RFS feel-good update (11/14): Our best Election Day yet
Also: This is your last email from me - but not from RFS - for a while.
Hi all -
What a great weekend to be a Democrat. (How often do we get to say that???)
We held the Senate. A whole bunch of election-denying secretary of state candidates lost. The House is still up in the air, which in and of itself is an accomplishment.
And here at Run for Something, GREAT news: As of this morning, with 383 of our 490 races called, we’re up to at least 213 winners (and many more to come as we pore through results.)
This is on track to be our best Election Day yet - seems like at least half our candidates won their races, including some really tough and really close fights.
Overall, Run for Something elected officials will continue to be more than half women, nearly 60% people of color, and over 20% LGBTQIA+.
The team will keep updating this tracker on Medium as well as our social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) with more details.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’ve built power and made history in hundreds of races and communities. You did this! I hope you’re so proud.
Some of the many many highlights & kind words from RFS candidates across the country:
It’s not final until it’s final but seems like Nebraska senate candidate John Fredrickson will keep the GOP from gaining a supermajority, flipping a seat red-to-blue and becoming the first openly gay member of the chamber (joining Megan Hunt, who was the first openly bisexual member before!)
More making history!
This is awesome: Michele Grim won a state house seat in Ohio, just days after securing $800,000+ of funding to resolve medical debt for 40,000 of our constituents as a Toledo City Councilmember.
KY state legislative candidate Kate Turner came up short in her race — but she’s got a long career ahead of her in the state. We were so proud to be on her team. If you want to get a good sense of how we work directly with candidates, check out Kate’s thread on Twitter that perfectly explains it.
I ran in a heavily gerrymandered district in a very red state. @runforsomething provided me with so much guidance, didn't see my race as pointless, never made me feel like it wasn't worth the fight. We need more of this, everywhere.Shout out to @amandalitman and @runforsomething and @DLCC pls follow and help. They are key in legislative and Secretary of State races, and essential for a progressive future.
Brian Schatz @brianschatzA Clerk Work update: While we’re still waiting on calls for 5 races, at least 17 of our Democracy Defenders won their races, 8 of whom specifically beat election deniers & insurrectionists. You truly love to see it.
That includes: Amanda Gonzalez, who won her race for Jefferson County Clerk/Recorder in Colorado, ensuring a pro-democracy leader will run elections in a critical community, and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who was outspent nearly 4x and held on to her critical county executive office in Texas.
I just love this lil’ detail on how our program works:
This is 💯 part of the reason why @runforsomething is so successful. Their alumni network and mentoring is first class and supports new candidates in all the best ways.Also true: New candidates need access to people who have been there & done that to be accessible, lend an ear, give advice, and meaningfully support. If that doesn’t happen in a more holistic & strategic way, we’ll never build the Democratic bench we desperately need in Texas.
Titus Benton for Texas State Senate @TitusLive
Heather Bauer was the only Democrat to flip a seat in the South Carolina state legislature.
This lede about Ruwa Romman has me weepy: “Around the new millennium, aseven-year-old girl and her family moved from the Middle Eastern country of Jordan to the Peach State. Almost 22 years later, that little girl grew up to make history not once, but twice, in Georgia’s 2022 midterm election.”
Hamida Dakane will be the first Muslim woman of color to serve in the North Dakota House of Representatives.
Young voters showed up at the polls — and young candidates won big! The Washington Post spotlights new Maryland Delegate-elect Joe Vogel and Illinois Rep.-elect Nabeela Syed as two of the many excellent gen-Z’ers who won elections last week.
In an amazing school board win: Tiffanie J. Harrison in Round Rock, TX, beat a QAnoner that was heavily funded by anti-CRT/anti-LGBTQ extremists and the Texas GOP
More school board wins, this time in California!
And in Maryland, where Ashley Esposito won a seat on the Baltimore City school board and is ready to fight for especially for students with disabilities.
Maria Salamanca, who won her run-off for a seat on the Orange County School Board in FL, and will act as a critical counterbalance to a Moms for Liberty candidate who won the next district over. Maria's the first LGBTQ+ member of the school board, the youngest member, the only Latina on the body.
Lisa Schoenberger won her race for Millard Public Schools Board of Ed, who got into her race in part because of COVID protocols
This is a beautiful thread about the impact of Zooey Zephyr’s historic win in Montana:
Joe Solomon officially won a seat on the Charleston City Council in West Virginia — I love that we’re helping elect more Democrats in a state where we should get more Democrats in the pipeline.
We’ve got two new members of the Indiana state legislature — congrats to Victoria Garcia Wilburn, who won a house seat, and Andrea Hunley, who will join two other RFS alum in the state senate.
The Run for Something Alumni Caucus in Congress is growing. TX Rep. Jasmine Crockett will be joined for sure by CO Rep. Yadira Caraveo, who "snatch[ed] up Colorado’s toughest race” and flipped a U.S. House seat.
More broadly:
The first gen Z member of Congress, Maxwell Frost, is pushing young people inspired by his race to run for office, too.
Which is good, because it’s not too early to get started for 2023 — as WI Democratic Party chair notes, filing deadlines are coming up fast!
This is an absolute must-read from former Ithaca mayor Svante Myrick.
A snippet:
“Tuesday’s results point to a clear mandate for progressive philanthropy: Now, not next election cycle or next year, is the time to invest in building a candidate pipeline that will prepare more of these promising leaders to run for office.
Those who watch elections closely are familiar with the so-called coattails effect whereby a popular politician at the top of the ticket helps sweep down-ballot candidates into office. But those coattails can also be reversed. In Michigan and Pennsylvania, for example, big wins at the top of the ticket got an additional boost from progressive young candidates who drove voter turnout from further down the ballot …
These young people are our future, and we need more of them. But the left needs a stronger and better resourced infrastructure to support them and compete with the far more developed efforts on the right. Philanthropy can support much of this work, which is driven by both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) groups.”
Finally, some personal news: This is your last feel-good update from me for a while. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be on maternity leave until early March 2023.
I am so excited about the impending (and hopefully healthy & safe) arrival of my kid, and candidly, I’m also very stressed about stepping away from Run for Something for the next few months.
However: I am so confident in the team we’ve built and the supporters we’ve got, and am especially grateful for my cofounder, Ross, who will take on more than his share of work to give me much-needed time with my family and ensuring we can collectively live our values. (Follow Ross on Twitter - he’ll be stepping up his tweet-game for as long as the site stays alive.)
Next week and here on out until I return, you’ll be getting these emails from Abe Rakov, our new managing director — Abe comes to Run for Something with a long history in politics, including as the campaign manager for Jason Kander, one of the OG millennials in elected office, and as co-founder of one of our partner orgs, Let America Vote.
If you’d like to see the occasional baby pic once this little one makes her way into the world, I’m on Instagram.
So one last time until next year: Thank you for everything - you made this possible. We are so glad to have you as part of the Run for Something community.
- Amanda