For The Win 2018 is ready for download
by Tom Sullivan
Political campaigns are not just contests of ideas. They are contests of skills.
Experienced county committees as well as new, hair-on-fire activists face a daunting task in 2018. More Democrats have filed for office than ever. From school board to the state House to the U.S. Senate, you need them to win. They need your help.
For The Win is a primer for helping county committees (particularly under-resourced ones) mount a countywide Get Out The Vote effort. It's free. This is the nuts and bolts of organizing a months-long coordination effort with little money and minimal computer skills.
No theory. If it's in there, we've done it here.
Within 48 hours of sending links to Texas counties last year, over 50 downloaded For The Win. Seventeen more previously unorganized Texas counties have popped up on the radar since mid-December. Things are moving in Texas; 221 (of just over 250) received updates Thursday night. Whether or not they download and deploy its recommendations is on them. This is a lead-a-horse effort, true, but there are some thirsty horses out there.
In January, I wrote about the first Democratic Candidates Conference. Asked how much field support they could expect from the county committees in their districts, all but one candidate I asked gave some variation of the same answer: a pregnant pause, a sigh, or an eye roll. Maybe all three.
A woman wrote in late January to say she went from getting involved on November 9, 2016 to being the new chair of her rural Democratic committee. But her predecessors left her nothing to work with. Her state party had been difficult to reach either by email or phone, and her District Chair was unreachable. "Your email and GOTV Platform," she wrote, "is the FIRST communication I have received that gives me any help at all."
Which is exactly why For The Win exists. If you're not in a swing state, especially if you're in a more rural county in not-a-swing-state, Barack Obama isn't parachuting in a team from Michigan Avenue to show you how to assemble a high-energy, months-long, countywide Get Out The Vote and electioneering effort. The governor's race doesn't show up out there. The U.S. Senate race doesn't set up out there. That’s why many local Democratic committees don't do more ... because they don't know what more looks like.
Here's more. The beyond-thirtysomething single woman who assembled this portable call center has no money, no financial backers, and 30 laptops with headsets and a phone-banking interface customized by a freshman at Stanford. Between campaign gigs, she keeps a roof over her head by house sitting. She didn't write a grant proposal or start a nonprofit. She just started.
Bridget McCurry's call-center-in-a-trunk. If you're not Goliath, fine. Be David.
Look, state parties and the campaign arms of state and national legislative caucuses are focused on large cities and targeted races that will put warm butts in seats on their party's side of the aisle ASAP. Occupying the countryside is too long-term a goal and too much bother.
And so, in the fullness of time, Republicans controlled 32 state legislatures, voter suppression legislation, and 2020 redistricting. Maybe we should do something about that?
This year is a real as it gets. So let's get real.
If you previously requested our countywide Get Out The Vote planner via this blog, or if you are a Democratic county committee officer in one of the red-shaded states below (and your contact info was public), watch your in-box for the link to the For The Win update. If you would like a copy yourself, request the download link at the address below, and in addition to your name, please provide your city, state, and a very brief statement about how you are engaged. I'm building out my map.
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For The Win 2018 is ready for download. Request a copy of my county-level election mechanics primer at tom.bluecentury at gmail. (If you are already on my email list, check your in-box.)