Life of Wry

Here are three exciting screen shots…. I’ll wait while you read each of them.

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Here’s what I have to say about that: Sister District, who only works on statehouse races, made all the difference here. Their strategists long ago identified Virginia as a state to focus on because it’s an important swing state, and because it’s flippable. They’re not going to waste their time on states that are not both. Then, their strategists singled out candidates in races that were close, whose victories had the potential to put dems over the top. They know that when SD volunteers 1) knock on doors 2) raise money 3) make voter contact via calls, texts and postcards, it makes a HUGE difference in these small, low profile campaigns (as compared to big national races). The few thousand dollars we raise in Davis every time we send out a friendraising letter, for example, is HUGE for these small campaigns. My personal $100 really REALLY makes a difference. When SD volunteers reach thousands of voters in a candidate’s district through their multiple “touches” (door knocks, calls, texts, postcards) it makes a difference in a race that is won by just a hundred votes (these are, in fact, the margins of victories in so many of these races!). SD’s efforts in these selected campaigns are often the lion’s share of the ground game for a lot of these candidates. These are small races.

But here’s the thing: they add up. When you pick the right candidates to back (strategically speaking), when you unleash hundreds of Kari Petersons (as one small example) on a close campaign, you have a good chance of winning. And if you win enough of those, you tilt the balance in the dems’ favor. You might win one or both of the chambers in that state’s statehouse. And when you do win a statehouse, especially one that WAS half red, especially one that the state’s republican governor spent millions on to protect, especially a governor who had presidential aspirations and wanted to have a republican trifecta in order to roll out his conservative agenda (and now he’s been stopped in his tracks) … you get the attention of the whole nation. Bellweather Virginia is a major prize and tonight dems won big. And it is in NO SMALL PART because Sister District put its considerable strategic chops to work and mobilized its eager little volunteers. Like me. And Kelly and Lyra and Rebecca and Amy and Chris and Chris and Audrey and dozens (and dozens) more here in Davis (and the other several dozen chapters across the country). We’re probably talking just a few thousand volunteers nationwide, but the efficiency with which those volunteers are used to make seismic differences in these campaigns is impressive. It’s time and effort very well spent.

Statehouse races are the sleepers of electoral politics. They are so low profile, and yet are massively critical when it comes to policy enactment. Have you heard that reproductive rights are states issues now? LOL, thanks Supreme Court. And, school curriculum, redistricting, voting rights, gun laws, climate action, LGBTQ policies — all happening on the state level, with key legislative decisions made in state houses. Dem majorities are critical. Tonight, Glenn Youngkin lost the possibility of control on all of those policy fronts. He wanted a trifecta to be able to pass marquee conservative legislation; he wanted to show off for the last two years of his term, in hopes that’d propel him to the White House. Not happening now with both chambers of his statehouse controlled by DEMS! He’s been shut down. THAT is huge. And the reason for the headlines.

Again, SD played an incredibly important role in that. The candidates know that, too.

You are welcome!