Klemons: Sure.
Erika Harrison: um just also just from a logistics logistics standpoint it is so much easier to go find somebody’s sway group and send that sway link. When people’s like, “Oh, do you have a list of recommendations for the upcoming race? Here’s the sway link.” That is easier to send. Then I’ve got I’m originally from Missouri,
Josh Klemons: Right.
Erika Harrison: but I grew up in Houston. I’ll go like send links from that, you know, from different states. I I can keep a little list, you know, notepad with people from Dallas and I’ll send their sway links when people asking for Dallas recommendations.
Erika Harrison: So, just from efficiency standpoint, I can see people, oh, it’s a whole other social media platform. It’s not. It’s a it’s a from an efficiency standpoint, it’s a tool that’s going to help you really focus in on people who are tapped in and and want to vote. I It’s interesting. I don’t see it like social media, but I did have a girl stop me in anthropology this weekend and was like, “Oh my god, I follow you.” And usually people say they follow me. It’s Tik Tok. They’ll say Tik Tok. My OG will say Instagram,
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Erika Harrison: but it is Tik Tok. And she said, “I follow you on Swag.” Which is the first somebody to stop me and say they follow me on Swag. I was like,
Josh Klemons: Whoa.
Erika Harrison: “Oh.” I had a front of the phone. She then she followed me on Sway, which to me that group is more powerful to me because it shows more of your actual political influence. We can be on here yelling into a void uh politically,
Josh Klemons: Right.
Erika Harrison: but but it’s so different when it’s online. Like I we’ve had several people that have had millions of followers run for Congress and what happened? They lost.
Josh Klemons: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Erika Harrison: Like the guy in Houston that came in very I mean like he got like 4% of the vote had significantly more followers than everybody else on that ballot because your followers people following doesn’t really tell you a whole lot.
Josh Klemons: Yep.
Erika Harrison: You don’t know where they live at. You can get some backend data but nothing like what you can get on swag with you can tell see what what you down to what state house district they are in.
Josh Klemons: F
Erika Harrison: That’s very beneficial data if you are trying to be be thoughtful in content and understanding hierarchy and local and state and all those different things.
Josh Klemons: Had Claire heard before that somebody recognized you from Sway
Erika Harrison: I think I posted on I don’t know if you saw I posted on threads. I don’t know if you saw
Josh Klemons: because I’m sure that was a highlight of her day right
Claire Shorall: like this is like yeah this is an incredible moment.
Josh Klemons: there.
Claire Shorall: So uh
Erika Harrison: that.
Josh Klemons: Uh Claire,
Claire Shorall: thanks.
Josh Klemons: talk um talk a little like just briefly about where you see this going. You’ve talked about additional tools, but like obviously you guys are pre-monetization. Like are you all trying to grow this into like something bigger?
Claire Shorall: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: Are you trying to partner with others down the road? Like you don’t need to get into the business model of it, but I am curious about like where you see this going in the next couple
Claire Shorall: Yeah. So,
Josh Klemons: cycles.
Claire Shorall: in November 2026, we would like one million voters to utilize Sway uh to informs.
Josh Klemons: How close are you?
Claire Shorall: Uh we’re at like 50.
Josh Klemons: You got a while. Okay.
Claire Shorall: We got we got I mean you know But the potential energy is is like sparking,
Josh Klemons: simmering.
Claire Shorall: you know, like I feel it.
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Claire Shorall: And I would also say um our growth rate is really strong right now
Josh Klemons: Okay.
Claire Shorall: and there’s like now coming into August, I’m very excited for all these primaries that are about to come up. Um but just like the the media doesn’t clue in, I think September and October are going to be fun. So uh that’s one thing. But in 2028,
Josh Klemons: if if we survive it. Me and Derek anyway, I don’t know. Like I’m I’m struggling to make it through August 11th, which is our primary here, and November feels like a long way away. So, okay. Go ahead.
Claire Shorall: 98 days, but who’s counting?
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Claire Shorall: Um, anyway, uh, in 2028, it is my hope that across the country, there’s a series of town hall debates where sway leaders use their sway counts as their entry into those fora. And that is where candidates come and talk with people who have influ verified influence with their constituents. So all across the country and including a national televised I mean probably internet native because that’s who we are but internet native uh presidential debate where it’s like why are you here?
Claire Shorall: It’s because you have sway and how do we know? Because these voters follow you. Um so yeah I I mean I think by 2028 if this becomes the dominant tool for people to aggregate and showcase collective will we will have done something and then off to the international races.
Josh Klemons: Oh, interesting. Uh, Erica, what is the wildest, most exciting uh, weirdest race you’re falling right now and excited about? You got anybody you want to pitch right
Erika Harrison: Wow.
Josh Klemons: now?
