RFS feel-good update (7/1): What to do now

Something you can do to help stop Trump, unrelated to President Biden

Hi all -

So…how are we feeling?

For so many folks in the RFS community — a community made up of people who care deeply about democracy, our values, and fighting for a better future — the last few days have been a bit fraught, to put it lightly.

The presidential debate on Thursday night demonstrated what we’ve known for a while: The stakes in this race are sky-high, and we just can’t count on voters being excited to cast their ballots in November explicitly for President Biden and against Trump.

I can’t predict what will happen with the presidential election. (No one can!)

But there is something we all can do right now to make a difference that has absolutely nothing to do with President Biden and everything to do with stopping Trump (with a side effect of building long-term sustainable power):

Help local candidates run strong enough campaigns to generate major reverse coattails.

As we’ve been talking about for years: Run for Something has proven that local candidates can increase turn-out for the entire ticket within their districts, anywhere from 0.4-2.3%. That is enough to make up the margin of victory.

This year especially, young voters (and all voters!) are eager for any other reason we can give them to show up at the polls.

Run for Something expects to work with upwards of 700 candidates this year in all 50 states, including dozens in each of the big Electoral College battlegrounds and many more nested inside key House, Senate, and gubernatorial contests. These candidates are out there knocking doors, building relationships, and talking about the specific local issues that matter to people right now. They’re giving voters someone to enthusiastically show up for.

Two ways you can help:

(1) Find a local candidate (or a few) near you, or in a battleground state, or both, and sign up to volunteer. The Run for Something candidate directory is newly updated with all our latest endorsements (see below for the newest class!) and has some awesome new features, including a way to find candidates in your area, save their profiles, and share them with friends. Check it out and spread the word.

(2) Make a donation. Your contributions right now help bolster our team’s support efforts — we’re on the ground and on the phone with local candidates every single day, making sure they have the resources they need to run strong campaigns. The better these campaigns are, the most voters they can reach and the bigger the reverse coattails will be.

And if you need a tiny dose of optimism: Nearly 1,000 people have signed up to run for office at runforwhat.net since Thursday — an exponential increase in young people looking around and deciding they’re ready to get into the fight themselves.

We’ll have their back when their time comes (which might be very soon, because there are always filing deadlines popping up somewhere!) Growing and cultivating this pipeline of young potential candidates in one key way we fight the gerontocracy and build a better bench. 👀

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In other news from last week: We rolled out 57 amazing new endorsements that will give you so much hope. These amazing leaders are giving voters (and us!) energy and motivation. Scroll through and find one or ten to support.

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ICYMI: Last Wednesday, I joined Pod Save America for their live show in Brooklyn last week and spent some time talking with

Dan Pfeiffer

about all things Run for Something and why I’m optimistic in spite of everything. (Still true!) You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube here.

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Some other quick updates from across the RFS community:

• We had some big wins in last week’s elections: Congrats to Yara Zokaie & Rebekah Stewart for CO state house, Lindsey Daugherty for CO state senate, Steven Arauza for Garfield County Commission in CO, Claire Valdez, Gabriella Romero & Rebecca Kassay for NY state assembly, Kristen Gonzalez for NY state senate, Natalie Pinkney for Salt Lake County Council, and Hoang Nguyen for UT state house for all winning their primaries!!

• Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem is leading on efforts to use city funds to support local news, a much-needed issue for bolstering civic engagement.

• CA Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo got a DUI last fall — instead of shying away from it, she’s since gotten sober, and is now using her platform to talk about the harms of alcohol, including introducing legislation to require high school students to learn about the long- and short-term effects of alcohol. Lived experience matters.

• TN Rep. Aftyn Behn is leading on a lawsuit asking a judge to block local DAs from enforcing a new “abortion trafficking” law that would criminalize adults who transport a minor seeking an abortion somewhere the procedure is legal.

• CO Rep. Jennifer Bacon is establishing a new bill of rights for K-12 students involved in the juvenile or criminal justice system, including different paths they can follow to get back into school and work toward graduation.

• This is a quick and powerful essay from GA state Rep. Ruwa Romman on how her experience with discrimination has put her on the path to advocacy and civic engagement.

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A reminder on why Clerk Work & electing pro-democracy local leaders matters: Republicans have been trying to block county-level election certification processes in key battleground states since 2020, testing out different strategies to undermine democracy. (As if we didn’t have enough to worry about!)

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Thanks for making all this possible. Run for Something is closed for the holiday this week but we’ll be back at it next week, well-rested and ready to fight for democracy.

- Amanda