RFS feel-good update (11/16): Where Run for Something goes from here
Some thoughts on what 2021-2022 looks like for our team (plus: good stories!)
Hi all -
While we’re still tracking more than a dozen 2020 races that have yet to be called — and have at least four candidates who’ve moved on to runoffs — we’re already looking to 2021 and beyond.
(In fact, for the last few months, our team has been simultaneously hustling hard before Election Day and doing long-term strategic planning. Walking & chewing gum at the same time is both hard and necessary!)
So first, a recap: In our nearly four years of existing, Run for Something has elected 479 people to state and local offices across 46 states -- 54% of whom identify as women and 56% of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color. 21% of our winners are LGBTQ.
40% of our alumni were elected to state legislatures, 42% to municipal office, 14% to education roles and the remaining 3% to legal or judicial positions.
Our pipeline now includes more than 64,000 young people across the country, nearly a third of whom signed up since March 2020 (and more than 1,000 of whom signed up since Election Day), nearly all of whom are running in 2021, 2022, and beyond. `
While the Democratic Party overall suffered some devastating losses down-ballot this year, 220 Run for Something candidates succeeded in 2020 by running strong grassroots-driven campaigns focused on local issues. (Fun fact: While we do not use it as our primary metric of success, our win rate in 2020 was actually higher than our win rate in 2018!)
These young diverse leaders are laying the groundwork for Democratic infrastructure in red states and pushing the party to expand our definition of leadership in blue states.
Early next year, as usual, we’ll release our detailed strategic plan for the cycle. In advance of that, we wanted to lay out an initial preview on what we’re thinking.
Going into the 2021-2022 cycle, our organization’s north star remains the same: We recruit and support young diverse candidates for local office at scale.
We are not going anywhere nor pivoting away from that priority. The last four years have shown us just how critical our work is to the Democratic Party and to the basic premise of democracy. What we said at day one remains true today: We have to compete everywhere, run for and win local elections, and fight for our values at every level of government in order to build sustainable power.
Local candidates are the heart and soul of the Democratic party. They’re the best messengers to their communities. Their campaigns are the driving force behind the continued development of party infrastructure (meaning: relationships with organizers and voters, data, technology, and all other properties that last beyond any single election cycle). Great local candidates can tell a personal and relatable story that puts a face on the party. And when they win, they can deliver results much faster than the federal government could ever dream of, helping give government the rebrand it desperately needs.
With all that in mind, here’s what’s on our priority list:
Local, local, local -- We’ll be doubling down on our commitment to recruiting and supporting candidates for city councils, school boards, county executives, and every other local position on the ballot in 2021 and 2022.
State legislatures will continue to be a priority, and: Local candidates present a key opportunity for progress on issues like racial justice, housing, the economy, and more, and, right now, there is no committee or single institution that exists to support them. We are and will stay here to help.
To that end: We’ll be working on both broad recruitment campaigns as well as targeted efforts for candidates for municipal and local elections in 2021 and 2022 -- research for that target list is currently ongoing. We’ll also explore education efforts on how local government works and why it matters.Diversity -- Our 2020 class was our most diverse yet. We’ll continue working through strategic partnerships and outreach to ensure our local leaders — who both pass meaningful policies that need to center our most marginalized communities and also make up the bench of future national leaders — are reflective of the American people.
Support -- Over our first four years, we’ve built a candidate-support program that is deep, broad, and adaptive. In 2020, we endorsed 666 candidates across all 50 states plus Washington, DC. Most of those folks were matched to an alumni advisor -- someone in the RFS network who had run before -- to help navigate the challenges of being a candidate. Every candidate was also connected to one of our regional directors for hands-on candidate support.
More than 400 endorsed candidates had a extensive 1:1 with a member of the RFS team. In total, our team had nearly 1,000 individual conversations with candidates about topics ranging from writing a campaign plan to budgeting to voter contact in a global pandemic. Our regional directors also sent weekly emails to candidates highlighting upcoming trainings, resources, and other useful materials, and organized regular webinars with candidates to help them meet other candidates going through similar experiences. That’s all on top of our candidate resource hub, the Armchair Chats viewed by more than 2 million people, our Unapologetically Progressive event series, and more.
Much like we did after the 2018 cycle, we’ll be conducting intense qualitative and quantitative debriefs with our candidates in order to assess what was most valuable and refine our program moving forward. We’ll also expand our funding capacity for candidates.Community -- Our alumni network now includes nearly 1,500 people who’ve run for local office and nearly 500 who’ve won. We’ll keep building out our program for this incredible team of leaders (elected and not). For those who are governing, we’ll be facilitating connections as possible where we see trends and needs. For those who came up short the first time but are running again, we’ll be there to support them with the specific challenges second-time candidates face. We’ll be working with the entire alumni network to identify future candidates, as these are the folks who know best what someone needs in order to run a campaign.
Sustainability -- Unlike most electoral organizations, Run for Something is not planning on contracting in size or scope, because every year is an “on year” and every month is “an Election Month.” We intend to scale strategically and intentionally as we work towards one day having permanent recruitment and support programs in all 50 states. Our fundraising, communications efforts, internal processes, and technology will all continue to be built with the long-term goals in mind.
When Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, too many Democrats scaled back their engagement, assuming that with a Democratic president, the job was completed. Our party cannot repeat that mistake again. We have to invest in long-term sustainable infrastructure everywhere -- both inside and outside the party -- in order to fight and beat Republicans at every level.
