Over the last couple of years, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to build power for democracy nationwide. When we look at states like Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and others that have been flipping to Blue, we see a couple of things. First is that the state parties or outside organizations have been working for a decade to lay the groundwork for this power shift. They stay focused year-round on recruiting candidates to contest every seat in the state legislature, local races, and US Congressional races. They also understand that when donors give the money directly to candidates, after the campaign, win or lose, that money is gone and can’t be used for additional power building. When all the focus is on candidates, rather than wider scale power building, we also see whatever data each candidate buys or revises disappear with the campaign, and we see stop and start progress everywhere, instead of consistent movement to engage voters.
In this conversation, David Callahan of Blue Tent talk about his advice to donors: focus most on power building, focus on states like Arizona where the balance of power can be flipped, and focus on flipping the house by electing more dems in places like CA and NY. I hope you’ll listen and learn about where to invest for the greatest and most sustainable power building.
Please let me know what you think!
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