Good morning, and happy day-after-Election Day!
With 154 of our 155 races called, 72 Run for Something candidates won and 3 more are moving on to run-offs — that’s a 50% win-rate. More than 60% of our winners are women, a third are people of color, and 15% are LGBTQ.
That is unprecedented and beyond our wildest dreams. You’re why it happened: Thank you.
A few highlights, beyond what you might see in the headlines:
Virginia Democrats won a trifecta gov’t — the consequences of which will be massive, immediate, and long-lasting — thanks in part to the re-elections of all our 6 of our 2017 candidates, and Joshua Cole, who flipped a seat. Fun fact: We worked with Joshua in 2017 as well; he lost then but kept fighting.
Joshua is part of what may be my favorite trend: RFS alum from 2017 who lost the first (or second) time but won last night. Kenny Boddye claimed a seat on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors after losing a House race in 2017. Joshua King, an alum, ran and won for Sheriff of Prince William County and will be ending the county’s contract with ICE. Tay Anderson ran again and this time won a seat on the Denver School Board, becoming the youngest elected official in the state of Colorado. He’s 20 years old.
Other gen-z’ers that ran & won: Eli Sabin, 19, won a seat on the New Haven Board of Alders. Samantha Perlman, 24, won a seat on the Malborough (MA) City Council. Nelsie Yang, 24 and daughter of Hmong refugees, won a seat on the St. Paul City Council. Abrar Omeish, 24, became the first Muslim woman to hold a seat on the Fairfax County School Board in VA (and the youngest woman elected in Virginia.) Rachel Junck, 20, is moving on to a run-off for a seat on the Ames City Council. Safiya Khalid, 23, won a seat on the Lewiston City Council in Maine, become the first Somali-American to hold the office.
You have to read this story about Safiya — in the weeks leading up to her election, she was harassed by tens of thousands of racist trolls online. She didn’t let it get to her; she just deleted her accounts and kept knocking doors. No online hate can beat a person-to-person relationship.
A full 50% of our 28 candidates in Indiana have won so far, working to rebuild the Democratic party in a deeply red state. Especially notable: Four of our candidates beat Republicans to win seats on the Indianapolis City-County Council — Ethan Evans took out the GOP council leader, Crista Carlino & Keith Potts took down incumbents, and Ali Brown overcame egregious homophobic advertising to take her seat.
There are so many more good stories & highlights (and more election days in 2019!!); I’ll be sharing them in the weeks and months to come. For now, I want to say two things that made this success possible:
(1) Your support and commitment. We are so grateful for your generosity — whether you’ve given time, money, your networks, your talents, or any combination of the above, this little idea-that-became-a-movement is only real and having electoral impacts because of you.
(2) Long-term investment. Flipping Virginia blue and winning incredible races across the country doesn’t happen overnight. It happens because as a party, we decide to invest, organize, hustle, and often lose a little (or a lot) before we eventually win. Part of the reason Run for Something had such success last night is because of a strategic decision not to scale down after the 2018 elections. That was scary! But building relationships, recruiting candidates, and helping them win — especially in long shot races — both takes and is worth the time. It’s what we mean when we say “infrastructure.” This is what the Republicans have been doing for decades; we’re starting to catch up but we’ve got a long way to go, and with 2020 expected to be a record turn-out year, it’s never been more important.
I hope you’re feeling good today, and inspired to commit to this for the long-haul with us.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
P.S. The third annual National Run for Office Day is coming on Tuesday, 11/12, as we keep building on last night’s momentum to recruit more candidates. Can’t wait!!!