Democrats' Secret Weapon? Thousands of Candidates You've Probably Never Heard Of
Run for Something is an organization dedicated to recruiting and supporting candidates running for down-ballot offices. We launched on Jan. 20, 2017—Donald Trump's Inauguration Day—and have since helped elect more than 1,000 candidates to local office. They've fought back against book bans and extreme abortion laws, and fought for affordable housing, public safety, and environmental justice—all while building the Democratic bench.
At Run for Something, we often make the point that to win the big things, we need to win the small things first. That's certainly true—we have already seen candidates we helped elect to local office go on to win election to Congress, like Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett and Colorado Representative Yadira Caraveo, and state offices, like Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden. And we've seen small wins have big impacts, like Justin Douglas, who flipped the Dauphin County Commission in Pennsylvania in 2023, by fewer than 150 votes, and now is taking concrete steps to make it easier for Pennsylvanians to vote.
But along the way, we have learned something else—that investing in the small races actually helps us win the big races in the same election.
You might be familiar with the idea that the top-of-the-ticket candidate has "coattails"—that the big-name elections like for president or Senate bring people to the polls, and those people also vote for the rest of the ticket.
https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-secret-weapon-thousands-candidates-youve-probably-never-heard-opinion-1896246
= new reply since forum marked as read
