Ann Rommel: Empowering Women in California to Lead

Ann Rommel’s passion for free speech and an informed populace has translated itself into a career of training conservative women to run for office. Ann’s work in empowering new leaders earns her the reward of watching women achieve their goals and impact their communities.

“Seeing women win is my greatest motivation,” Ann said.

Ann works as executive director for the The Marian Bergeson Excellence in Public Service Series, named for Marian Bergeson: the first woman elected to the CA State Assembly as well as CA State Senate. The Bergeson Series has participated in training sessions presented by American Majority President Matt Robbins. Ann believes that his well-organized and effective presentations have helped many women run successful campaigns.

“We find qualified women who are interested in running or serving,” said Ann.

As a young mother, Ann was supporting a local candidate when her sign endorsing him began to disappear, being replaced by dog fecal matter. Despite replacing her sign several times, it was repeatedly stolen.

“That’s when I realized the importance of free speech,” said Ann, who eventually found out and confronted the neighbor behind the acts of vandalism.

It was her neighbor’s lack of willingness to talk and address their differences that caused Ann further concern not only for the future of free speech, but for the right use of free speech and people’s unwillingness to talk about issues before picking sides, forming policy, or voting. After the incident with her neighbor, Ann began volunteering in her local candidate’s office and from there became increasingly involved in politics.

Leading up to her career with the Bergeson Series, Ann took a local training course in running campaigns, the last assignment of which was to raise $1,000. When Real Housewives of Orange County made its debut, Ann was inspired to use the show’s location, her own neighborhood, to gain attention for and political support from Republican women. Forming Real Republican Housewives of Orange County, Ann was able to raise six times more than the amount required by her training program. Since then, Ann has engaged in numerous creative measures for successful campaigns and has enjoyed the success of training other women to lead successful campaigns. She credits heavy involvement in the community as a key to success and advises anyone looking to run for office to do the same.

When asked for her opinion on hot button issues facing the country, Ann expressed worry that citizens have grown apathetic and developed a sense of entitlement, making them unwilling to face the reality of growing unemployment. “People think the government will take care of them but they fail to remember that we are the government,” Ann said.

Ann believes that if we, as people in a democratic society, do not seek the change we want, we cannot expect it from outside sources. Looking to potential change, Ann hopes to facilitate more conversation between political divides and help people recognize their roles in forming the laws under which they live.

“The young people in my area can talk knowledgeably about Kim Kardashian, but very few of them even know who their own state representative is,” Ann said. “We need to wake up to this fact.”