Sheconomy launches with 74 partner groups and a 100-day challenge for women’s money
We asked an AI to make women economically equal 100 years ago and rewrite history. Today Invest for Better turns its headlines into a 100-day challenge.
The parties win by convincing us the other side is the enemy. So for independent Senate candidate Jared Young, we gave away seats behind home plate at Cardinals and Royals games with one catch: you had to sit next to a stranger whose politics were the opposite of yours, on camera. Thousands of Missourians signed up, more than 1,000 new people a week at the peak, and two pairs of lifelong opposites spent nine innings finding out they liked each other.
Nine innings, two parties
- 2ballparks: Busch Stadium and Kauffman StadiumA St. Louis Cardinals game and a Kansas City Royals game, both in summer 2024.
- 1,000+new sign-ups a week from the giveawayPeople who entered for free seats and told us where they stood, from very conservative to very progressive.
- 2short documentaries, one per gameFilms of each pair’s evening, released on the campaign site and social channels.
He couldn’t win a TV war, so he skipped it
Jared Young was running for the US Senate in Missouri as the Better Party’s candidate, against Republican Josh Hawley and Democrat Lucas Kunce. In mid-July, Hawley had $5.8 million on hand and Kunce $4.2 million. Young had about $465,000.1
Between then and early October, Hawley spent $3.3 million on TV ads and Kunce $5.3 million.1 Instead of trying to match that on television, the campaign promised to launch a bold new project every month, paid for by donors and volunteers. July was Two Few, our parody products for a two-choice country. August was this.
Young’s whole message was that Americans have more in common than the parties want us to believe. That’s easy to say and hard to prove. So we didn’t say it. We set up an evening where it could happen in front of a camera.
Free seats behind home plate, if you sit with the other side
The offer ran in social ads and on the campaign site: free tickets at Cardinals and Royals games, dinner covered. “The catch? You’ll be sitting next to a stranger with different views than yours.”2
To enter, you picked your team and placed yourself on a six-step scale from very conservative to very progressive. That one question did double duty. It let us match true opposites, and it told the campaign exactly who was signing up. By August the giveaway was bringing in more than 1,000 new emails a week, from people across the spectrum who had raised their hands for common ground.
The site answered the obvious question before anyone could ask it: why is a US Senate candidate giving away baseball tickets? “We’re running a campaign to bring people together instead of tearing us apart.”2
Two lifelong opposites, three hours, one ballgame.
At Busch Stadium: Julian and John
In St. Louis, Julian, a lifelong Democrat, and John, a lifelong Republican, met for the first time and spent three hours together behind home plate.2 The campaign called them “three inspiring hours.” By the end, the photos tell it better than we can: a Democrat and a Republican, heads back, laughing at the same thing. Jared joined them in their seats mid-game.
Our crew filmed the evening and cut it into a short documentary about two strangers who found they had more in common than either expected.
The Cardinals film was finished in late August and became the centerpiece of the project on the campaign site.
At Kauffman Stadium: Kirby and Luke
From the sign-ups we chose finalists from opposite ends of the scale, then handled everything else so they only had to show up: release forms, rides to the ballpark, dinner and the seats themselves.
We did an experiment to see if baseball could help people with different political views focus on what they have in common rather than what makes them different.
In Kansas City, the finalists were told on July 26: Monday, July 29, third row behind home plate. Luke, a lifelong Republican, and Kirby, a lifelong Democrat, met for the first time and, in the campaign’s words, enjoyed the game together despite their opposing ideologies.2 By the late innings they were taking selfies. Jared came by their seats in his Better Orange.
The Royals film followed in September. Its title cards carry the campaign’s line, and the reason the whole thing existed: we can be better together.
A format built to travel
The idea was always bigger than two games. Sign-ups stayed open through August 20, with more games in mind, and we made Cardinals and Royals versions of every video and post. Players for the Planet, the athletes’ environmental group co-founded by former big-leaguer Chris Dickerson, helped share it with former Royals and Cardinals players.
We also turned it into an open format for Missouri creators: do what Julian and John did, with someone from the other side, over dinner, at karaoke, on a hike, even skydiving. And in October 2024, Doug took it to campus, meeting marketing students at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, at WashU in St. Louis and at the University of Missouri to brainstorm a United Seats for college students.
Each version kept the same simple rules, so anyone could pick it up: two people, opposite politics, one shared experience, and a camera to show the rest of us how it went.
Young didn’t win in November. But United Seats gave his campaign something no ad budget can buy: real footage of the thing he was promising. Two strangers, opposite parties, the same three hours, and a lot of laughing.
