Meet Jennifer Benson, Jordan Henry, and Samantha Byrne of InvestHER in Denver and Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Benson, Jordan Henry, and Samantha Byrne.

Jennifer, Jordan, and Samantha, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Jordan and I were in our 3rd semester of law school at the University of Colorado on November 8, 2016. That date will forever be etched in my memory and will always send a shiver down my spine. That night, a group of friends had gathered to watch the nation elect the first woman President of the United States. Of course, we know that’s not how it turned out. The next morning, Jordan and I found each other between classes to debrief, and (not surprisingly, if you know us!) we had identical reactions. They were: 1) what the hell happened? and 2) what are we going to do about it?

From that moment, we set out to find our place in Colorado politics, a place where we could make sure something like 2016 could never happen again. I could go on and on about the meetings we attended, the events we volunteered for, the amazing women (and some amazing men!) we met along the way, and all of the lessons we learned. But for brevity’s sake, I’ll just share with you the most impactful, which was our introduction to Gail Schoettler.

Gail was the first woman to serve as Lt. Governor and State Treasurer of Colorado and the first woman candidate for Governor in the state’s history. (Colorado has long been a leader in the percentage of women in the state legislature but has never had a woman governor.) We connected with Gail through her daughter-in-law and our professor at Colorado Law, Melanie Kay. Gail graciously agreed to meet with Jordan and me to help us get acquainted with the Colorado political landscape. She shared with us her experiences running for elected office as a woman and her experiences with winning and losing. We learned about her work as the founder of the Electing Women Political Action Committee. She imparted to us the importance of women running for office and the importance of donating to women’s campaigns. We left that conversation with a mission – elect more women!

While there were a lot of organizations out there doing great work, we didn’t feel like there was one that catered to us specifically – students and young professionals, new to the political scene, inspired to make a difference but not sure where to start. So, we decided to create it! We brought on Samantha Byrne, an experienced communication professional and, conveniently, our roommate, and we got to work. The three of us launched InvestHER, symbolically, on November 8, 2017.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wouldn’t say the road has been smooth, but it has been overwhelmingly positive. When InvestHER started, all three of us were full-time students along with other responsibilities. It wasn’t our initial intention to create a new organization, and none of us had ever done anything like it before. So we learned as we went and made plenty of mistakes along the way.

One major challenge has been fundraising. Since political cycles now run into each other with seemingly no reprieve for activists and political donors, we deal with the very real challenge of political fatigue. Also, our mission is to raise money for candidates we believe in, but we also have to raise enough for ourselves to continue to operate and support those candidates, which creates a persistent conflict. Luckily, we have benefited from the generosity of partners and local businesses who see the importance of what we’re doing and have donated space, food, and their time to help. And we all work on a volunteer basis. Because of this generous community, we’ve managed to operate on a very small budget, allowing most of the donations we collect to go directly to our candidates.

We’ve certainly made mistakes along the way, but nothing we couldn’t overcome, and all served as critical learning opportunities. After making it through our first election cycle with a trial-and-error approach, we now know what we need to do to prepare for a successful 2020 election cycle. We have the space to be much more strategic and deliberate about how our organization functions, which candidates we will support, and how we will engage new members. We have also brought on a rockstar advisory board made up of women who have inspired and mentored us along the way, including, of course, Gail Schoettler. Their support gives us the confidence we need to build on InvestHER’s success and to continue to grow our organization’s reach.

Despite some challenges, the whole InvestHER experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Not only do we now feel like we have a place in Colorado politics, we feel like we have become part of this incredibly supportive, empowering community of women, and we now have a platform to share that support and positivity with others who, as we did in 2016, feel compelled to do something but aren’t sure where to start.

InvestHER – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
InvestHER is a Colorado political committee with a dual mission of 1) electing more women, and 2) providing a space for people in all stages of their political activism to get involved and creating a habit in them of donating to candidates who inspire them. We do this by hosting fun, accessible events where guests can meet a candidate face-to-face in an intimate setting and hear about her vision for her community. We have removed the barriers that often come with attending a political fundraiser. For example, we don’t require an RSVP and prepayment. Instead, we hope you will attend one of our events and be so inspired that you feel compelled to help our candidate get elected however you can and that you will keep coming back! We also provide the kind of setting where you should feel absolutely comfortable coming alone, without any background in politics. When you show up to an InvestHER event, someone from the InvestHER team will greet you at the door and make sure you are introduced to the candidate or other attendees and that you are comfortable.

