Meet the Trainer: Salim Shariff on Running Everywhere, Staying Data-Driven, and Why More People Need to Be Asked
Straight talk from a 15-year campaign vet and digital strategist on campaign mistakes, the power of seeing yourself in candidates, and what it takes for Dems to run widely.
Ever wondered who’s really behind our campaign training sessions?
At NDTC, our trainers are field organizers, campaign strategists, and longtime advocates who bring hard-earned expertise into every session they lead.
In this series, we’re introducing you to the people behind our trainings. Today: Salim Shariff, a digital strategist, longtime campaign operative, and NDTC trainer of six years based in Oakland, California. Salim got his start on the 2012 Obama campaign, has worked as a digital director on Senate and presidential races, and founded his own firm, Radicle Digital. He’s also a co-founder of Contest Every Race, a candidate recruitment organization that partners with NDTC. Our Senior Digital Strategist Bibek Gurung sat down with Salim to talk digital strategy, the candidate pipeline, and why the Democratic Party needs to get off its ass and stand for something.
See more of our conversation with Salim at @TrainDems on Instagram, and keep an eye on our training schedule to learn campaign skills directly from experts like him.
NDTC: You’ve been doing this for 15 years. What actually moves people to run?
Salim: Most people have already made the choice before they walk into a training. They’re primarily motivated by challenges they see in their own community — or by being asked. That’s the whole premise behind Contest Every Race: not enough people are asked. There are so many races where Democrats don’t run because they think the district is too red, or there isn’t enough infrastructure to support them. But there’s real merit in just running.
What the trainings actually do is clarify the steps — how to research the race, file, collect signatures, get on the ballot, and build a plan. People come in knowing they want to do it. They just don’t know how, or they’ve done half the things they should and are missing the other half. Fundraising strategy. A messaging plan. A digital plan. They are motivated by their community. We just give them the tools to turn that into a campaign.
NDTC: Who’s doing the asking — and why aren’t enough people being asked?
Salim: Usually, it’s the local Democratic Party, state parties, and organizations like Contest Every Race, Run for Something, and Emerge. But there are still way too many uncontested races across the country. And one of the strongest correlations to an uncontested race is how rural the district is.
Twenty years ago, that wasn’t necessarily true. But the rightward swing of rural America doesn’t mean those voters are gone — there are still 35 to 40 percent of people in those places who identify as Democrats. The party has largely unilaterally disarmed in those communities. They’re not getting money, attention, or resources from national donors. At Contest Every Race, we were granting money to local county parties for the bare minimum essentials — food, software, and hosting events. And what they did with it was remarkable. Taillight fix-it workshops, food drives, and things that built real trust in the community. We didn’t come up with any of those ideas. They did. We just helped them amplify it.
NDTC: What are the biggest digital mistakes you see campaigns make?
Salim: Two big ones. First: chasing the playbook of a candidate you can’t possibly emulate. After Obama, everyone wanted that magic. After AOC, after Bernie, after Beto — campaigns keep trying to ride the wave of whoever just broke through. Right now it’s Zohran. And look, I’m not trying to dismiss what he did — the investment in vertical video, the fluency with younger audiences, that work matters. But most candidates are not as talented as Zohran Mamdani. What you can borrow is his laser focus on a core message. Affordability. Real, specific, consistent. Every candidate can do that. Bopping around your city doing TikTok-style videos when that’s not authentic to who you are — that’s the mistake.
Second: being content-driven instead of data-driven. So many digital programs are just about getting the next post out, the next email out. But we’re in the business of winning elections. We have to know: are our emails recruiting volunteers? Is our social engagement actually building our list? Typically, social media is not great at converting followers into donors or volunteers. There are exceptions, but most down-ballot candidates shouldn’t even be on Bluesky. Know what’s working for your specific campaign, have the infrastructure to measure it, and let the data tell you where to put your energy.
NDTC: You’ve led trainings specifically for Asian American and Pacific Islander candidates. What are the unique barriers to getting more AANHPI candidates to run?
Salim: Groups that explicitly recruit Asian candidates — like the AAPI Victory Fund — are underfunded relative to other organizations in the space. That’s the first thing. Allies should throw money their way.
But it’s also changing. There are more Asian candidates running than I’ve seen in my career, and that matters because representation compounds. When people see someone who looks like them running and winning, the permission structure shifts. I didn’t personally identify with a political candidate until Barack Obama — and I’m not Black. But he grew up without a dad, like I did. He’s mixed race, like I am. Seeing even a small part of your life reflected in a national leader changes what you think is possible. When he won in 2008, the cameras cut to people dancing in the streets in Nairobi, and I was able to say to my mom — that’s where you were born. That moment matters.
The pipeline problem is also structural. When I was coming up, internships weren’t paid. That means only certain people can afford to break in. If we want a more diverse candidate and staff pipeline, we have to make entry easier — and we have to keep asking people who haven’t been asked before.
NDTC: How do we get Democrats to run everywhere?
Salim: Groups like NDTC are a big part of the answer — because if more Democrats knew NDTC existed, more Democrats would run. People just don’t know what infrastructure is out there for them. They don’t know there are free trainings, free resources, copyable templates for fundraising plans, field plans, call time plans — things you can walk in, grab, and use. Even after 15 years in this work, I go back into the NDTC online resources regularly. They’re genuinely good.
But the bigger answer is that the party has to paint a clearer picture of what we stand for. Zohran didn’t talk about Trump all that much. He talked about building the most affordable New York he could — where people could raise a family, afford their rent, and get where they needed to go. That resonated because it was specific, and it was positive, and it was about people’s actual lives. At the national level, we have to go further. We have all the solutions to the problems we face. We just need to tell the story, stand for something clearly and consistently, and fight like hell. We haven’t been doing enough of that — and it’s hurting us everywhere.
Salim Shariff trains Democrats across the country through NDTC and is the founder of Radicle Digital, a full-service digital firm. Learn more at radicle.digital.
Salim put it directly in this conversation: if more Democrats knew NDTC existed, more Democrats would run. That’s exactly why everything we do is free — every training, every course, every resource, every template. No fee, no gatekeeping. The tools Salim has spent 15 years developing and refining are sitting in our resource library right now, ready for any candidate or organizer who needs them.
Sign up for an upcoming NDTC training at TrainDems.org.
Connect with us everywhere!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traindems/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traindems/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@traindems
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/traindems.bsky.social
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/traindems
Twitter: https://x.com/TrainDems