2025 Roanoke President: “Something for everyone” at conference
Project 42 is again a proud sponsor of the annual Roanoke Conference held in beautiful Ocean Shores. The premier event for moderate and right-leaning activists, staffers, and elected officials (held the weekend of January 24 – 26) will likely sell-out again, so register today.
We sat down with 2025 Roanoke Conference President Kaitlin Vintertun to learn more about this year’s conference and to learn more about her day job with one of Project 42’s capacity groups, League of Our Own, which assists women running for political office.
The 15th annual Roanoke Conference will take place the weekend of January 24th in Ocean Shores. Please describe the conference for those who have never attended.
There is something for everyone at the Roanoke Conference! This annual weekend-long gathering features insightful and engaging dialogue on pressing political issues, ample no-barriers networking, and a dynamic lineup of prominent speakers. You’re sure to leave with new like-minded friends and a brain-full knowledge on a wide array of topics! Attendees include elected officials, college students, political old timers, brand new grassroots activists, and more.
The featured speaker this year will be Coleman Hughes. What can you tell us about him?
Coleman Hughes is rapidly becoming one of the leading contributors to conversations about race and public policy. He is a writer, musician, podcast host, and former fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
In 2023, Coleman gave a TEDTalk called A Case for Color Blindness, in which he advocated for the idea that we should treat people without regard to race, both in our personal lives and in our public policy. After multiple back-and-forth exchanges, including discussion on whether TED would even post his talk, it was posted but without the same promotion as other talks. Point being, Coleman is bringing thought-provoking ideas and challenging the status quo of how race is being considered in our modern world. You don’t want to miss his keynote address at the conference on Saturday!
Kaitlin Vintertun, 2025 Roanoake Conference President and Executive Director of League of Our Own.
The conference is known for its excellent panels. What will be some of the topics discussed this year in Ocean Shores?
The Roanoke Conference does a great job of covering a wide range of diverse political issues through our panels. Some of the subjects this year include the future of energy in Washington State, the importance of local politics, how we can use new and innovative strategies to win elections, the never-ending effort from the Left to impose a state income tax, and more! Whether you’re interested in nuts-and-bolts state policy, campaign tactics and strategies, or philosophical discussions about political beliefs, we’ve got you covered!
Highlight for the conference every year is the Saturday evening dinner program with the featured speaker, award presentation, and the famous comedy skit “Political Science Theatre 3000.” Can you give us a preview of any of the topics that will be comically roasted this year?
Generally, the content of the comedy show is top secret, but I’ll make an exception and give you a little sneak peek. Of course, the rollercoaster of a presidential election season is giving us plenty of content to work with—and the Kamala jokes practically write themselves! As always, we’ll also poke good-natured fun at some of our favorite Washington State Republicans. Plus, since this year is the 15th anniversary of the conference, we’ll bring back some fan favorites from the vault!
When you are not leading the Roanoke Board, you are Executive Director of League of Our Own. Please tell us about the organization and how people can learn more.
What an unexpected pleasure to have a chance to plug my (dream) day job! League of Our Own Washington is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to recruiting and training women who believe in limited government, free markets, and fiscal responsibility to run for office.
We provide training, tools, resources, and mentorship so these women can be successful candidates and effective leaders. We’ve taken inspiration from professional baseball’s recruitment model:
- Scouts (men and women constantly looking for new talent to bring into the organization),
- Prospects (women who are currently running for office or just thinking about running for office in the future),
- Coaches (experienced men and women who provided training and encouragement to Prospects),
- Fans (super volunteers to cheer them along the way).
And how has this worked so far?
Since 2021, we’ve had 58 of our Prospects get elected to public office! Actually, we are partnering with the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) to host an all-day candidate training from 8:30am to 4:30pm in Ocean Shores on January 24th, right before the conference. You don’t need to be a member of League or BIAW to attend. We’d love to have you!