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First in Line is Every State Blue’s effort to fund Democratic state legislative nominees in every state – starting with the races that need it most.

State legislatures control healthcare access, reproductive rights, voting laws, education funding, and worker protections. They matter more to daily life than Congress does. And yet hundreds of state legislative districts go completely uncontested every cycle – no Democratic nominee, no campaign, nobody. In 2024, over 1,000 state legislative races went uncontested by Democrats and another 1,000+ Democratic nominees for state legislature ran on a shoestring. First in Line is our effort to change that. We organize candidates into rounds and begin our crowdfunding effort with those running in the districts that were completely uncontested last cycle. When donors give to a round of candidates via First In Line, the money goes directly to those nominees via ActBlue – immediately, without passing through ESB.

ESB’s existing state projects – Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, and Blue Tennessee – are permanent, evergreen, year-round monthly giving programs that fund nominees every election cycle in those states. Monthly donors to those projects are the foundation of what ESB does.

First in Line is a 2026 cycle campaign that extends ESB’s model to every state. It’s not a replacement for the state projects – it’s an expansion. If you’re already a monthly member of Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, or Blue Tennessee, you’re already part of what made this possible. If you’re not already a member, we’d be proud to welcome you. You can join Blue Missouri here, Blue Ohio here, and Blue Tennessee here.

Every state with Democratic state legislative candidates on the ballot in 2026 – which is nearly all of them. We’re adding states as filing deadlines pass and candidates are confirmed. 

The three exceptions are Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee, which have dedicated ESB monthly giving programs. Donors who want to support those states can join their monthly programs at bluemissouri.org, blueohio.org, and bluetennessee.org.

These races have always been last – last to get funding, last to get attention, last on the list of races worth fighting for. We put them first.

First in Line means the nominees who’ve been running in the hardest districts, the most overlooked places, the races where folks struggle to find the funding they need to hold extremists accountable – those are the ones we fund first.

Directly to the candidates on the giving pages. When you give through First in Line, you’re giving through ActBlue directly to (and only to) the candidates on that page. The money reaches them immediately – it never passes through Every State Blue.

This is a different model from ESB’s evergreen state projects, where ESB holds and distributes funds. With First in Line, we’re connecting you directly to the candidates. ESB’s role is to identify, organize, and amplify – your dollars do the rest.

Because spreading butter across too big a piece of toast means nobody gets enough.

Think of it this way. If a donor gives $100 and it’s split evenly across 100 candidates, each campaign receives $1. We know you work hard for every dollar and we want every dollar to count – not have a watered-down impact because it was spread too thin. We believe a grassroots donor’s gift should have real, visible impact on a real candidate’s campaign.

Rounds solve this by focusing collective giving on a specific group of candidates at a time. When you give to a state, your money goes to the candidates currently in the active round – a manageable group where your gift actually moves the needle. Once that group is funded to our goal of $2,500 per candidate, the next group unlocks and becomes the focus.

The round system also creates a natural momentum: donors can see exactly how close the community is to funding the next group, and each milestone is worth celebrating.

We start with the candidates running in the districts that were completely uncontested in the last election cycle. Those nominees are in the first round. We will fundraise for that group until we reach the goal funding level.

Once that group has reached its funding goal, the next round opens: candidates running in districts rated as solidly Republican, where a Democrat ran but faced the steepest structural disadvantage. Then very likely Republican districts. And so on.

This ordering isn’t arbitrary – it reflects a simple principle: the nominees who have historically been left with the least get funded first.

When a round unlocks, it means the donor community has collectively hit the funding milestone for that group of candidates — and the next group is now the focus. A new group of candidates will be added, and the crowdfunding for the round will begin.

It’s a community milestone and a moment to celebrate. The unlock is how we mark progress together and shift collective attention to the next group that needs support.

Each round’s goal is designed so that when fully funded, the candidates in that group receive approximately $2,500.

No! We are not a recipient of funds donated to First In Line state project pages – your donation will be split evenly among the candidates listed on the ActBlue form. These funds do not go through ESB, and do not benefit ESB. The candidates listed are those who are eligible under the current round that have current ActBlue pages.

