We Are Winning
By Janet Singer, CGB Political Director
Democratic victories in the 2022 midterms—holding the Senate, experiencing minimal losses in the House when we were the party in power, defeating every election-denier who ran for Governor, Attorney General or Secretary of State in the battleground states—are evidence that organizing to connect with more voters in critical states is a winning strategy. The anti-MAGA grassroots power behind the Democratic Party continues to flourish.
We should feel proud about how groups like CGB have changed the game, and we should feel optimistic about our ability to crush the existential threat to our democracy that is the authoritarian force of MAGA Republicanism.
What do we need to do to continue our streak of victories? As Simon Rosenberg puts it, “we must get LOUD, expand our coalition, win the big economic debate this year, develop a new politics of women and families.”
We are positioned to do all of that because campaigns are no longer a small group of campaign staff in a war room. Rather, millions of people in groups like ours have gathered together, via the convening power of Zoom, to reach out to voters. Together we have raised unprecedented amounts of money from small-dollar donors to support campaigns and grassroots groups, especially in the battleground states.
When we outraise Republicans, they respond with “Dark Money” from a small number of megadonors giving to PACs. PACs have to pay rates per ad in the last 60 days of a campaign that are 2 or 3 times the rate candidates pay. So even when the Dark Money equals our fundraising, it can’t accomplish as much.
Every Democratic campaign calculates how many votes it needs to win. The campaign then targets the sweet spot of voters who are likely to vote for Democrats, but might not vote. While I used to worry that our fundraising was ballooning the already insane campaign spending machine, I now recognize that our robust coffers empower us to reach voters we couldn’t previously afford to target, which, in turn, allows us to listen to more voters, give them voice, respond more specifically to their needs, and mobilize them more effectively.
The majority of eligible voters are on our side already but historically the most Democratic segment of the electorate has voted the least and the most Republican segment the most. Our challenge is to turn that around.
We need to get LOUD to compete with, and ideally drown out, the right-wing noise machine. That is something we can all do starting today. Use your vast networks, your social media, and your outsized influence to spread the message that you are proud to side with the Democratic Party, the party of freedom and opportunity---and the only major party in this country that is not actively sabotaging small-d democracy. Remind all who can hear that Bush I, Bush II, and Trump brought us Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, recessions, and higher deficits, while Clinton, Obama, and Biden brought us social progress, lower deficits, and economic growth. Biden has been a great and impactful President, restoring our reputation on the world stage, creating more jobs, and building roads and bridges (real and metaphoric). With Democrats in power our lives improve, and democracy and freedom prevail.
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