RFS feel-good update (7/8): If you're feeling like this...

Hi all -

I hope you had a good July 4th, stayed cool, and had at least one hot dog or ice cream cone as desired. (I had both!)

It was a weird week in politics (and a rest week for Run for Something, as we took a chance to catch our breath before the chaos continues.)

During that time, I heard from a lot of folks, both political junkies and very much not, who feel some variation of demoralized, disappointed, angry, and most prominently, frozen in place. They don’t know what to do now and don’t know where to focus their attention.

What we’ve been saying for months remains true: Regardless of what happens at the top of the ticket, it will be more important than ever for great candidates running locally to be able to communicate with force and effectiveness about the stakes of this election.

Candidates for state legislature, city council, school board, and the like can engage volunteers, bring in voters, and literally turn out voters who might not otherwise feel excited to show up at the polls. (You can read our reverse coattails research here or hear me summarize it in about a minute here.)

We’ve heard this anecdotally from so many candidates we work with over the last six months: They’re talking with voters who are not pumped about their options at the top of the ticket but are eager for a reason to engage locally.

The voters know this election matters — they just want to feel hopeful instead of furious or scared.

We can give them that hope.

There are 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 now has a way to find candidates in your area, save their profiles, and share them with friends. Check it out.

(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, making sure they have the resources they need. The better these campaigns are, the most voters they can reach and the bigger the reverse coattails will be.

And good news: In the days since the debate, nearly 1,500 people have signed up to tell us they want to run for office.

Our pipeline now includes over 160,000 young folks considering a future in public service. That’s huge, especially taking into account it was a holiday week. Among many obvious tasks ahead of us, we need to double- and triple-down on bringing young people into leadership. Win or lose this November, we’re staying all-in on that mission.

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This week, instead of news stories, I just wanted to remind you: There are great leaders out there doing the work.

A snapshot of some RFS candidates knocking doors and doing the damn thing day-in, day-out…

I’m here if you want to talk about what to do now or just want to vent. Reply to this email and we’ll find the time!

Thanks for making all this possible,

Amanda