TODAY is the FEC Q1 Deadline. Please Give to Your Favorite Presidential, Senate, and House Candidates Before Midnight

March 31, 2020April 5, 2020 otycd

Important! Please donate to your favorite Presidential, House, and Senate candidates before midnight on Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Your money is extra-magical today.

Quarterly donation hauls matter to candidates–not just Presidential candidates, but House and Senate candidates, too.

Big donors look at the quarterly numbers and weigh them carefully when considering which candidates to support with their own dollars.

If you need to budget strategically, it’s best to aim to give toward the end of the fiscal quarters.

If you’re already giving monthly and have some to spare, aim to give before midnight on Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Your money is extra-magical then.

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Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Uncategorized

The FEC Q1 Deadline is One Week from Today

March 24, 2020March 8, 2020 otycd

Headsup: The FEC first-quarter deadline for 2020 is one week from today.

Giving you this headsup because quarterly donation hauls matter to candidates.

It doesn’t just matter to presidential candidates, either. The quarterly deadlines matter to House and Senate candidates, too.

Big donors look at the quarterly numbers and weigh them carefully when considering which candidates to support with their own dollars.

If you need to budget strategically, aim to give toward the end of the fiscal quarters.

If you’re already giving monthly and have some to spare, aim to give before midnight on March 31. Your money is extra-magical then.

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Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Community Activism · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends

Set Aside Two Hours Per Week To Work For Your Chosen 2020 Candidates

February 15, 2020February 9, 2020 otycd

This OTYCD post originally appeared in February 2018, but for obvious reasons, we are updating and reposting it for 2020.

2018 was a huge test for us all. We stepped up. All the texting, phone-banking, canvassing, postcard-writing, and general beating-of-the-drum paid off. Democrats claimed control of the House of Representatives, and our efforts helped limit likely Democratic losses in the Senate during a cycle that favored the Republicans. Had things been closer to normal, the GOP could have picked up six to nine seats. While we lost two Senate seats, we gained two, and the GOP didn’t come close to their 2018 goals.

So! On to 2020. We’ve already asked you to choose your Core Four for 2020–four Democrats, two incumbents and two challengers, for each chamber of Congress, PLUS choosing a voting rights organization to support:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2020/02/01/choose-your-core-four-plus-a-voting-rights-org-to-support-in-2020-2/

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.

Obviously, you will need to read up on the Democratic nominee for president as well, once that person is chosen.

Once you feel like you have those five under control, you should see whether you can add other races to your load. State and local races will take place, 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 2020 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 2020, you might want to think about rearranging your schedule to give even more time to 2020 races. Almost all of them will end on November 3, 2020, 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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Action Alerts · Choose Your Core Four · Community Activism · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends

See One Thing You Can Do’s 2020 To-Do List

February 14, 2020February 9, 2020 otycd

See the 2020 To-Do List compiled by this very blog, One Thing You Can Do.

With profound apologies for not having this ready to go on January 1, 2020, we have assembled a To-Do list for 2020.

We created it as a page on the site, but we realize we should release it as a post as well.

Please bookmark it and refer to it often in the months leading up to Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

See it here:

https://onethingyoucando.com/your-2020-to-do-list/

Choose Your Core Four · Community Activism · Elections · Read, Educate Yourself, Prepare

Do You Live In Or Near a 2020 Swing State?

February 12, 2020February 9, 2020 otycd

Do you live in a 2020 swing state? Find out.

Whenever a presidential election approaches on the calendar, there’s much discussion of swing states–states that seem like they could tilt toward either the Democratic candidate or the Republican, and which should prove critical to a victory in the Electoral College. [A candidate has to rack up a minimum of 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency. As of December 2019, the Electoral College consisted of 538 votes.]

Things have gotten ever more polarized over the years, which means the number of legitimate swing states has shrunk. But until we get rid of the Electoral College, swing states will exist, and they will matter more to the candidates than will states that are firmly red or blue.

In an August 2019 guest column for Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Alfred J. Tuchfarber identified six 2020 swing states:

Florida

Michigan

Minnesota

New Hampshire

Pennsylvania

Wisconsin

If you live in or near one of these states, it’s a good idea to pay closer attention and devote time and money to bringing about the result that you want to see.

In particular, you will want to stay on top of threats to the integrity of the voter rolls–attempts to restrict or suppress residents’ ability to cast a ballot–and you will want to do what you can to fight back.

