Caroline Welles
Executive Director, The First Ask · Democratic Organizer
Caroline Welles is the Executive Director of The First Ask and a Democratic organizer. She was most recently the Director of Surrogates at the DNC, served on its political team in the 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles, and served the Biden administration at the Department of the Interior.
Reviewed October 2026Caroline Welles is the Executive Director of The First Ask. She was most recently the Director of Surrogates at the DNC, where she additionally served on the political team for the 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2022 election cycles. Caroline has experience working with campaigns across the country, including in Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, California, Ohio, and Washington. Caroline also proudly served the Biden administration at the Department of the Interior.
She considers herself a lifelong organizer, having started her career in politics on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2015. She holds a Masters with Honours in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her family.
On The Ryan Vet Show, Caroline Welles joins Republican communications strategist Marc Lotter and host Ryan Vet a few weeks before the 2026 midterms to talk about whether Gen Z will show up to vote. Her diagnosis of 2024 is that the Democratic Party's problem with young voters was listening, not messaging: they felt pandered to with memes when their concerns were the economy, reproductive freedom, student debt and their futures. She says young people vote less partly because they move so often for school and work, and she calls the 2024 gender gap a possible anomaly.
She disputes that big tech leans one way and says the deeper problem is divisiveness. Her advice before filling out a ballot is to vote all the way down, because city councilors and school board members decide much of what people care about. Her message to Gen Alpha is that they have more power than they think.
From the episode: she first voted in 2008, at 18, while living in Greece. She says she helped put together a free concert on the Clinton campaign that did not lead to votes, that she deleted her Instagram accounts a couple of years ago, and that she is the product of two Republicans. She has a one-year-old and says she will take him door knocking this year.
I don't think the problem is messaging. I think the problem is actually listening.
Most things that you care about might be decided by your city councilor, by your school board member, et cetera.
I've been part of elections that were decided by a coin flip, so really every vote does make a difference.
Who is Caroline Welles?
Caroline Welles is the Executive Director of The First Ask. She was most recently the Director of Surrogates at the DNC, served on its political team in the 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles, and served the Biden administration at the Department of the Interior. She started in politics on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2015.
What does Caroline Welles say the 2024 election missed about Gen Z?
She says the Democratic Party's problem was listening, not messaging. Gen Z felt pandered to with memes, she says, when their concerns were the economy, reproductive freedom, student debt and what their futures look like.
What does Caroline Welles say voters should look at before filling out a ballot?
Do not stop at the top of the ballot. She says potholes, schools and reproductive freedom are often decided by city councilors and school board members, so research those names and vote all the way down.
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