Lauren Harper Pope
Co-Founder, Welcome
Lauren Harper Pope is a Welcome co-founder working to depolarize American politics and grow a strong, vibrant, and coherent center-left faction of the Democratic Party through work with WelcomePAC, The Welcome Party, and The Welcome Democracy Institute.
In 2019, Lauren served as South Carolina state director for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign and, prior to that, was policy and communications advisor for former Columbia (SC) Mayor Steve Benjamin. In the 2022 cycle, Lauren led coordinated (hard side) PAC work for WelcomePAC with more than a dozen candidates in Ohio and California and served as coordinated campaign director for the Texas Democratic Party and Beto for Texas. In the 2024 cycle, she continues to lead coordinated PAC work with a slate of Welcome candidates in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California, and Colorado.
Lauren is an alumna of the University of South Carolina. She lives in the Charlotte metro in Indian Land, South Carolina.