RFS feel-good update (2/18): 20,000+ since Election Day

The people we recruit today are the people who run in 2026.

Hi all -

Last week, there were a few small elections that once again prove out: If we run, we can win — and that every election is a chance to prove that there are electoral consequences to the GOP’s bullshit.

In particular:

• In Norman, OK, a Democrat ousted a conservative incumbent for mayor

• In Westchester County, NY, Democrats retained the county executive seat, doing a little bit better than we did in the district in November.

And of course, don’t forget the IA Senate race that Democrats flipped in a district Trump won by 21 points earlier thi syear.

Here’s what this tells me: When we run, we can win. That means we need to run big and everywhere in 2025 and 2026 — which means we need to keep recruiting heavily now.

Because here’s some fun facts: 28% of people apply for RFS endorsement within a month of signing up; another 20% apply within 18 months; the median Run for Something candidate spends 310 days in the RFS pipeline between signing up and applying for our endorsement.

That means the folks we get into the pipeline now are the ones who will be running next year — a year that could be a landslide election for Democrats.

The good news: In the 3 months since Election Day, more than 20,000 people have signed up to consider running for office. More than 7000 of them have signed up just since Inauguration four weeks ago.

There is incredible demand for Run for Something’s work. Everything you can do to help us sustain our support matters.

And of course, since it’s Tuesday, it’s Election Day for the RFS community — we’re tracking Derek Field (District 3) and Julia Matthews (District 12) in their races for Madison Common Council. More to come!

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I’ve got a long list of RFS alumni & candidate updates — even while things are bleak in D.C., there are amazing things happening across the country.

• My favorite story of last week: After years of hard work, the Cambridge City Council passed an incredible rezoning law — one of the most ambitious changes to any city’s zoning in decades.
  
  This work was led by RFS alum Burhan Azeem and supported by two other RFS alum on the city council, Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler and Ayesha Wilson. When young people are in power, good things happen.

• VA Del. Adele McClure introduced legislation to require farm laborers to make minimum wage.

• Spokane City Councilmember Paul Dillon helped pass ordinances to help the city better recruit and hire multilingual employees in order to improve their multilingual services.

• NV Assemblymember Howard Watts sponsored legislation to help lower egg prices by suspending the state’s cage-free egg law in order to increase supply at a moment when eggs are just outrageously pricey.

• NY Sen. Jeremy Cooney is working to connect communities underserved by transit with job opportunities in suburban areas.

• MS Rep. Justis Gibbs led on legislation to protect prison inmates from hazardous materials and raw chemicals.

• MD Del. Joe Vogel is fighting to bring back an online learning program that was crucial for students who were unable to attend in-person school.

• Former athlete GA Sen. Kim Jackson makes the case for providing real solutions to the problems of girls in sports.

• The pics from LA City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s community swearing in ceremony are so joyful!

• MN Rep. Alice Mann is working to ban cell phones in schools. I suspect this is just the beginning of this kind of legislation.

• Denver City Councilmember Amanda Sawyer is working to pass campaign finance reform for local elections.

• IN Sen. Fady Qaddoura is pushing legislation that will protect victims of domestic violence.

• VA Sen. Danica Roem is working to make life a little bit easier for college students who struggle to afford food by pushing the state to fund food pantries on campuses.

• Rep. Adam Moore in KY (who flipped his seat in 2024!) has introduced legislation offering a tax credit to Kentuckians who enroll in a firearm safety course — it’s personal for him, as he told to a rally: His grandfather died by suicide with a gun; his son was at a playground when a 3 year old pulled the trigger on a weapon left by the preschool.

• IA Rep. Elinor Levin — a teacher herself and one of IA’s few openly queer lawmakers — is fighting back against a bill that would ban the accurate teaching of history: “I won’t be able to teach my students fully about World War II because some of the folks who were targeted in the Nazi concentration camps were queer individuals. I would not be able to teach fully about the AIDS crisis. I would not be able to teach about the Stonewall riots."

