As part of our “Women on Wednesdays'' series, please join the Women & Politics Institute and AARP for a virtual conversation with Nancy LeaMond, Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy & Engagement Officer at AARP, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Founding Partner at Echelon Insights, and Margie Omero, Principal at the Democratic polling firm GBAO. The conversation will focus on the important role that women voters aged 50 and up will play in this year’s elections, who they are and the issues they care about. WPI Executive Director Betsy Fischer Martin will facilitate the conversation.

She’s the Difference is AARP’s ongoing research series that explores the priorities and concerns of women ages 50+ — a critical voting demographic. AARP recently released data from their latest poll, conducted by the bipartisan team of Echelon Insights’ Kristen Soltis Anderson and GBAO’s Margie Omero, finding that although older women have shifted from leaning slightly toward President Biden over former President Donald Trump to favoring Vice President Kamala Harris by 12 percentage points, most still say that elected officials are not addressing the financial challenges they face.

Nancy LeaMond is AARP's chief advocacy and engagement officer and is responsible for driving the organization’s social mission on behalf of Americans 50-plus and their families. Nancy leads government affairs and legislative campaigns for AARP, widely seen as one of the most powerful advocacy organizations in the country. She also manages public education programs, community engagement, and AARP’s vast network of volunteers.

LeaMond has been named by The Hill as one of the “Top Lobbyists” every year since 2011. In 2023 Nancy was recognized as one of the Washingtonian’s most influential people for her advocacy on public healthcare issues and named by the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics as one its 2022 Top Lobbyists. In 2020, she received the first ever Lifetime Achievement award from the Women in Government Relations.

Prior to coming to AARP, LeaMond served as the chief of staff and assistant U.S. trade representative for congressional affairs at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. LeaMond holds a bachelor's degree from Smith College and a master's degree in public policy and city planning from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

ABOUT KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON
Kristen Soltis Anderson is a pollster, speaker, commentator, and author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up).

Soltis Anderson is Founding Partner of Echelon Insights, an opinion research and analytics firm that serves brands, trade associations, nonprofits, and political clients. Through her work at Echelon, she regularly advises corporate and government leaders on polling and messaging strategy, and has become one of the foremost experts on the Millennial generation. She also leads focus groups for The New York Times’ opinion section’s “America in Focus” series.

She is an on-air political contributor at CNN and previously has been a contributor to Fox News Channel and ABC News. She has appeared on programs such as The Daily Show, Meet The Press and HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher. Previously, Kristen hosted The Trendline on SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S and The Pollsters podcast.

Soltis Anderson has served as a fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and Georgetown’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. She received her Master’s Degree in Government from Johns Hopkins University and her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Florida.

She serves on the board of directors of Foundation for American Innovation, a technology policy think-tank. She also serves on the advisory boards of a variety of companies and nonprofit organizations including ClearPath and the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. She is a member of the Economic Club of Washington.

MARGIE OMERO
Margie Omero is a Principal at the Democratic polling firm GBAO with over 25 years of experience providing strategic advice and qualitative and quantitative research to candidates, organizations, and brands. In 2022, she worked on the two most competitive gubernatorial races in the country—Governors Tony Evers (WI) and Laura Kelly (KS)—and with the only Democratic Senate pickup, Senator John Fetterman (PA). She also worked with the DSCC to help re-elect Senators Patty Murray (WA) and Michael Bennet (CO).

Omero’s other clients have included AARP, AFL-CIO, The Center for American Progress, Third Way, Groundwork Collaborative, DCCC, DLCC, DNC, EMILY’s List, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Brady PAC. Her work has explored some of the country’s most challenging public opinion questions, such as race, abortion rights, immigration, economic policy, climate change, corporate accountability, voting and participation, guns, aid in dying, and the January 6th riots.

Omero also leads and moderates the monthly focus group series America in Focus for the New York Times Opinion Pages and she co-leads the Navigator Research team. A frequent writer, commentator, and speaker, Omero has appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” and in other major news outlets. Omero graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.

Betsy Fischer Martin is an Emmy-winning journalist and former TV news executive. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University and a faculty member in the School of Public Affairs, where she teaches courses on campaigns and elections. In the fall of 2023, she was a resident fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics where she conducted a weekly seminar on the presidential election. During her earlier career in television news, she spent 23 years at NBC News serving as the longtime Executive Producer of Meet the Press with Tim Russert and as the Managing Editor of NBC News Political Programming.

A native of New Orleans, Fischer Martin did her undergraduate and graduate work at American University in Washington, DC. She is a cum laude graduate of their School of Public Affairs and earned a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from the AU School of Communication.

“Women On Wednesdays”: She’s the Difference: Voices of Women 50+