Feel-good update: ~200 wins in < 2 years!!
In less than two years, we’ve recruited nearly 20,000 young diverse progressives who want to run for office — and have elected nearly 200.
In less than two years, we’ve recruited nearly 20,000 young diverse progressives who want to run for office — and have elected nearly 200 of them to local office in 40 states across the country. 56% of our winners are women, 49% are people of color, and 15% are LGBTQ. We’ve spent just around $2.25 million (raised from 12k+ donors!) to do it. (That’s an insane return on investment…) Our candidates have flipped state legislative seats in CT, FL, GA, IN, MA, MI, MN, MO, NC, NY, PA, TX, WV & VA.
Tuesday gave us at least 153 wins; we’re still waiting for results for about a dozen more races and at least two have moved on to run-offs in December. I told you about some of the biggies on Wednesday AM, but here are a few more of the very exciting wins & facts from the 2018 elections…
In a very close election, Brianna Titone flipped a seat red-to-blue and was elected the first openly transgender legislator in Colorado
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/10/brianna-titone-colorado-first-transgender-lawmaker/
Canek Aguirre became the first Latino elected to the Alexandria City Council in northern Virginia
Every single Run for Something winner in Arizona is a person of color. That rules.
Cassandra Levesque, 18, was our youngest winner on Tuesday — she’s a Girl Scout leader who’s been advocating to lower the marriage age in New Hampshire for years. She’s one of the at least 42 people under the age of 35 who will join the NH state house. (Fun fact: The average age in the NH state house in 2015 was 66.)
This video from when Tram Nguyen found out she won her race in Massachusetts makes my heart burst.
Rochelle Galindo in Colorado will help more than double Latino representation in the CO state legislature.
ICYMI: Watch the video we put out the day after Election Day.
Some other reading…
In Buzzfeed on Election Day, we published an op-ed on how and why it matters to put in the work to diversify our candidate pool.
In The Nation, we talk about how the Blue Wave is just getting started — because, real talk: We can’t undo decades of Republican maneuvering in just 18 months. It will take years of hard work, day in and day out.
Huffington Post covered why running candidates in deep red districts — even if they lose — matters. Singing our song!
Michelle Goldberg in the NYT wrote about how the resistance won this election, and spoke to one of our TX state leg winners, Erin Zwiener.
Finally, we’re not done yet! Tomorrow is National Run for Office Day. Get excited to see lots and lots of people asking other people to run for office.
Thanks for making all this a reality. Our team is incredibly proud of what we’ve done in the first two years, and are even more excited for what we can do in the next two, four, six, ten, and beyond. None of that would’ve been possible without you.