• Rep. Brianna Titone introduced legislation that would help reduce the cost of fire insurance for homeowners - even more important as wildfires rage.

• Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija and his colleagues aren’t backing away from diversity and equity measures — they’re expanding the county’s DEI team.

• Thanks to Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez — who is now running for secretary of state! — 348 people in her county voted prison in the 2024 election, an increase from only 3 voters in 2022!! They make up more than 3200 voters overall who could cast their ballots after a new law was passed.
  
  One voter in the Jefferson County jails voted for the first time and hadn’t known he was eligible, Gonzalez said. He told her staff it was “one of the top five experiences of his life and that it made him feel like he mattered.”

• IL State Senator Rachel Ventura has introduced a bunch of criminal justice reforms, including bringing medication-assisted treatment programs into Department of Corrections facilities and continuing to address Prisoner Review Board reforms including medical release hearing changes. She’s also fighting to change the way the state treats kids in the justice system.

• LA City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez — whose parents were undocumented — is introducing a package of ordinances to help protect immigrants in LA, including immigration support at LAX, notification of ICE enforcement, know your rights campaigns, funding for legal services, and more.

• CO Rep. Dylan Roberts is doing what we need all local leaders to do: Be very explicit about how Trump’s cuts are hurting their communities.

• I really like TN Rep. Aftyn Behn’s latest substack, on what we do with the crumbling empire. (Seriously - it’s good!)

• GA Rep. Phil Olaleye is tackling corporate investors’ stake in home ownership — because it’s personal for him: “In 1995, Phil Olaleye’s parents bought a four-bedroom, two-bath house in Stone Mountain for around $90,000. It’s worth almost three times that today, according to DeKalb County property records — and now it belongs to an anonymous LLC that owns 69 other properties in the county, 58 in Fulton, and more across the state.”

• TX Rep. Erin Zwiener is pushing legislation to legalize fentanyl test strips, which can help stop overdoses.

• CA Assemblyman Alex Lee is introducing legislation to put a bond measure on the ballot that would create a fund for social housing; he’s also introducing legislation to create the California Housing Authority to oversee development of social housing. Build! More! Housing!

• RI Rep. Megan Cotter is working to pass a bill that would explore creating publicly owned utilities as a way of reducing energy bills.

• More on utilities: CA Sen. Aisha Wahab is trying to rein in the state’s largest utility company that saw record profits last year and keeps raising rates.

• Thanks to Austin City Councilmember Paige Ellis, it is now illegal to park in a bike lane in the city.

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In related reading:

• In The Daily Beast last week, I made the case for every Democrat in Congress 70 or older to consider making this their last term. I know it’s a hot take — but I think it’s needed.

  

• I talked with Amy Hoggart for her Substack, “What’s Left” about why JD Vance is the most punchable person in DC and how there are no Democratic bigwigs anymore.

• Politico explains the online divide between Democrats and Republicans — unsurprisingly, two of the few Democrats they ID’d as having big followings and compelling content are RFS alum NYC Councilmember Chi Ossé and TX Rep. James Talarico. The secret that no one likes to say (because it’s hard and not that sexy) is that the way we fight back online is by being more popular with the young people who drive online culture — that means fielding candidates who young people actually like. (That’s what RFS does!)

• Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way have a long article on the path to American authoritarianism — it’s 80% scary but 20% hopeful, especially toward the end. I’m choosing to focus on the hopeful: Trump is vulnerable and we can defeat him if we refuse to back down.

• If you need a little bit of hope: Check out this Reddit thread of federal employees who’ve been illegally fired by Elon Musk and now want to run for office. We’re here to help them!

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Lots of updates this week because there’s lots going on. Don’t forget: Next Tuesday, Feb 25th, we’re hosting our monthly intro call for people considering a run for office. Join to learn more about how we work or if you want to run for office yourself.

Thanks for making all this possible.

- Amanda