Braver Angels National Convention
Building a House United: The Politics We Need
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we will not be holding our Braver Angels 2020 Convention in Charlotte, NC, from May 28-31, as we had been planning. Stay tuned for an announcement soon about our new plans, which may include a virtual Convention or a postponement to another date. Convention delegates who had already registered are eligible to receive a full refund. Please contact Convention manager David Lapp with any questions: dlapp@better-angels.org.
Join us in Charlotte for the third annual Braver Angels National Convention
Don’t miss it! Plans are underway for the following.
Debates, Workshops, and Issue Forums
- Braver Angels Debates and Issue Workshops on the issues and candidates of the 2020 election: guns, immigration, abortion
- Workshop on Abortion (NEW)
- 1 to 1 Conversation on Race (NEW)
- Families and Politics Workshop (NEW)
- Braver Angels Town Hall with elected officials (NEW)
- Braver Angels Candidate Debate with elected officials (NEW)
- Red/Blue Workshop (the BA classic that started it all!)
- Skills Workshop
- Depolarizing Within Workshop
- 1 to 1 Red/Blue Conversations
Trainings, Strategy Sessions, and Briefings
- Vision and Priorities for 2020-2022 and How You Can Help
- How to Chair a Braver Angels Debate (training to become an official BA Debate Chair)
- How to Win and Lose Elections in a Braver Angels Way: A Brainstorming Session with Red and Blue Voters
- How Can Congregations Engage the 2020 Campaign? A Conversation with Religious Leaders
- Advanced Training for BA Moderators with Bill Doherty
- How to Start and Run Braver Angels on Your College Campus
- Why and How to Start a Braver Angels Alliance in Your Community
- How to Take Your BA Alliance to the Next Level
- Braver Angels Town Hall: What it Is and How You Can Run it in Your Community
- Braver Angels Candidate Debate: What it Is and How You Can Run it in Your Community
- Problems and Possibilities in 2020: A Conversation with Members of the Braver Angels Board of Directors
- How Braver Angels Can Work with Republican and Democratic County & State Leaders
- Ask BA President David Blankenhorn Anything
- The Braver Angels Red Caucus: What It Is and How You Can Help Reach Reds
- I’m Not Red or Blue—How Can I Help Braver Angels?
- How to Bridge the Rural/Urban Divide: A Conversation with Rural and Urban Voters
Why We Gather as Red & Blue in 2020
The goal is that when you leave the Convention, you will go home with the tools, training, messages, and red/blue friendships to help you spread Braver Angels in your community and state, and to engage the 2020 political campaign with conviction and patriotic empathy.
Maybe you want to become more deeply involved. Maybe you just want to come and check us out. Maybe you’ve been involved and want to meet hundreds of your fellow members.
Whatever the case, the Convention is a chance to experience the heart of this movement on the national level. Come and join hundreds of our members left, right, and center for an experience unlike any other in American politics.
The 2020 election is off to a raucous start and polarization is on the rise. And we have a choice to make: do we limit our civic engagement in America to our activism? Do we limit our participation in the conversation to the box we check on the ballot or the comments we leave on Facebook?
Or do we build the cultural and organizational foundations upon which we revive goodwill between the American people, restoring the bonds of community without which this Republic cannot hold?
Our politics can be about building each other up, not tearing each other down. No, politics will never be a process by which we come to agree on everything. Nor does our work demand we meet in the middle on every issue.
But over the course of a couple days we will hear one another’s perspectives. We will challenge each other on the issues in a good natured way. We will play music together. We will build the strategy by which we will rebuild the bonds of the American people for this generation and the next.
This is the deeper work of citizenship and patriotism in the United States. This is a chance for you to make a difference in the culture of American politics unlike any other.
So, if you lean conservative and will vote for Donald Trump in 2020, and maybe even put a “Trump” yard sign on your lawn, come and be a delegate.
If you lean progressive and will vote for the Democratic nominee in 2020, and maybe even knock on doors for that nominee, come and be a delegate.
If you’re someone else—purple, undecided, not voting, Never Trump, a Trump-voting Democrat—come and be a delegate.
Come with your convictions and political passions—and join fellow Americans, red and blue and others, in building the politics we need.
Registration Rates
Once you apply and are accepted, you will then be invited to register for the Convention. The registration rates are as follows.- $425 for standard rate (includes 3 nights lodging and all meals)
- $325 for commuters (includes all meals)
- $215 for students (includes 3 nights lodging and all meals)
- $105 for commuter students (includes all meals)
Notes on Application
- All are welcome to apply. Please share this information and the application with anyone who you think might be interested.
- In keeping with our rule of red/blue balance, we will accept an exactly equal number of reds and blues. This is very important to us in building a level playing field on which reds and blues can come together.
- You do NOT need to apply with a person of the opposite political color in order to get accepted as a delegate.
- It is true that people who apply with a person of the opposite political color receive priority acceptance.
- But don’t let that stop you from applying NOW! If you later find a person of the opposite political color, you can email Convention manager David Lapp at dlapp@better-angels.org.
- We only ask that all applicants join Braver Angels as a member, which is easy to do at braverangels.org/support
- Don’t lean red or blue? We now have a very limited number of “Other” delegate spots available. If this describes you, you can indicate on the Convention application that you would like to be an “Other” delegate.