Thread by @TiffanyBond

I'd like to send my big THANK YOU out to everyone today.

I left last week to the men to celebrate or lick wounds.

I started with 2 goals, both accomplished:

✔️ Incumbent no longer making law

✔️ Find a way to make campaigning not suck while getting $ OUT

#mepolitics #TWPSB

Quick recap of what we accomplished.

Final 1st round vote count looks like 16,260; 5.73% of the votes.

I spent <$800 of my own money, accepted no campaign contributions (probably <$750, I rounded up on stamps - I'd rather estimate high).

<$.05 per vote.

#TWPSB #mepolitics

We problem-solved to fix all the things we don't like about politics.

🚫NO CAMPAIGN SIGNS!
Bad for the planet, expensive and annoying.

👊Instead we made our own or had signs that could be downloaded, printed on a regular printer, taped in windows, then recycled.

#TWPSB

🚫 BEGGING FOR CAMPAIGN DONATIONS
Could you even check your email this year?

🚫 HORRIBLE COMMERCIALS
Mean, no useful value in determining skill, wasteful.

🚫 OBNOXIOUS FLYERS
Mean, no useful value in determining skill, wasteful.

#TWPSB

👊Instead of fundraising, begging you for money incessantly to pay for things you don't need or want, we did #MaineRaising.

You chose where you donated or shopped to benefit #ME02 and left notes. You got write-offs and/or great stuff, our economy improved!

#TWPSB

We helped with food insecurity, domestic violence, heating oil, opioid treatment, and cleared at least 38 classroom projects for rural Maine teachers!

We helped our neighbors. We made politics good, kind, something to run to instead of away from.

#TWPSB

We made campaigning FUN.

How great is that? We shopped, donated, treated "door knocking" like a treasure hunt you could do in pjs without talking to a soul. It was a serendipitous way to help without feeling like your "donation" was paying for .0001 seconds of a bad ad.

#TWPSB

We got to show and tell the ways we'd helped, and build community along the way. So very many of you became honorary Mainers.

Imagine doing this everywhere, each campaign season being like Christmas, where we can't wait to find out who we help and what great stuff we get.
#TWPSB

🚫 BAD INTERVIEW
We recognized that the job interview is a year + reality tv show that doesn't provide any insight at all into how someone might actually *do* their job in Congress, we read bills together and had great policy conversations.

#TWPSB

I sucked up my hatred of being filmed.

We had connected unfiltered, unpolished, and shared our lives with each other...down to the very last day, we were in it together. I was so honored to have DMs and emails full of people who felt really heard.

#TWPSB

I started almost entirely invisible with a handful of followers.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you all so very much for volunteering, sharing, #MaineRaising, and voting. You made 2018 worth doing. I am so honored that so many of you took risks with me, for us all.

#TWPSB

16,260 voters took the leap with me to try something new, different, and almost painfully real. If you each grab 6-12 friends in the next couple of years...we could win.

Are you up for it? There are 3 job interviews in Maine for federal law in 2020.

#TWPSB

I'm open to the possibility of another run.

I'm not sure which is the best fit yet, but let's keep #MaineRaising and talking until we figure it out.

If you want me to try, show me there are the supports to do it again now that we have the model.

#TWPSB

To help make politics the way they should be...

Put up a sign

Tell a friend every week

Do a #MaineRaising every month, donate or shop anywhere in Maine, leave a note about wanting me in Congress

Ask 5 folks to follow on social media

Share all of it on social media

#TWPSB

Tomorrow, there is a good chance politics will come up.

Use all the eye-rolling and angst to talk about making politics good in your hometown, how to get leaders that put us all first and campaigns that really help.

Infect your table with optimism, let's make a movement.
#TWPSB

2019 and 2020 do not have to be stressful and miserable. No more screaming at the sky.

We want hope, we waited for change from others...let's make our own change and reshape politics into the best version of us, knock out the hate, fear, and panic.

#TWPSB

Tired of the drama, gridlock, feeling sold out to donors, invisible, unheard?

Want a REAL grassroots, crowdsourced campaign?

Let us taunt the establishment a second time with compassion, skill, and a touch of humor.

XO,
The gal who showed up for you, 2x for one debate!

#TWPSB

Help by doing a #MaineRaising.

1. Donate to #Maine causes or shop at Maine businesses
2. Leave a note about #MaineRaising
3. Share your #MaineRaising on social media

Make sure to explore all Maine has to offer as we make politics not suck together.