I’m a partisan centrist working to grow a strong, vibrant & coherent Center Left faction of the Democratic Party. Writing things at WelcomeStack.org 🍍and host of The Depolarizers podcast. Full Bio:Lauren Harper Pope is a political and communications strategist from South Carolina. She is Co-Founder of The Welcome Party (c4), WelcomePAC, and The Welcome Democracy Institute (c3). ​Prior to co-founding Welcome, Lauren served as South Carolina State Director for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, as Policy and Communications Advisor for Columbia (SC) Mayor Steve Benjamin and as an aide to (SC) Sen. Mia McLeod.​In the 2022 cycle, Lauren served as Coordinated Campaign Director for the Texas Democratic Party & Beto for Texas and led coordinated (hard side) PAC work with more than a dozen WelcomePAC candidates in Ohio and California. Her legacy projects with the City of Columbia include creating the first municipal food policy committee in South Carolina (the Columbia Food Policy Committee); launching the Books 2 Boys & Girls program in partnership with City of Columbia Parks & Recreation, Columbia Police Department and Richland Library; and hosting the state's first peer-to-peer municipal election for the Columbia Youth Commission.​​Lauren is Vice President of the Board of Directors for SC Women in Leadership, a multi-partisan nonprofit working to increase the number of women in elected and appointed office in South Carolina.​Lauren has a passion for voter education and civic engagement, particularly for young people and those who have not historically been a part of political processes. ​Lauren is an alumna of the University of South Carolina. She lives in the Charlotte metro in Indian Land, South Carolina.