Briefs

Friends,

$750,000.

We still can’t believe it. You’ve given nearly a million dollars to strategically chosen state legislative candidates who could be the difference between Democratic and Republican control over the lives of millions of people.

Your money isn’t lining the pockets of consultants, or contributing to a television air war of attrition. Most of it goes to voter contact, or is the difference between a candidate running a radio/cable ad or not at all.  

We’re rolling out one last round of candidates and asking for a last infusion of money that could mean the difference for these candidates.

We asked our friends at Run For Something (@runforsomething) and Future Now (@FutureNowUSA) to give us eight more candidates. Both organizations are committed to electing progressives to state legislatures across the country.

As with before, these races were carefully vetted to ensure your money goes as far as possible.

So here at Data For Progress we’re making a simple request - spend $80 across these eight candidates. We’ve set up an ActBlue page for you to make those donations, and you can find more about each of the candidates below. We’re calling it our Give Smart initiative. No portion of the contributions to Give Smart goes to Data for Progress. All the money supports candidates.

Friends,

Thank you so much for all your help Giving Smart so far.  Our newest ask is one that’s close to both of us because it’s about our home state of New York.

New York State has voted for every Democratic presidential nominee since 1988, usually by an overwhelming margin. The State Assembly reflects that political reality with a huge Democratic majority. But with the exception of one brief interregnum in 2009, the upper chamber—the State Senate—has remained firmly under Republican control.

This year, that could change.

There’s no reason New York can’t be as progressive as California. The state could be leading the country on climate change, immigrant rights and universal health care. The state could enshrine reproductive justice in the state constitution. And instead of being notorious for anti-Democratic election practices, New York could be implementing a pro-voter agenda with automatic voter registration, pre-registration and expansive early voting.

Right now legislation the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA), which would create green jobs across the state and the Child Victims Act, which would raise the statute of limitations on crimes against children are blocked in the senate. We can change that.

So far, we’ve raised $700,000 down-ballot. Data for Progress (@DataProgress) is a New York-based think tank, and we want to make sure Democrats have a solid progressive majority in the state. So we’re rolling eight candidates in New York. We’ve set up an ActBlue page. Our ask is simple: $80 for eight pivotal state senate candidates. No portion of the contributions to Give Smart goes to Data for Progress. All the money supports candidates.

Friends,

Half a million dollars. We still can’t believe it. You gave more than half a million dollars to strategically chosen state legislative candidates who could be the difference between Democratic and Republican control over the lives of millions of people.

Your money isn’t lining the pockets of consultants, or contributing to a television air war of attrition. Most of it goes to voter contact, or is the difference between a candidate running a radio/cable ad or not at all.  

And while Sheldon Adelson is out here cutting $25 million checks to Mitch McConnell, we still haven’t seen any indication that Republicans know how to fight back against these sudden small infusions of grassroots donor money.

So we’re going put together a few more slates of amazing Democrats who could help flip state legislatures. Today, we’re going to focus on a group of eight women who could decide control of  Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Minnesota and Iowa.

As with before, these races were carefully vetted to ensure your money goes as far as possible.

So here at Data For Progress we’re making a simple request - spend $80 across these eight candidates. We’ve set up an ActBlue page for you to make those donations, and you can find more about each of the candidates below. We’re calling it our Give Smart initiative. No portion of the contributions to Give Smart goes to Data for Progress. All the money supports candidates.

Friends,

It’s hard to write right now because we’re at a loss for words.

We thought that if we were lucky we’d raise maybe $20,000 for our slate of eight candidates who could flip eight state legislatures blue. But as we’re writing this on Wednesday night, barely 36 hours after the fundraiser started, that number stands at $160,000 and counting.  That’s $20,000 per candidate.

We knew that you cared, we knew that you were generous, we just didn’t know that you cared so much and could be so generous.

We’re also so glad that we showed the left is willing to Give Smart. That our movement understands that we have the greatest impact when we build the party from the ground up.  That we’re crafty enough to find the places where the Koch money tree and other reactionaries are weakest. Together, we can do this.

And by Giving Smart we can make the biggest impact. $20,000 might get you 10 ads on TV in Minneapolis. But look at what Kristin Bahner, running for a seat in the suburb of Maple Grove, is going to do with her money:

Friends,

Democrats have been breaking fundraising records all year.  With elections just three weeks away you probably want to donate, but it’s hard to tell whether a candidate really needs your money. That’s why we want you to Give Smart.