Big Personal News

I quit my job as a lawyer to become a full time influencer

Teen Vogue

In a phrase that probably gives parents everywhere shivers: I’m announcing I’ve quit my job as a lawyer to become a full time influencer. 

I truly believe a Republican trifecta in 2025 is an existential threat to this country: for democracy itself, for the environment, for women’s rights and for the safety and security of all people who live in America.

If I had read that paragraph even a few years ago I would have thought I sounded like a conspiracy theorist, but in this case the conspiracy has become fact.

That’s one of the many reasons I wrote Democracy in Retrograde calling on everyone to step back in and up to help make sure this doesn’t happen.

But I also know that the book won’t reach as many people as we need it to. To do my part I need to be where so many more eyeballs and attention are.

Social media.

In 2019 I started posting on Instagram as Emily in Your Phone and my goal was to take everything I’d learned in my career working both as part of the political system (as counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer) and outside it (as an advocate for victims of terrorism) to give people insider information about what was happening in DC. Before I went to law school I was a journalist, and I’ve taken the tools I learned in that job to the world of social media. I try to cut through the spin zone and the posturing to give you my frank assessment of what’s happening. It’s been a blast. 

As the years have gone by, I’ve often talked about the messaging problems I see in the Democratic party. 

We are not good at fighting the culture war. We rely on institutional media and haven’t kept up with social media. We ignore instagram moms and, at times, talk down to them. (Like when James Carville said there are “too many preachy females” in the Democratic party).  

This is a massive failure for the Democratic party. More eyeballs are on small screens than big ones. More people get their news from social media (much of it incorrect) than ever before. Those so-called Instagram moms are the same suburban women who will decide this election.

Too much is at stake. And so now I am a full-time influencer, fighting this fight on the small screens.

There are so many important things on ballots all across the country this year. We have ballot measures to protect abortion, a House of Representatives whose control has the predictability of a coin toss, a Senate that will likely be 50/50, and state legislatures ripe for picking. The presidential election, which occupies the vast majority of our political brains but is just a small component of the overall political landscape, will likely come down to swing voters who are 6% of the 6 states with electoral votes at play. (Interestingly, 60% of swing voters are women.)  

Over the next couple months I’m going to be rolling out a way for you to take action that maximizes your time and efficacy. (teaser!!) In this substack I’m going to cover issues that I think matter to my readers and offer you my own take on the way to think about and engage with the civic world that shapes our lives.  

So much of politics on social media is focused on driving engagement, clicks and views. Having had a full-time job all this time, I’ve been released from a lot of that pressure. This has allowed me to build an audience that I think represents the future of politics. People who care deeply about those around them, people who are curious and interested in the bigger picture, people who care more about the stakes than the odds. As I build this substack, I’ll still be my frank, hopeful, ADF-obsessed self (that’s Alliance Defending Freedom, the architects behind the conservative take over of the courts). Someone on IG recently called me “bracingly inspiring,” and I loved it. I want to look clear eyed at the situation we are confronted with and help develop strategic solutions. So much of movement building among Democrats has been reactionary and we have not focused on long-term message and institution building. Rather than just complain, I want to be one of the people to try to shift that.

I am an influencer for Democracy and I am so fucking proud to call myself that. I want you to join me.

Of course, all of this work will be built on the foundation of my book, Democracy in Retrograde, being a success! I hope it will give me a bigger platform to talk about the issues that matter to us. If you’d be willing to purchase a copy by Friday July 12th, I’d really appreciate it. 

Best,

Emily