Activist Profile: Amani Wells-Onyioha
Sole Strategies offers candidates numerous services to help win elections
Amani Wells-Onyioha, an abortion rights leader, thinks leaders should allocate more funds for ballot initiatives.
“We saw that happened this past year in the midterms and saw that when abortion did get on the ballot that it went our way most of the time,” Wells Onyioha said.
Wells-Onyioha is the director of operations for Sole Strategies, a political organization that raises funds and does PR work for pro-abortion candidates. Wells-Onyioha’s organization has been featured in Newsweek, Forbes Magazine and numerous other news outlets. Its website has a podcast that airs on Spotify and other platforms.
Wells-Onyioha explained the extensive vetting process that her organization puts prospective candidates through. Many office-seekers don’t understand how thorough that can be.
“There’s been situations where sometimes something may have slipped through the cracks, and we got on the phone with them,” she said. “And then I asked them, and then they tell me something that we don't like and then we have to just end the call right then and there.”
Her staff combs through social media posts, voting history and views expressed in media to determine whether they are candidates that should get grassroots support.
“We're very particular about that issue and making sure that they aligned with what we believe,” she said.
Wells-Onyioha used the simple and historically sound rhetoric that accompanies abortion rights advocacy.
“If you don't want to have an abortion, you do not have to,” she said. “And somebody having an abortion does not have anything to do with your personal life. I think that's something that gets lost in this conversation.”