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Lara Putnam Profile picture
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Nov 9 • 13 tweets • 7 min read
This👇is not wrong! But note it's not just a demographic thing. The state & local organizations created/recreated by the anti-Trump grassroots ran through the tape for downballot Dems this year: even while hearing (& believing!) national voices foretelling doom
National voices #onhere have not yet processed what a stunning year this was for downballot Dems in PA. The inverse of 2020, when the presidential result distracted attention from PA Dems' grim downballot slide. PA lived the midterm backlash 2 ys early!💪
.@LetsTurnPABlue @TuesdaysToomey @acttogethernepa etc — plus the groups of different origin & profile who saw their potential & figured out how to partner: @seiuhcpa @NewPennsylvania @UniteforPA & many more
... together w the donor circles & new orgs [@runforsomething] that kept support flowing to downballot candidates & IE side groups in places old insiders had rarely funded
@runforsomething New kinds of connective tissue; new backstage actors👇 never profiled in, oh, I dunno, longforms about warring cocktail parties in Politico 🤷‍♀️ ?
And then, there's the Democratic Party. No, not that one: 👇this one.
this one👇
this one👇
Predictably everyone #onhere is claiming PA results prove what they've been advocating all along. But no, this wasn't about unabashed progressives or a populist Left: look at the ideological breadth of Dem candidates winning suburb/exurb state house seats whyy.org/articles/penns…
And full county stats aren't in (bc in PA, elections night is not results night!) so I'm resisting the urge to jump in and give you graphs & stats. But this absolutely was a college-town, university-precinct, leafy-exurb-anchored Dem downballot surge🤷‍♀️
This visual (fr great article from @StephenJ_Caruso & @KateHuangpu13) underlines where the changes happened that flipped the PA House: out in the exurbs. Think lawns and leaf-blowers & kids away at college. spotlightpa.org/news/2022/11/p…
Population shifts+redistricting created new opportunities there for Dems, & the last 5 ys of suburban Dem grassroots growth meant there were networks already there, ready to get right-for-the-distrct candidates running & fund them through the finish line
Adding here: a fascinating thread👇with details on one of. those flipped seats. Redistricting, Dobbs, local water issues—and having capable, locally-connected people ready to jump in & support a well-run campaign

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More from @lara_putnam

Lara Putnam Profile picture
Nov 9
Because you are all about to realize you need to know this: in 2021 Democratic PA Supreme Court candidate Maria McLaughlin's share of provisional ballots in both Lehigh & Northampton counties was exactly 20 ppt higher than her share of EDay+Mail votes in each.
...& likewise in Montgomery County. fwiw. 👀
... and likewise in Bucks 👀 . 2021 provisionals were 19 ppts more Dem than the combined E-Day and Mail ballots were.
Read 4 tweets
Lara Putnam Profile picture
Nov 9
So back in August @Mlsif & I wrote a thing. Most normal people who read it only focused on what we said about apocalyptic emails (& agreed), while natl groups that run postcard-writing programs only focused on what we said about postcards (& disagreed) BUT nytimes.com/2022/08/01/opi…
...the core of the piece wasn't about either of those things. It was about what a better way of building Democratic connections to volunteers AND to voters would look like: one in which communication runs laterally between them, building local knowledge & local capacity over time
We described how local activists gained knowledge of the electorate around them, & on that basis recruited candidates+prioritized tactics: not just "honing the message" to work locally, but *creating the messengers* who could effectively deliver it. In 2021 they battled to a draw
Read 9 tweets
Lara Putnam Profile picture
Nov 7
Me, in @PennCapitalStar: Hard-working, sincere, Republican county officials may face pressure to refuse to count mail-in votes that have no legal defect but that local vigilante activists find suspect. We can't let this become part of the partisan toolkit. penncapital-star.com/commentary/why…
Nearly 1/4 of the votes last year's Democratic Supreme Ct nominee netted from mail voters came from counties Donald Trump carried. It's telling that people pushing false fraud claims only want to talk about Philly: in fact Philly is where Dems are *least* likely to vote by mail🧐
But yes, there is a real problem here. The problem is that only 13% of Republicans feel “very confident” that PA state+local officials will run a free & fair election. That’s not just a sad result of past disinformation: it generates future risk penncapital-star.com/commentary/why…
Read 4 tweets
Lara Putnam Profile picture
Nov 7
We are already seeing predictable efforts to spread doubt about PA's mail-in ballot counting process, & to focus those doubts on Philly in particular. When in fact, the modal mail-in voter in Pennsylvania is someone's grandma in a mid-sized city's suburbs🤷‍♀️ Image
As a reminder, here is where the 1,053,805 voters live whose mail ballots had already been received and tallied by their counties as of 11/4/22. Image
And the vote by mail process in PA is carefully designed to be safe, secure, and reliable! Just ask this nerdy professor🧑‍🏫🗳️🇺🇸
Read 9 tweets
Lara Putnam Profile picture
Nov 5
Urgent task for community groups and voting rights groups in Philly: Help voters cure unsigned ballots *now*
👇👇👇
Given the number and breakdown of mail ballots already voted this year, a 3% rejection rate of votes cast by mail, over otherwise-fixable technicalities, would cost Democrats about 20,000 net votes statewide in this election.
Read 7 tweets
Lara Putnam Profile picture
Nov 4
Running into false or misleading claims about PA election integrity? Excellent answers and explanations to help you respond here👇!
Another great resource: @LWVPGH brings you The Journey of an Election Ballot, walking through all of the safeguards that are in place to ensure the integrity of voting and vote-counting
¿Busca recursos en español? ¡Aquí las tenemos!
Read 4 tweets

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