Feel-good update: 419 candidates (& other fun stats)
Barely two weeks to Election Day! We can do anything for two weeks, right? Right!
Barely two weeks to Election Day! We can do anything for two weeks, right? Right!
A few big things from the last week:
We did our last big class of endorsements — 15 new candidates joined the RFS family, some for 2018 and some for 2019 (!!). This brings our November 2018 total to: 419 candidates across 47 states, 50% women, 35% people of color, 15% LGBTQ, with 65% running for state legislatures. Election Night is going to be wild.
Our candidates are part of a movement — we released a report with the DLCC announcing nearly 700 millennial Democrats running for state legislature. If all these folks win, we could double millennial representation on the state leg level. My favorite part of this report:
We’re contesting nearly 80 percent of all Republican seats, while Republicans are barely contesting half of ours. Nearly half of our candidates are women — more than twice as many compared to Republicans. And more than 1,100 are candidates of color, which is four times more than the Republicans have running.
Think Progress picked up the report and dug in — read on!
We launched on Tumblr last week — and did a Tumblr-sponsored #AnswerTime today. (Hence the delay of this email!) Part of our comms strategy of ~meeting people where they’re at.~
Some candidates in the news…
Danielle Mashburn-Myrick is running a tough race in a deep red district in Alabama. Her commitment to holding her incumbent’s feet to the fire is admirable and exactly what we work with candidates regardless of what the prognosticators might say. There is no “waste of resources” when someone gives Democrats something to vote for.
The Washington Post dives into the new ecosystem — and shows how powerfully we work together toward a single goal: Winning in November. So glad to see our candidate, Lorraine Wilburn, spotlit in this.
Hadiya Afzal’s Why We Run interview is a quick & inspiring read.
Caitlin Clarkson Pereira is keeping up the fight against the Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission, who refuse to allow her to spend campaign funds on childcare — a fight Josie Raymond just won in Kentucky. Blazing paths forward to make it easier for the next generation of women to run = be still my beating heart.
Check out Andrew Gounardes’ new ad — he’s running in the best pick-up opportunity for Democrats to regain control of the NY state senate.
Finally: If you’re in San Francisco, heads up: I’m coming to town on Wednesday! Join us for a meet-up at Monroe SF.
Thanks for making all this possible. We’re so grateful to have you on our team.