Erika Harrison: And I feel like there’s like one that I’m just not thinking of. Um, you know, I I would say this. our our Senate race is getting a lot more of the attention and I get it. But for when we talk about when we complain about what’s going on in Texas, I’m like governor’s race, governor’s race,
Josh Klemons: Yeah,
Erika Harrison: governor’s race.
Josh Klemons: y’all going to flip it this year.
Erika Harrison: I think that Yeah.
Josh Klemons: You got a real
Erika Harrison: You know, I I think that one’s really interesting um strategically at the top.
Josh Klemons: path.
Erika Harrison: I just did a video about this, but like I I’m just really interested in how Greg Abbott is moving because he’s having to spread himself a little bit to make cover for Kim Paxton being a hot a hot mess of a campaigner,
Josh Klemons: Yeah, for sure.
Erika Harrison: a fundraiser, a candidate. And so just what does that mean for Greg Abbott if he has to now he’s got a he’s got a bunch of money.
Josh Klemons: A
Erika Harrison: He has enough to cover for him and kid. However, but what does it mean for Greg Abbott if he has to cover for a bad candidate at the top?
Josh Klemons: bunch.
Erika Harrison: How does that play for even our our other down ballot statewide candidate? So that’s what I’m I’m really I I not gonna lie to you. Am I am I always hopeful we can win the top of ticket? Yes. Because it’s we’re 30 years losers in Texas. However, I would be if we are able to like clip off one of those statewide races like uh controller or um AG railroad commissioner.
Erika Harrison: I will have a party like I just like we like you know a couple of one and people like what? Y’all have no idea what this means. And so, um, those are the kind of weird races that I’m really following and following the energy behind that and trying to help boost where I can because again, I find if people know these names down the ballot, they’re more invested in voting down
Josh Klemons: Hell yeah. No, I love it. Uh, so on that,
Erika Harrison: ballot.
Josh Klemons: how can folks keep in touch with you? Like Erica, do you want them to follow you if you’re if they’re outside Texas? Are you looking for a national audience? Are you keeping it
Erika Harrison: I know I I talk about national things. I mean, you know,
Josh Klemons: local?
Erika Harrison: right now I’ve had to go hyper hyper focused on Texas because we most of our stuff is um during the midterm. So, we do governor. All our statewide races are during the midterm.
Erika Harrison: But, you know, hello. The president, we got we we know our dates now for South Carolina. The primary is January 2028. So, I’ll be shifting back to that.
Josh Klemons: Yeah,
Erika Harrison: I tell people,
Josh Klemons: it’s a big one for y’all. Big air for y’all or big
Erika Harrison: yeah, yeah, yeah. People are like, Erica, they’re like, oh, you know, who do you have for the presidential election?
Josh Klemons: cycle.
Erika Harrison: Midterms first. So, I’ll be shifting back to that. I also I’m nosy. I love I follow other other folks. I I was all up in the main stuff with platiner that was very interesting to me from a national level and different for consultants and all that. So yeah, I talk about other things but um in my sway I do I will send recommendations updates about different things that are happening there. I probably will end up doing a a live here soon about Missouri races. Um likely on Instagram with a friend of mine because I got a large I have a pretty decent following in Missouri because I I’m from there
Josh Klemons: Oh,
Erika Harrison: and went to college and there so I dabble in things all over the country just you know where where is
Josh Klemons: cool.
Erika Harrison: interesting to me. But I have a knowledge base. I’m never going to claim to be like super knowledgeable outside of my own not even I don’t even come out for Dallas. I’m very much Houston uh focused.
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Erika Harrison: Yeah.
Josh Klemons: I mean, Texas is a whole world and Harris County is a giant piece of that whole world. So, yeah, no doubt. Uh, no, that’s really cool. Um, and I’ll have links to like your socials and your blog and uh your Sway and Claire, what’s the best way for like obviously head to the site, but like are y’all doing stuff on social? Is there any place else they should be following you and or
Claire Shorall: Uh no, my biggest ask is just go and download the app actually.
Josh Klemons: Sway?
Claire Shorall: So go to either the uh app store or the Android store because if there is that one candidate, we didn’t even talk about this functionality, but if there is that one candidate that you’re super excited about or that one group that you really want to join, we can actually look locally at all your contacts in your phone and you can become like a oneperson digital door knocker to get people out uh and know that the people who you are texting uh or trying to get to the polls actually can vote uh in that particular race.
Claire Shorall: So,
Josh Klemons: Yeah.
Claire Shorall: I will hit up my Wisconsin friends. Uh hopefully I will be able to give them a guide. But,
Josh Klemons: Yeah. No, absolutely.
Claire Shorall: um
Josh Klemons: It’s more of a relational tool than I realized from the site.
Erika Harrison: Claire’s Yeah,
Josh Klemons: Like that’s cool. So, uh something to promote for sure.
Erika Harrison: Claire didn’t say this,
Claire Shorall: yeah,
Erika Harrison: but she also is a LinkedIn influencer. Nobody posts stuff on LinkedIn like Claire, so follow her over there.