Run for Something has accomplished all this over the last four years with an average annual budget of $2 million. We’d like to increase that exponentially next cycle in order to continue our work at scale. The best thing you can do right now to help is contribute and ideally make it monthly. If you can’t do that right now, commit to giving early in 2021, so we can budget accordingly. What our party funds between now and June will determine what is possible in 2022, 2024, and beyond.
(As always, you can email me if you’d like to learn more. Happy to chat!)
In other Run for Something candidate & alumni news…
Rep. Mauree Turner is the first non-binary state legislator in America. They told Teen Vogue: “[My win says] politics is a place for you. A lot of younger folks [told me], ‘I was thinking about going into politics, but I wasn’t sure because I don't see folks who like me.' I think one of the major things [my victory says] is that you can show up. We don't need allies to do that for us—we can show up for ourselves.” You can also read their interview in Mic.com.
In Palm Springs, CA, Christy Holstege will be the first openly bisexual mayor in America. (She also just had a baby in the final month of the campaign!) Prettttty cool.
Jo Anna Dossett flipped a state senate seat in Oklahoma (and was the first Democrat to run for it in at least two cycles). Learn more about what this longtime teacher’s plans are for her first term.
Zach Wahls becomes the first RFS alum to join state legislative leadership as he wins his election for Senate Democratic Leader in Iowa.
Queer BIPOC candidates made history across the country, including our very own Kim Jackson in Georgia, Michele Rayner in Florida, Tiara Mack in Rhode Island, Adrian Tam in Hawaii, and Mauree Turner in Oklahoma.
Cambridge City Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler has sponsored legislation to ban the use of tear gas by police.
In Carlsbad, CA, Councilwoman (and state senate candidate) Priya Bhat-Patel joined a number of other women politicians in talking with Voice of San Diego about the kind of abuse and harassment she’s endured, including have to file multiple police reports against men who’ve threatened and stalked her.
Mark Brave beat a Republican challenger to become the first Black sheriff in New Hampshire. Read more about how his background in mental health informs his approach to law enforcement.
Jerica Richardson made history in her election to the Cobb County Commission in Georgia — she’s got a vision for uniting the county and dealing with a complicated budget moving forward.
DeAndrea Salvador will be the youngest state senator in NC — she flipped a seat! — and is bringing years of climate advocacy to the capitol with her.
There’s a long and beautiful history of Black women winning elections in Philadelphia, culminating in city councilmember Katherine Gilmore.
Ayesha Wilson, member of the Cambridge School Committee, has an op-ed about the importance of centering students of color in conversations around keeping schools open or remote.
Jessica Benham has made history as one of the first openly autistic and bisexual state legislators in the country. “Benham said she's gotten hundreds of messages from LGBTQ members and autistic members who were thrilled to see someone like them elected into office. ‘Some of the messages were like, 'I never thought I could do it and then I saw you won.’”
Ricky Hurtado was the only Democrat to win a contested election in Alamance County, NC, reflecting the growing strength of the Latinx voting block in North Carolina. (Pretty cool: Ricky and fellow RFS alum Manny Guzman in PA are identified in Al Día News as part of the next generation of Latino leaders.)
Nithya Raman became the first person in 17 years to beat an incumbent on the LA City Council. Read more about how she built her campaign and the process was as important as the destination.
James Coleman, a 21 year old queer activist, beat a longtime incumbent for a city council seat in South San Francisco. Learn how he did it.
Nida Allam’s path to politics began when her best friend was killed by a murderer with a history of anti-Muslim hate speech. Earlier this month, Nida became the first Muslim elected in North Carolina.
TX Rep. Erin Zwiener has sponsored legislation to decriminalize marijuana in Texas, in part to help close the state’s budget gap.
After defeating an incumbent and winning the job of juvenile court judge in Hamilton County, Ohio, Kari Bloom plans on bringing restorative justice to her court.
Women candidates like our very own Jerica Richardson, Matielyn Jones,and Rebecca Mitchell are part of the reason why Georgia turned blue this year.
Two stories I highly recommend you read as you think about your next step in political engagement…
Political scientists answers the question: What went wrong down-ballot?
“[Democrats] have historically been ambivalent about what political scientists call “party building” — creating lasting organizational structures that would allow partisans to organize. … As Americans have polarized, both the Democratic and Republican parties have become ever more central to politics. However, they have simultaneously lost their capacity to organize an effective collective response to social challenges. Democrats in particular have historically paid sporadic and superficial attention to the mechanics of voter engagement and organizational investment. In consequence, the party has become hollow — top-heavy at the national level, weak at the state and local levels, and lacking a rooted, tangible presence in the lives of voters and engaged activists alike.”Rage-donating — which we are all wont to do from time to time — may make us feel better, but it doesn’t actually build political power. Only grassroots organizing and early investments in infrastructure can do that.
On tomorrow’s episode of Run for Something: The Podcast: Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani flipped her seat outside Orlando red to blue in 2018, then easily held it in 2020. In between, she and her team personally helped 30,000 Floridians deal with unemployment, fought for renters, got hundreds of millions of dollars in arts funding, and showed that a bold progressive can govern with Republicans without compromising her values. We talk about what she's accomplished, why too many Florida Democrats lost, and where the party goes from here. (Plus: Whether or not she's running for governor... stay tuned!)
Thanks for reading this long email! Hope you’re hanging in there as the post-election adrenaline wears off and the COVID anxiety hits hard. We’ve got a lot of work to do moving forward but I know we can do it together.
- Amanda