Briefs

Friends,

Half a million dollars. We still can’t believe it. You gave more than half a million dollars to strategically chosen state legislative candidates who could be the difference between Democratic and Republican control over the lives of millions of people.

Your money isn’t lining the pockets of consultants, or contributing to a television air war of attrition. Most of it goes to voter contact, or is the difference between a candidate running a radio/cable ad or not at all.  

And while Sheldon Adelson is out here cutting $25 million checks to Mitch McConnell, we still haven’t seen any indication that Republicans know how to fight back against these sudden small infusions of grassroots donor money.

So we’re going put together a few more slates of amazing Democrats who could help flip state legislatures. Today, we’re going to focus on a group of eight women who could decide control of  Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Minnesota and Iowa.

As with before, these races were carefully vetted to ensure your money goes as far as possible.

So here at Data For Progress we’re making a simple request - spend $80 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.

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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 $160,000 and counting.  That’s $20,000 per candidate.

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 the left is 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. $20,000 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:

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Friends,

Democrats have been breaking fundraising records all year.  With elections just three weeks away you probably want to donate, but it’s hard to tell whether a candidate really needs your money. That’s why we want you to Give Smart.

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