Thread by @RossMoRock

THREAD: There are a lot of takes, so figured I'd add another. We didn't win in quite the way we wanted to both up and down the ballot. That is understandable because we built significant expectations around what was possible this year. But this deserves a deeper dive (1/?)

Four years ago if you mentioned that in 2020 we'd be: competing for TX, GA, NC, and winning AZ you'd think I was messing with you. You'd be perplexed if I told you we'd be competing for state chambers in AZ, FL, GA, MI, NC, PA, and TX. We've come a long way in a short time. (2/?)

Our *feelings* are because we expected to do better, which came from a few things that included an epic polling failure and the fact that big wins in 2017, 2018, and 2019 all indicated that we'd win big in 2020. That was reinforced by the huge turnout and Trump being Trump. (3/?)

An issue is that Trump wasn't on the ballot b/t 2017-2019. This also happened with Pres Obama in 2008 and 2012. In the intervening years we lost big, but when he was on the ballot we did better. Same seems to be true of Trump. When he's on he ballot, white men get stoked.(4/?)

We also need to remember that until VERY recently AZ, GA, NC, and TX were all GOP strongholds. Eventually winning these states on a regular basis takes time because building infrastructure and long-term power doesn't happen overnight. (5/?)

The big wins in Arizona are because of the incredible work from folks/orgs like @LUCHA_AZ, @phoenikera, @CasaOnTheRez, and so many others who've been building over the last 10 plus years. That kinda of work has also been happening in GA, NC, and TX! (6/?)

But even with the breakthroughs of the last few years, we're going to see setbacks because organizing is hard. Because of that, we need to keep seeing the same kinds of investments in these states in 2021 and beyond. We can't just invest during the even years! (7/?)

We saw more success at the local level than any part of the ballot. Democrats won city councils seats, judicial races, and school board seats. These races show us that folks support Democrats and our ideas. They also show how hard it is to win on gerrymandered maps. (8/?)

If we are going to keep doing better in these places we need to continue investing in the local powerbuilding work that we KNOW leads to victories. We need to invest in local orgs, leaders, and candidates who know their communities and aren't going anywhere. (9/?)

We can't get stuck in a cycle where we blame certain groups of people for the election results. If folks didn't vote for us it's because we didn't give them a reason to, not the other way around. That's why we need to invest in those communities year-round! (10/?)

We can't get stuck in an accounting of whether we won/lost bc of specific tactics. We couldn't knock on doors that def impacted the results, and we lost a lot of these seats by more than field margins. We also spent record amounts in so many districts and still lost. (11/?)

I'm not going to go out here and say money does not matter, it does. Field matters... it's not the only thing, but it does! A lot of things happened, and it's going to take a while to unpack, so don't listen to folks painting with a broad brush -- this shit is complicated. (12/?)