Why on earth would you fund a Democratic nominee in a gerrymandered, red district that they’re not going to win?
That’s my favorite question. It’s one we get a lot, and it might be one you’ve asked.
Because Every State Blue’s projects don’t fund the flippable districts in the flippable states. Quite the opposite.
We fund the people running in the reddest, roughest, toughest districts. We lift up folks running in the places where it’s hard to find someone to run, let alone get them funding. We proudly give funding first to the nominees that have the least – filling a critical gap in Democrats’ support structure, because without us, many of these nominees would quite literally have nothing.
We don’t expect any of the nominees that we support to win.
So why on earth would we support folks who are going to lose?
Well, for starters, because what these folks are doing – often running against some of the most MAGA-extreme, powerful, state legislators in their state – is one of the most patriotic things you can do. Just by running, they’re telling the Republicans that they’re going to fight back.
Leaving so much of red state America uncontested just rewards extreme Republicans for being extreme.
Did you know that the sponsor of Texas’s abortion ban, SB8, ran uncontested? Or that U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson ran unopposed in the Louisiana state legislature (twice), and had no opponent when he ran for Congress in 2022? Or that in 2022, Democrats had candidates in only 54 of Tennessee’s 99 state house districts – and 13 of those Democratic nominees had less than $5,000?
It’s true.
Think through the most extreme policies you’ve heard of coming out of state legislatures – and more often than not, they originated in a super-red, gerrymandered district that has been uncontested, or has had an undersupported Democratic challenger, for decades.
We need folks pushing back against the MAGA machine – and rebuilding Democratic infrastructure – at every level, in every state. But that’s not going to happen unless we band together and support the folks who are doing the hard work of running in these districts.
We’d be wrong not to also mention the significant data-backed electoral benefit to running – and supporting – nominees in every district. In 2020 we asked a Washington University team to evaluate the impact of running and funding state legislative nominees. They looked at Missouri – and found that simply having a nominee in an otherwise uncontested district provided a 1.5% vote share increase for the top of the ticket. A separate study done by an LSU professor of 20 states’ state legislative races found that minimal funding (which he set at $0.36 per eligible voter) of a challenger led to a turnout increase of 1%.
In other words, running nominees matters. And funding them matters, too.
So by getting funding to the nominees who otherwise wouldn’t have resources, we’re driving turnout and vote share, showing Democrats running in some of the reddest districts in the nation that we appreciate what they’re doing, and getting them the tools that they need to fight as fiercely as we need them to.
In each of our Every Blue State projects, after the primary, the community funds are distributed to Democratic nominees using our unique “bottom-up bathtub” method, which sends funds first to those who have the least. We make it possible for them to afford yard signs, post cards, and gas money to reach rural neighbors.
The nominees we support are typically rural, tough as nails, and as kind as can be.
They’re usually shocked when they hear that help is on the way. They thought they were doing this all on their own.
They’re so happy to be wrong.
By crowdfunding for underfunded Democrats, we give them the resources they need so they can spend their time door knocking, organizing their communities, and turning out voters. We show them that we value them – we appreciate their effort, and we’re going to give them the resources to give it their best shot.
But we’re also showing the Republicans in these states that we’re not going to give them free runway anymore. We’re going to make them fight for every seat, for every district, and for every vote.
You can probably tell that we’re excited about what we do, and we’re looking forward to sharing more of it with you in the coming months.
We’re glad you’re here.
Let’s run everywhere, every time, with everything we’ve got.
Onward, upward, and in solidarity~
Michele Hornish
Executive Director, Every State Blue
P.S. And hey – if you’re not yet a member of our Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, Blue Tennessee or Forgotten Democrats programs, I sure do hope you’ll join.
Our projects primarily support the nominees – not our organization. So if you like what we’re doing, please chip in today to help us continue to support projects like these. Thanks in advance – it means more than you know.
