RFS feel-good update (11/9): 166 winners & counting!
Winning is good!
Hi all -
Happy day after Election Day!!
As of 2:30pm ET today, with 269 of our 490 candidates’ races called, we are thrilled to already have hit 166 winners!
We’re keeping a running list over on Medium that you can check back in on at your leisure.
So far, our winners are 56% women, 59% people of color, 26% LGBTQIA+, and include 6 Gen-Z’ers.
We’ve elected or re-elected 15 school board members, 10 legal positions, 39 folks to municipal offices, and 100 state legislators.
Our winners are in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Note that these numbers will fluctuate as races are called — but directionally, that’s pretty great!
You did this. You made this possible. Your support of Run for Something and of our candidates is building long-term sustainable power — you’re transforming what leadership looks like in America and restoring faith in democracy, one school board and city council and state legislative seat at a time. “Thanks” doesn’t begin to cover it.
If you need a lil’ dash of hope, here’s some of our incredible history makers & exciting wins:
We had a number of Clerk Work winners — so far, 17 of our 26 Democracy Defenders have won their races with 6 races still left to call — including Anthony Vega in Illinois, 7 county clerks in Colorado, 3 county races in Minnesota, three county offices in Texas, two in Washington, and one in Missouri. (Because I’m a sucker for more Amandas in politics, I’ll name-check Amanda Gonzalez in Jefferson County, CO, who beat out an election denier in her race for county clerk & recorder.)
Zooey Zephyr will be the first trans person in the Montana state legislature. Beautiful.
We flipped Michigan state legislature seats, including this one:
Maria Salamanca won her school board seat in Orange County, FL, in a very close race that was aggressively challenged by far-right activists.
Samantha Sencer-Mura was elected Minnesota’s first Japanese American legislator, and Zaynab Mohamed will be the youngest woman and one of the first Black women in the MN state senate
Nabeela Syed flipped a state house seat in Illinois, making history in the process.
Phil Olaleye will be the first Afro-Latino in the GA state legislature (a body that up until now had only 3 Latinos total…)
More young people in office in Iowa! Zoomers come through…
Munira Abdullahi will be the first Somali American representative in Ohio
Joe Vogel officially won his race for Maryland House of Delegates, making him the youngest ever member of the chamber. Read more about his race.
Phillip Jones will be the youngest Black mayor of Newport News, VA.
Ruwa Romman made history in Georgia:
And a long list of our many many many alumni who won re-election: NC Sen. Sydney Batch (whose victory helped stop a GOP supermajority that would have ended access to abortion in the state), GA Rep. Jasmine Clark, NE Sen. Megan Hunt, CO Rep. Lindsey Daugherty, CA Rep. Alex Lee, GA Sen. Kim Jackson, TN Rep. Torrey Harris, MO Rep. Ashley Aune, MO Rep. Maggie Nurrenbern, KS Rep. Jo Ella Hoye, TX Rep. James Talarico, RI Rep. Leonela Felix, PA Rep. Rick Krajewski, PA Rep. Emily Kinkead, RI Sen. Tiara Mack (who won in spite of the outrageous attacks on her character from both the left and the right), CO Rep. Iman Jodeh, VT Rep. Taylor Small, Washoe County Recorder Kalie Work, PA Rep. Nick Pisciottano, KS Rep. Brandon Woodard, DE Sen. Sarah McBride, FL Rep. Anna Eskamani, Fayette County Board of Education chair Tyler Murphy, Coral Springs City Commissioner Joshua Simmons, CO Sen. Julie Gonzales, MO Rep. Emily Weber, DE Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, MA Rep. Tram Nguyen, OK County Commissioner Carrie Blumert, NY Sen. Michelle Hinchey, Austin City Councilmember Paige Ellis, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo (who was outspent 4x!!) and many many many more.
There will be lots of hot takes & debriefs & post-mortems to come for this midterm. (Won’t those be fun…)
For now, I hope you feel proud, and relieved, and more determined than ever to keep fighting for our democracy, which so far seems like it will live on to survive the next election.
Run for Something isn’t going anywhere. Our work continues — we’re already deep into recruitment for 2023 municipal and local races — and it takes on even more importance as we saw yesterday just how clearly “candidate quality” matters and how much of a difference investing in local races can make.
If you’re inspired, set up a recurring donation today to know we can count on you.
Stay tuned for more exhaustive updates on Monday morning (spoiler alert — it will be my last email to you before I go on maternity leave!)
Thanks for making all this possible.
- Amanda