Hey folks --
I wanted to be sure to reach out to you before the year is up. I know there's a lot of hullabaloo out there about exactly what Democrats have accomplished this year, but as a committed grassroots supporter I wanted to take a moment to highlight all the progress we have to be proud of.
I hope you'll take a few minutes to read this memo. I'm only sending it to top supporters like you, because I know you're the reason why President Biden and Vice President Harris, Democrats in Congress, and the DNC have been able to deliver for the American people this year. If you're so moved after you read it, chip in a few bucks to keep up our momentum heading into 2022. I'll admit it's a bit long, but we've accomplished a lot!
Building for 2022
There's no time like the present -- that's why we got right to work this year building the party infrastructure that'll be so critical for the upcoming midterm elections. Here are just a few of the things the DNC committed to:
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Organizing and mobilizing voters: We maintained and are growing our Biden-Harris distributed volunteer community, which includes 200,000+ supporters across the country trained in talking to voters via phone calls, text messages, and relational outreach.
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Protecting the right to vote: We also announced a major expansion of the ‘I Will Vote' initiative to address and overcome constant efforts to make voting more difficult. And we're staffing the largest voter protection program in DNC history, maintaining and improving our voter protection data and technology.
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Investing and organizing everywhere: We doubled down on the "57-state-and-territory strategy" by upping the size of our grants to state parties by 25% to ensure innovation and early organizing. We also established a brand-new Red State Fund to put $2 million behind getting Republicans on the defense and building tailored programs for traditionally Republican states.
Investing Year-round
I know this myself from running for Senate in South Carolina: We can't take a single year or a single election for granted. Every race matters -- and the best way to win is to invest in races early and often. That's why the DNC made historic investments in our 2021 elections -- to the tune of over $7 million. That money went to support campaign staff, distributed organizing capacity, training, voter protection support, GOTV, and more.
We took the fight to states across the map this year -- like in Pennsylvania, where we made a six-figure investment to support candidates up and down the ballot, including in statewide and county-level races. We also invested to help elect Democratic mayors from Manchester, New Hampshire to St. Petersburg, Florida, helped lift Melanie Stansbury to victory in New Mexico's special election, recruited volunteers for the California gubernatorial recall, and more.
Sharing Our Legislative Wins
You've heard me say it a million times, and you'll keep hearing me say it: The ‘D' in Democrats stands for deliver. And this year President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats secured two huge legislative wins -- the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
We know that sharing how those pieces of legislation will better folks' lives -- whether it's for the parent who'll no longer have to sit in a parking lot for their kid to access the internet for homework or the child who will be able to turn on the tap and drink clean water thanks to the removal of dangerous lead pipes -- will be critical to making even more progress possible next year.
None of this would be possible without this grassroots team. The DNC has never been a more grassroots-powered organization than it is right now, and I couldn't be prouder of that.
This year alone, over one million people donated to the DNC. This has been the best fundraising off-year in DNC history -- and because of it, we've been able to build a strong foundation for next year's midterms. But we've got to keep building.
If this year has shown us anything, it is that Democrats can deliver for families everywhere, while Republicans will do everything they can to stand in the way of our progress and throw the kitchen sink at us in an attempt to take back any seat they can.
If you're able, will you make a $7 donation to the DNC today? Whatever you're able to give today will help ramp up our efforts as we head into next year's midterms.
Let's get to work!
Jaime
Jaime Harrison
Chair
Democratic National Committee
