WASHINGTON- If you would have asked Lynda Tran five years ago if she would be in the position she is today, she said she wouldn’t have thought that was possible.
Lynda Tran, 32, is the national press secretary for Organizing for America, an arm of the Democratic National Committee.
Sprouting from the grassroots structure that was the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, Organizing for America (OFA) is a community organizing project unprecedented in the annals of modern political campaigns, aimed at mobilizing supporters in favor of Obama’s legislative agenda.
Since it’s formation, it has had mixed success in mobilizing its 13-million strong members in support of major change like health-care reform, which was enacted in March 2010.
Path to Power
Tran’s parents immigrated to the U.S. during the Vietnam War with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
“I know what its actually like to be hungry,” Tran said. “I grew up with parents who had two, sometimes three jobs. We never had a lot of money.”
Tran comes from a politically-active family. “You might say that politics is part of my blood,” Tran said.
Tran’s grandfather was a foreign minister to the last emperor of Vietnam and her aunt headed an Indo-Chinese voters’ league throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. As a child, Tran found herself taken with those political activist meetings. But it was there that she realized she didn’t agree with everything her family believed. “As it turns out, they [her family] are Republican.”
One belief that Tran inherited from her mother was that political engagement was not only a privilege, but a responsibility. “I always had this feeling that it’s important to be politically involved and to connect to a cause that was greater than who I am as an individual.”
When Tran got to college, she joined the short-lived Penn Students for 2000 presidential candidate and then-Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.). It was then that Tran realized there was a role for young people to play in political activism.
After briefly working for a market research firm – a job she didn’t feel was a good fit – Tran enrolled in Participation 2000, a political-action group designed to get young people to join progressive campaigns. Through Participation 2000, Tran worked on the successful Democratic campaign of Texas state Rep. Chuck Hopson. After that, Tran knew politics was her thing.
“That was a little bit of the bug. And I knew then that I wanted to stay involved. So then after that, I went to Washington, D.C.”
Community Organizing
Tran’s first job in Washington was working for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) “At SEIU, we did everything from union organizing to big strikes, like the Houston janitors that we did in 2006. And all along the way, we did political work as well.”
She worked in Cincinnati for Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) 2004 presidential campaign and then-Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) in 2008.
One of Lynda Tran’s memorable moments (John Lund/MNS)
After the 2008 election, Tran became communications director for Gov. Kaine (D-Va.). That made Tran the first Asian-American communications director in Virginia. She held that position until Kaine’s term ended and he became Obama’s full-time head of the Democratic National Committee. It was Kaine who encouraged Tran to assume the OFA job, housed in the DNC.
Tran said she’s been lucky in her former and current jobs to witness meaningful moments.
She recalled the 2006 Houston janitors’ strike that lasted a month when she was at SEIU. “Workers risked everything- they put everything on the line. They blocked traffic and engaged in acts of civil disobedience and told a message about the American dream. But the strike was also about basic social justice and fairness in the world.” Tran said. “If you work hard and play by the rules you should get to have a chance at a better life. You should have a basic wage that you can live on.”
Tran said the community organizers she has met through OFA amaze her. “They commit more than 15 hours a week of their own personal time just to help support the president. It’s incredible to see someone who’s normally a software engineer or a lawyer by day or maybe somebody who’s retired who should be spending their time on golf courses,” Tran said. “It’s incredible to see the kind of energy these people have for making sure the president is successful.”
“It’s been a good ride so far, and I think it’s only going to get better.”
Lynda Tran on her job (John Lund/MNS)
In spring 2010, Tran said OFA was still celebrating its first major victory, the passage of major health-care reform. “That is something that really matters to everyday, ordinary people. Our success boils down to whether you can impact somebody’s life on a personal level every single day.”
Looking ahead, Tran said financial regulatory reform is important. “I believe that the way of the world has to change. I do believe we need stronger consumer protection. And we have to have some accountability with some of the biggest banks and credit card companies in the country.”
Tran said other important issues are building a clean energy economy and comprehensive immigration reform. “These are things I think everyone in this country has a stake in and that I think passing improvements and reforms will matter a lot, both historically, and in the short term,” Tran said.
Lynda Tran on what has changed since the 2008 election (John Lund/MNS)
The Network
Tran has daily conversations with OFA National Director Mitch Stewart and White House staff. Gov. Kaine, a mentor to Tran, gets involved when appropriate.
Everyday, Stewart has conversations with people on the OFA leadership team, including Tran and OFA Deputy National Director Jeremy Bird. OFA also works with individual state directors and their staff. Tran said the organization wouldn’t be successful without their volunteers, the neighborhood team leaders who run offices and meetings at the neighborhood level.
Lynda Tran’s message to young people (John Lund/MNS)
David Plouffe is running Obama’s efforts to retain a Democratic congressional majority in the midterm elections and a senior adviser to OFA.