We believe in donor transparency, and that means you should always know where your money is going. You should also know that – just like with any other donations via its platform – ActBlue charges a small processing fee (typically 3.95%) that is standard and required across all political fundraising on their platform. This goes to ActBlue, not to ESB.

Because “probably going to lose” is doing a lot of work in that question, and it misses what’s actually at stake.

First: our own study confirms that having a Democrat on the ballot increases Democratic vote share for every person on the ticket. In a state where Democrats lose statewide races by thin margins, dozens of uncontested districts are a massive opportunity just waiting to be tapped into.

Second: making progress is itself a win. A Democrat who runs in a hard district organizes their community, validates their neighbors, holds extremists accountable, builds their own name recognition – and rebuilds both the bench and the infrastructure that’s often lacking in rural America. Plus, showing up matters. Giving up on a district entirely guarantees you lose it.

Third: unexpected things can happen when Democrats actually show up – especially in cycles where national conditions shift. You can’t win a race if you don’t show up. We want to celebrate, encourage, and empower the people who are willing to show up.

Other Democratic organizations do really important work – and we’re not here to criticize them. But the typical model focuses resources on the races most likely to flip, flip a chamber, or defend a majority. That’s a legitimate strategy. But it leaves a big gap.

ESB’s model fills that gap in the Democratic support structure. We fund the nominees other organizations can’t prioritize – the long shots, the rural districts, the places where showing up is itself a statement. We’re not competing with these other organizations and efforts. We’re simply funding the candidates they can’t.

Think of it this way – while other groups focus on races where Democrats have the best shot at winning, Every State Blue makes sure that wherever a Democrat is already on the field, they have resources to play.

Because state legislatures have more direct control over your daily life than Congress does — and they’ve been controlled by Republican supermajorities in many states precisely because Democrats stopped contesting them.

State legislatures set abortion law. They write voting rules. They control Medicaid expansion. They draw congressional district maps. They determine whether workers can organize. When Democrats cede these chambers without a fight, the consequences are felt for a decade.

And yet state legislative races are chronically underfunded relative to their impact. A $500 donation to a state legislative nominee in a rural district can make a big difference. Federal races attract millions. These races attract almost nothing.

The most common reason a candidate isn’t on a First in Line slate is that they don’t have an ActBlue account set up. Because donations go through ActBlue, we can only include candidates who are on the platform.

If you know a candidate who should be included but they’re not, the fastest way to get them there is to help them set up an ActBlue account – it’s free and takes about 20 minutes. Once they’re on ActBlue, reach out to us at info@everystateblue.org and we’ll review adding them to their state’s page.

Other reasons a candidate might not appear: they have a primary opponent (those we will not fund until after the primary), their state’s filing deadline hasn’t passed yet (donation pages are built after filing closes), we haven’t finished building that state’s page yet, or there may be a data gap we need to correct. Again, in districts where two Democrats are running against each other in a primary, we consider that a good problem to have! We’ll fund the winner after the primary is decided. 

We add states as their filing deadlines pass and candidates are confirmed. Filing deadlines run from November 2025 through July 2026, so new states are being added throughout the cycle.

The fastest way to know when your state goes live is to subscribe to our email list and follow Every State Blue on social media – we will announce each state launch as it happens. You can also take the quiz on this page and opt in to email updates for your state.

This is a pilot project that we hope to replicate. First in Line is designed to be a repeatable model – every cycle, new candidates, same commitment to funding the races that need this boost.

The best way to make sure it happens is to help us fund these candidates by making a donation to one or more of the state pages and become a monthly member of one of ESB’s state projects – Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, or Blue Tennessee. Monthly members are the foundation that makes everything ESB does possible.

Follow Every State Blue on Threads, Facebook, and Bluesky for real-time updates as new states go live, tranches unlock, and nominees get funded.

You can also sign up for email updates on this page — we’ll let you know when major milestones are hit. We pride ourselves on sending helpful (not spammy) emails – and will never share or sell your information.