Julia Louis-Dreyfus is famous for her superb acting, and deservedly so. However, she also deserves a lot of credit for innovation when it comes to civic activism.
Take as an example the above viral video that she created for the Equal Rights Impact Slate, which funds 10 women candidates in tight races who will fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Virginia. By just recording a simple video on her iPhone, she amassed over 2.1 million views on Twitter alone and drove over $60K in donations in just a week (donate here to keep driving that number up!).
In case you don’t follow state legislative elections closely, here’s how strong an impact (in a supported candidate’s own words) even just a few thousand dollars can have on winning a close race:
I’ve spoken to at least 3 other candidates who’ve raved about @OfficialJLD’s &@ImpactSlates’ impact on our races in the last two days—because of your contributions, we can focus on talking to voters instead of donors. An amazing deal I’d take any day!
- Sheila Bynum-Coleman (@sheilaforva), a candidate for Virginia HD-66
However, I think the biggest benefit of Julia’s campaign is that she has proven that celebrities and influencers have the unique ability to help Democratic candidates raise the money they need to flip the state legislative seats that are all-important for the 2021 redistricting process and for policymaking in the states.
As the co-creator of Impact Slates along with EveryDistrict (the state-focused organization whose comprehensive analysis selects the candidates in our slates), I’ve seen firsthand that Julia’s campaign has driven over 1,000 donors who likely otherwise would never have cared about flipping Virginia’s state legislature. Beyond just organic virality, Julia’s video has been amazingly effective as a paid digital ad, generating several times the amount in donations that has been spent on ads.
So, let’s hope other celebrities and influencers take Julia’s lead and join in on this great way to have a measurable impact in 2019 & 2020. It’s the perfect way to make state legislative elections matter to the millions who want to see change, just when our country needs it the most.