Friends,

It’s hard to write right now because we’re at a loss for words.

We thought that if we were lucky we’d raise maybe $20,000 for our slate of eight candidates who could flip eight state legislatures blue. But as we’re writing this on Wednesday night, barely 36 hours after the fundraiser started, that number stands at $200,000 and counting. That’s $25,000 per candidate and that money goes far down-ballot.

We knew that you cared, we knew that you were generous, we just didn’t know that you cared so much and could be so generous.

We’re also so glad that we showed progressives are willing to Give Smart. That our movement understands that we have the greatest impact when we build the party from the ground up. That we’re crafty enough to find the places where the Koch money tree and other reactionaries are weakest. Together, we can do this.

And by Giving Smart we can make the biggest impact. $25,000 might get you 10 ads on TV in Minneapolis. But look at what Kristin Bahner, running for a seat in the suburb of Maple Grove, is going to do with her money:

“Now the campaign is looking at hiring not one, but five canvassers and putting out digital ads. It’s also considering whether there’s enough time before the election to send a piece of mail around the district, and there’s even talk of a radio ad.”

That’s all thanks to you. And after reading stories like that, we can’t help but ask you to donate to another group of state legislative candidates.

---

We picked our initial list of eight candidates ourselves. And we like to think we did a pretty damn good job, at least based on how well you reacted to our request.

Seeing the momentum, we asked groups we trust to contribute lists of their own. We still vet every candidate based on the methodology we discussed here, to make sure every dollar you spend is going as far as it can. Our first list comes from EveryDistrict, a grassroots group focused on winning down-ballot races.

We loved their list. You can read more about their candidates here. And below you can see why we think the chambers they’re targeting are worthy of your hard-earned dollars.

So here at Data For Progress we’re making a simple request - $80 to spend across these eight candidates. We’ve set up an ActBlue page for you to make those donations, and you can find more about each of the candidates below. We’re calling it our Give Smart initiative. No portion of the contributions to Give Smart goes to Data for Progress. All the money supports candidates.

You can support EveryDistrict here.

You can support Data for Progress here. These contributions will not support the Give Smart candidates, but rather general operating support for the think tank.

We didn’t put the Ohio legislature on our initial list because it’s not going to flip in 2018. But with the gubernatorial race neck-and-neck, we want to be sure that if Democrat Richard Cordray wins he doesn’t have to face a Republican legislature with a supermajority that can overturn his vetoes. Right now they just need to win seven seats back in the House or five in the Senate (which, due to staggered terms, would be a two-cycle lift) to ensure that doesn’t happen. And EveryDistrict is backing three candidates in the most flippable districts. You don’t have to take our word for it, the Columbus Dispatch is saying the same thing.

Of course, we don’t always side with the nonpartisan observers. For example, few think Democrats will flip the Pennsylvania House. But as we noted before we even started asking you for money, if Democrats sweep the GOP-held seats that voted for Clinton or Obama (similar to what they did in the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017) then they’ll get a majority with room to spare. So we’re happy to highlight two of their candidates running in those chambers.

And we already asked you to donate to candidates to flip the Michigan House and Arizona Senate. But the Michigan Senate and Arizona House are also in play. While the Michigan Senate is an uphill climb, our Michigan sources told us that the seats up in this cycle are actually on pretty favorable ground. And Arizona’s House districts are actually the same as their Senate districts, so if we can flip one then we can flip the other. That’s why we’re asking you to support candidates running in those states.

Much like last time we have no idea how much we’ll be able to send to these candidates. Maybe we’ll raise $10,000. Maybe it’ll be $200,000. The only thing that we can promise you here is that your money will go far.

Best,

Bobby (@BobbyBigWheel) and Sean (@SeanMcElwee)