1. A follower recently asked why people should bother donating to political orgs instead of just donating to candidates. This thread will discuss that and why we felt it was strategically necessary to empower grassroots activists with a super pac to #WinBlue.
2. To be clear, you SHOULD be donating directly to candidates. This is an important part of the strategy. We fundraise directly for our endorsed candidates using a ‘tandem’ fundraiser - meaning you can allocate your donation between the candidate and the pac.
3. Super pacs are independent expenditure committees. They are prohibited from donating directly to candidates. The job of a super pac is to support the campaign - to leverage and maximize their efforts - to fill in the gaps and expand their reach. So, why is this important?
4. Let’s start with this painful graphic depicting party splits from 2008-2015. Now, a certain amount of GOP rebound after a Dem majority is normal pendulum politics, but it was the passing of Citizens United in Jan 2010 that radically changed the game up and down the ballot. 
5. This unleashed a trend of GOP raising and spending that dwarfed our own. Add that to the fact that the RNC has a more robust and consistent infrastructure for outreach and the result has been history. Look at how the spending changed after CU.
6. And to be clear, this increased spending is not directly to candidates. These are funds going to independent expenditure organizations largely from corporations.
7. Before anyone pipes in with ‘it’s the message not the money’, remember this...without the money, people will not hear the message — especially down-ticket. Money translates to outreach which translates to votes. We’ve been drowned out.
8. The people we need to reach and mobilize aren’t political junkies. They’re regular folk with only a passing relationship with political sound bytes. Particularly for midterms, special and local elections they will vote for the name they are the most familiar with.
9. Clearly we are not going to outspend GOP corporate donors, so what’s the solution? We believe it’s strategic support for winnable elections. Collaborating with other grassroots organizations to fill the gaps the party infrastructure has and leverage individual campaigns.
10. Small group and individual outreach in communities can help offset the power of media inundation. Well-placed billboards, social media campaigns, canvassing, phone banking, fundraising, community events - all in addition to the work of the campaign. This is what it takes.
11. We are at the end of the line. Trumpism must be pushed back, the GOP must be checked. Anymore losses and this country could be changed forever by a constitutional convention. We must all pitch in. We must be strategic. We must #WinBlue.