In addition to hosting events, we have a strong presence on social media, including Facebook and Instagram (you can thank Sam for that amazing, daily content!), and we try to be out in our communities as much as possible, through public speaking, providing training, and being present at events throughout the Denver area.

Since our launch, we’ve experienced some major wins. In the 2018 elections, 100% of the candidates we supported who won their primary went on to win their general elections. Also, 43% of our candidates identified as women of color or members of the LGBTQ community – a number we intend to increase during the 2020 elections. And our candidates have been doing some amazing things in our Colorado state legislature and other elected positions across the state ever since. In addition, InvestHER hosted events with a couple of major national candidates, including Stacey Abrams and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Jordan and I were also honored to be chosen as part of the Denverite’s Who’s Next: Politics class which was an amazing group of 16 rising political stars in the Denver area.

But what we’re most proud of is that we have created a place for all of those people who, like us, woke up on November 9, 2016, saying “what the hell happened?” and “what am I going to do about it?” This is what you can do! Politics can feel like an insiders’ game. But it shouldn’t be, so we are creating a space where it is accessible to everyone. We hope you’ll join us!

What were you like growing up? Personality wise, interest wise, etc.
Jen: If you had asked me when I was a kid, growing up on a farm in rural Missouri, what I would be doing with my life now, you likely wouldn’t have gotten the same answer twice. While the rest of my family of six knew exactly what they wanted to be, seemingly from birth, I had an ever-changing series of answers. Not because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but because I wanted to do everything! I wanted to be a Radio City Rockette (if only I was about 3 inches taller), an English teacher, a world traveler and writer, and a marine biologist, depending on the day. My family’s favorite is the week I wanted to join the circus. What I didn’t know about myself then that I do know now is that I am an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship wasn’t something that was encouraged in my small-town upbringing, at least not for girls. It turns out I’ve been starting things all my life, from reviving my hometown’s Fall Festival, creating a community theatre, launching a dance team at the local high school, and now building InvestHER. If I had listened to the teachers, counselors, and others who were tasked with helping me find my way, I might have felt discouraged, because I didn’t easily fit into a mold and I appeared to have no clear direction. However, I was lucky to have a family that allowed me to explore and create. I’ve also found amazing women mentors who have created incredible lives for themselves through entrepreneurship, despite the doubts and critiques of those who think it is a man’s place. Because of the experiences I was allowed to have and the people who encouraged me along the way, I now look back on that adventurous little farm girl with countless wild ideas and see an inventor, a business owner, an entrepreneur, and I’m proud of who she’s become.

Jordan: I was a part lizard-loving, fort-building tomboy, part princess ballerina, raised in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL by my brilliant single mom and super sassy, now a 97-year-old grandmother. Life was an adventure – my mom would take us on “midnight” (a.k.a. 8pm) bike rides around the golf course, on floats down the Ichetucknee Springs, and on fancy business trips to California! Giggle parties (giggle party: where you fake giggle to make yourself actually giggle) were a daily occurrence, and my brother and I had the freedom and independence to ride our bikes around town. Being raised by two incredibly strong women in the religious south impacted me in many ways. I remember the injustice I felt when I learned that not only was my mom paid a fraction of what her male colleagues were paid but that she was also expected to call her male colleagues by their last name while they simply referred to her as Gloria. (For what it’s worth, my mom ran around the office calling the men by their first names, causing a stir, anyway. If anyone is curious about where my stubborn, rule-breaking streak comes from – look no further.) When I was ten my mom gave me a book about influential women lawyers. I remember being inspired by the incredible power they had to effectuate positive change (thanks, RBG) and from that moment, I was determined to dedicate my life to making the world a better and easier place for rockstar women, like my mom.

Sam: Growing up, I was quite shy with a wild imagination. I was most often found with my head in a book and had a tendency to live in my own concocted world of free-spirited adventurers or moon-reveling witches. Second only to dance, reading was one of my most frequently listed hobbies and I often snuck my Social Studies book home to devour the sections we never seemed to get to before summer breaks like the Civil Rights Movement, Counterculture and Second-Wave Feminism. I identified as a feminist from a very young age, albeit a somewhat misconstrued take on the concept, and idolized women like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. I wanted to grow up to have agency over my life rather than be subject to what came my way and I think I’m doing right by younger me, missteps and all.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.investhernetwork.org
• Email: jennifer@investhernetwork.org; jordan@investhernetwork.org; samantha@investhernetwork.org
• Instagram: @InvestHER
• Facebook: @InvestHER

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