Making a difference in the midterms
Strategy for the time-pressed, money-stressed, and thoroughly depressed.
If you’re at all political, by which I mean upset about the state of the country and wanting to do something about it, your inbox is already overflowing with dire warnings about the midterms, demands for money, and entreaties to volunteer, and you’re sick to death of hearing about it and you just deleted this post.
No, wait! Please don’t! I didn’t actually say that.
This is going to be a tough year for Democrats. We know that. Control of Congress is dangling by a thread. It’s hard not to feel discouraged and angry. And for those of us who’d like to do something, there are all the usual barriers, most notably time and money. And distance: most of us don’t live in a battleground state (or even in a state at all, if you’re in DC).
Here's what I believe, though: everyone can do something, but no one can do everything. It’s the second part of this that we tend to forget. So many candidates asking for money! So many volunteer opportunities in so many states! How to choose? What to do?
My advice, for what it’s worth: for starters, delete all those emails and texts from candidates begging for money and unsubscribe to get them off your back. Make donations if you can afford to, but choose your recipients strategically (more on that below). Don’t let them choose you. If you want to volunteer, pick one or two things that are doable for you and let the rest go. If money is tight, door-to-door canvassing is basically free (not counting the sneakers you’ll wear out). If mobility is an issue, you may not want to canvass, but you can write, phone, or text voters from your couch.
And if you have no free time, making donations takes just a few clicks. Money is the lifeblood of our (grievously flawed) electoral system, so contributions have a huge impact, especially when they arrive early in the electoral cycle. In the remainder of this post I’ll share a few thoughts on how to make your political dollars count. I’ll revisit other forms of activism, particularly canvassing – my favorite – as we head into fall.
A few months ago I profiled NOPE, the all-volunteer group of mostly third-age women that I work with in DC. Our data team studies races across the country and recommends to members where our donations can have the most impact. Right now we’re focusing on six states that are battlegrounds for the Senate in 2022 and for the White House in 2024: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. We have two fundraising priorities in each of these states: funding proven grassroots organizing partners, and funding carefully vetted candidates in pivotal races.
Fund political organizing groups
The advice to fund groups first, candidates second, may seem surprising, but it’s a conscious strategy. Grassroots groups, especially those working in communities of color, register and turn out voters who have long felt marginalized from the political process. These groups are tied to their local communities and employ local people as staff and volunteers. They motivate voters by making connections to issues in their lives, such as affordable housing and jobs. In mobilizing new constituencies they’re playing the long game, looking beyond a single election or campaign.
In Georgia, Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight worked for 10 years to turn a deep-red state into a battleground. (See How to Turn Your Red State Blue, New York Times, February 11, 2021.) They registered hundreds of thousands of new voters, many of them African American or Latino, and got them to the polls. These efforts bore fruit in 2020 and 2021, when Georgia went narrowly for Biden and then sent two Democrats to the US Senate, clinching the majority. It’s a model that can be replicated – but we need groups like Fair Fight in many more states.
To support promising groups, NOPE thoroughly vets each potential partner and their track record before presenting them to our members. Here are the groups we’re supporting or have supported recently (profiles of the groups are here):
Arizona: LUCHA
Georgia: Black Male Initiative
Georgia: Black Voters Matter
Georgia: Fair Fight
Georgia: New Georgia Project
Nevada: Make the Road
North Carolina: Carolina Federation
Pennsylvania: CASA in Action
Pennsylvania: New Pennsylvania Project
Pennsylvania: One PA
Virginia: New Virginia Majority
Wisconsin: BLOC
Fund key Senate races
Biden won the popular vote by 7 million, and Senate Democrats represent 43 million more people than Senate Republicans. But because of our skewed electoral system, it’s a 50-50 Senate (with the vice president able to break a tie vote). Holding our razor-thin majority is crucial: among other things, it’s what made possible the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the US Supreme Court. And while the outlook is perilous in the House, Democratic strategists are more optimistic about the Senate in 2022.
At NOPE, our priorities for the midterm Senate races look like this:
Defend Kelly in Arizona, Warnock in Georgia, and Cortez Masto in Nevada.
Pick up open seats in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Flip Ron Johnson’s seat in Wisconsin.
None of these is an easy win, but all are within reach. That’s in keeping with NOPE’s donation strategy. We don’t waste money on lost causes – good candidates who have no chance to win. Nor do we fund assured winners who don’t need our help. Rather, we look for tight races where every dollar spent and every door knocked can make a difference. And though we’re focused on the Senate at the moment, we recognize the huge importance of down-ballot races, especially for state legislators and secretaries of state. They have central roles in making sure that state laws protect voting rights and that votes are counted fairly.
With so much at stake, the months between now and November are going to be tense. We need to be intentional and strategic, tune out the noise, and each do our small bit, knowing that together we can win.
For more on midterm strategy, please join me at NOPE’s next meeting over Zoom on Tuesday, June 7 (sign up here). You can use NOPE’s Organize for Democracy ActBlue link to support our current slate of six grassroots groups, or support targeted Senate races through NOPE’s Save Our Senate slate. When you donate through a NOPE link, the entire amount goes directly to the recipients through ActBlue.
Brilliant and inspiring!! Thank you, Cathy!
I applaud everyone for the efforts, and you for the stategy, Cathy. All I can do is vote, which I always do.