So, I have a longish ~thread~ for you about something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: The permanent change moving forward in what kind of people @runforsomething -- and the new definition of what “a good field of candidates” means... /1
Y’all know how outraged I get about uncontested elections. (Literally, chapter 2 of my book is called: “An excuse to talk about the utter bullshit that is the uncontested election.") So keep in mind: The stats I’m about to share aren’t perfect! But progress here matters. /2
In Alabama, Democrats will have candidates in at least 74 of 105 House districts — compared to only 56 candidates in 2014. /3 montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/pol…
As of February, 108 Democrats had filed to run in Arizona — including 50 women and 54 people of color. /4 phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-s…
Democrats have a candidate on the ballot in every single 2018 Colorado congressional, statehouse and major statewide race. /5 denverpost.com/2018/04/20/col…
Democrats in Indiana are contesting 84 of 100 state legislature races—their highest this millennium. /6 motherjones.com/politics/2018/…
In Kentucky, we’re contesting 93 out of 100 seats in the lower chamber — the most since 2000. The Democratic slate for the KY state senate is 70 percent women. /7 kentucky.com/news/politics-…
Democrats are running in every single state House and Senate race in North Carolina. /8 newsobserver.com/opinion/opn-co…
Ohio Democrats are fielding a candidate for all 99 state house districts and all 17 state senate districts. /9 cleveland.com/open/index.ssf…
The Oregon Senate has Democratic candidates running for every district, and in the house, Democrats have filed to run in 55 of the 60 seats up for election. /10
In Pennsylvania, Dems are running 180 candidates — our biggest lineup since at least 2000. /11
witf.org/state-house-so…
witf.org/state-house-so…
Texas!! Dems are contesting 131 of 150 state house districts -- a nearly 50 percent increase over 2016. /12 vox.com/policy-and-pol…
In Utah in 2016, 15 state legislative races went uncontested. In 2018, that number is down to THREE. /13 sltrib.com/news/politics/…
In nine legislative chambers -- the Georgia House and Senate, Illinois House, Kentucky Senate, Maine House, Montana Senate, Nevada Assembly, Texas Senate and Utah Senate -- women make up half or more of the Democratic slate. /14 usnews.com/news/best-stat…
No matter what happens this fall — and I’m cautiously optimistic!! — it will never again be okay for Democrats to leave seats uncontested. It will never again be okay for us to run exclusively rich old white men for office. That’s a cultural shift that will be tough to undo. /15
Obviously, I’m super proud that our team at @runforsomething has been at the forefront of this work — both on the ground recruiting candidates and in shaping the ~narrative~ — but I’m even prouder that it’ll pay dividends for generations. /16
There will be some surprising pick-ups on the state legislative level this fall because of this work -- and even the losses will lay the foundation for wins in two, four, or ten years time. /17
We still have *so* much work to do to make sure all candidates get the access to resources they need to run strong voter-contact campaigns centered around local issues. But I hope you're at least a teensy bit as hyped as I am about this. /end!!
Kidding! One final thought: More local candidates means more people talking to voters which means more wins for Democrats up and down the ticket. The wave (and taking back Congress) starts at the bottom. /actually end!!
