This OTYCD post originally appeared in February 2018, but with the mid-terms approaching and the stakes rising, we are reposting past posts that discuss key things you can do to push back against Trump.

 

2018 will test us like never before. We have to support more than one campaign at a time, and we have to pay attention to races on the federal, state, and local levels.

 

We’ve already asked you to choose your Core Four for 2018–four Democrats, two incumbents and two challengers, for each chamber of Congress:

 

https://onethingyoucando.com/2017/12/24/choose-your-core-four-for-2018/

 

To serve those four candidates well, you’ll need to school yourself on their voting records and their backgrounds. If they’ve written books, you need to read them. You need to become expert in them so you can persuade people to vote for them and defend them to those who are skeptical or hostile.

 

Once you feel like you have those four under control, you should see whether you can add other races to your load. A total of 36 gubernatorial races happen in 2018, and several state races for Attorney General take place, too. And you might have state senators and state house representative contests to watch. Plus, your local electeds might be running, too.

 

In order to stay on top of it all, find a way to commit a minimum of two hours a week to state, local, and federal 2018 races. Money always matters, of course, but time can be even more valuable to a candidate. If you’re an excellent political volunteer, your time might be worth several times more than your dollar donations.

 

You don’t have to give your time in a two-hour block. You can chop it up as needed–four half-hours, an hour here and an hour there, twelve 20-minute blocks, twenty-four ten minute blocks, whatever works best for you.

 

Research, reading, attending speeches, going to Indivisible meetings, and talking to other people all count, as does phone-banking, canvassing, and writing GOTV postcards.

 

If you can give more than two hours a week, great! But the key thing is to aim to give at least two hours a week, and stick to it.

 

As we head toward Labor Day 2018, you might want to think about rearranging your schedule to give even more time to 2018 races. Almost all of them will end on November 6, 2018, and campaign needs will grow more intense as early November approaches.

 

It makes sense to sit down now and plan how September through November will go, particularly if you’ll have other standing obligations to work around, such as school, or your kids’ schools, or holidays such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

 

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