If you really want to provide maximum support for Democrats—while inflicting maximum damage to Donald Trump and the Republican Party—via your monetary contributions over the next seven days (supplemental, of course, to your own volunteer efforts to phone bank and canvass for your local preferred candidate), then this is how to do it.
In an article by Matt Stieb titled "The Smart Bets for Last-Minute Democratic Donors,” New York Magazine pairs up with ActBlue , Flippable (via Act Blue) and Data for Progress, (also via Act Blue), and yes, DailyKos, to explain where your last-minute donations can have an outsize impact in our efforts to turn the nation’s map blue, or at the very least bluer (Stieb also includes a link dedicated solely to flipping the New York State Senate).
Data For Progress’ co-founder, Sean McElwee, notes that while Republicans have traditionally invested more in state and local contests (with the results to match) the advent of small-donor donations by sites such as ActBlue—particularly in what appears to be a "wave” election year—now presents Democrats with an historic opportunity to channel unprecedented funds into those races. And while (for example) Texas U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke’s staggering fundraising haul may dominate the mainstream news cycle, the elections going on under the national radar (in Texas, Arizona and Florida, among others) can ultimately have a more decisive and immediate impact.
“For a lot of these campaigns, an injection of a few thousand dollars is the difference between canvassing or not, radio or not, digital ads or not,” says Sean McElwee, co-founder of the progressive think tank Data for Progress. “We’ve raised about $600,000 this cycle, which would be a rounding error in Beto’s campaign. A lot of these state chambers are going to be very narrowly decided, and they have incredible control over people’s lives.”
Stieb cites as an example last year’s election of state senator Manka Dhingra, whose victory last year gave Washington State Democrats control of all three branches of government. Look what happened as a result!
In the year since, Washington — which often acts as the vanguard on progressive issues — passed legislation to enact automatic voter registration, ban bump stocks on semiautomatic weapons, outlaw gay conversion therapy, and mandate birth control coverage in all health plans offering maternity care.
Donations to ActBlue House candidates have tripled since the last midterm cycle, to the point where candidates now receive a third of their funding from the web portal.
Stieb’s article describes how you can donate to match your own personal priorities in at least four different categories: by flipping legislatures in key states; by helping women get elected in pivotal races; by throwing a wrench into Republican-dominated state-level trifectas (in which the GOP controls both upper and lower legislative chambers, as well as the governorship); or by winning key state-level races such as state Attorneys General or Secretaries of State. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee also works through ActBlue to elect state-level Democrats (they’re the ones who I donated to).
As explained by DailyKos Communications Director Carolyn Fiddler, these state-level positions can have a huge impact on whether or not legislation gets passed at all, or what it looks like, assuming it does pass:
“Under Obama, Republicans used state attorneys general to attack policies, and launch lawsuits against Obamacare,” says Carolyn Fiddler, communications director at Daily Kos. “In states like Arizona and Nevada, Democrats have a chance to block Trump administration policies and keep Republicans at bay in trifecta states.” The six candidates identified by Daily Kos represent the best chance to swing AG numbers toward a balance: Republicans hold 27 AG posts to Democrats’ 22.
Similarly, simple access to voting is now often dependent upon the election of Democratic Secretaries of State, of which Democrats now comprise only 17, compared to 28 for the GOP.
Daily Kos has targeted six candidates to bring that number toward parity. In Colorado, there’s Jena Griswold, running against a Republican incumbent opposed to same-day voting registration and universal vote-by-mail. If Jocelyn Benson is elected in Michigan, she can combat Republican efforts to get rid of straight-ticket voting, which would create longer waits mostly in African-American precincts.
But the bottom line is that if you want to contribute to specific Democratic candidates, or if you want to contribute to satisfy your priorities, and you want either of those to succeed, you don’t want to wait any longer at this point.
You want to do it NOW.
The link to Stieb’s article and all of the assorted links above is here.
Excited by the news? Eager to join the funding fun? Click here to send $1 or more to Democrats fighting to take back the House and Senate!