And though Trump is notably weak on a national level, he might show stronger-than-expected poll numbers in specific states. For example, an early November 2019 CNBC piece shows Trump trailing Joe Biden in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Wisconsin, but faring better against Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. [Important note: the polls discussed took place weeks before the House of Representatives wrote and voted on articles of impeachment against Trump.]

A looser definition seems to apply to “battleground” states–those regarded as less important to the overall Electoral College count, but which could be in play in the next presidential election.

In an undated piece about 2020 Battleground States, Taegan Goddard counts the six swing states mentioned above and includes:

Maine

North Carolina

Georgia

Texas

Arizona

If you live in or near these five states, you’ll want to keep an eye on things here as well. That said, if you need to budget your attention, favor the swing states over the battleground states. The six swing states merit mention in both the Sabato and the Goddard articles.

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Choose Your Core Four · Community Activism · Elections · Uncategorized

Choose Your Core Four PLUS a Voting Rights Org to Support in 2020

February 1, 2020January 19, 2020 otycd

This post originally ran on OTYCD in December 2019. We’re rerunning it because Dangit, It’s Important!

Choose your Core Four*–two Democratic senators and two Democratic house reps, an incumbent and a challenger for each chamber–to support to in 2020. PLUS, choose a voting rights organization to support as well.

From late 2016 until now, we’ve been going to bat for Democratic candidates in individual special elections. Usually, we’ve supported one Democrat at a time.

2018 was a big test of our collective resolve. We did well. The work we put in helped shift control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats. Had we failed, Trump would be steaming ahead unchecked. But we didn’t, and he’s now only the third impeached president in American history. (As of this writing, he is awaiting trial in the Senate.)

Literally hundreds of races–35 senators (33 plus two special elections), and all 435 House reps–are taking place, and all of them will end on November 3, 2020.

We need to fight to keep control of the House of Representatives (likely, but hey, never treat anything as a certainty), and we have a shot at wresting control of the Senate away from Mitch McConnell and the GOP (tough, but doable).

We at OTYCD suggest that you prepare for what’s coming by choosing your “Core Four”–four Democratic candidates who will receive the bulk of your efforts–PLUS an organization that actively supports and defends the right to vote.

Your Core Four Plus Should Include:

Two Democrats for the House of Representatives.

Two Democrats for the Senate.

One incumbent and one challenger for each chamber of Congress.

AND an organization such as Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight, Andrew Gillum’s Forward Florida Action, and Flip the Texas House, which Beto O’Rourke is throwing in with.

How to Pick Your Core Four

There’s no right way or wrong way to choose your Core Four, but we suggest starting in your own backyard, with the members of Congress who represent your state.

If you don’t know who your members of Congress are, go to this website and plug your street address into the search engine:

whoaremyrepresentatives.org

…then research the three names–one House rep and two Senators–that come up.

Do you have a good Democratic House Rep? Then embrace him or her.

Do you have a lousy House Rep, or is your district’s seat being vacated? Look up the Democratic challengers for the seat and choose one. Look to Ballotpedia.org for help with finding challengers in your federal district.

One-third of all senators will be up for re-election in 2020, and there will be two special elections also: One in Arizona, for the seat to which Martha McSally was appointed following the death of John McCain; and one in Georgia, to fill the seat vacated by Johnny Isakson.

It’s possible that at least one of your senators (and possibly both) is due to run (but scroll down for a list of states where neither senator has to run).

Is one or both of your senators up for re-election? Are they good Dems? If so, embrace them and get behind them.

Is your senator who’s running for re-election a lousy senator? Learn about the Democratic challengers for the seat, and be ready to help a challenger however you can. As always, Ballotpedia.org is your friend here.

Your help can take the form of time, money, word of mouth, or some combination of the three. But you need to choose your four Democrats, and you need to think seriously about how you will juggle the needs of all four, plus the voting rights organization.

You’ll need to sit down and plot this out as you might plot a semester’s course schedule in college. The demands of the four candidates will overlap and they’ll all come due at the same time–in the weeks and days leading up to November 3, 2020. You’ll also have to factor in appointments and life events of your own, too, of course.

Choosing your Core Four: A Test Case

Let’s say you live in California.

Your House Rep is up for re-election because they all are. Is yours a good Democrat? Then you have your House incumbent settled.

If your House Rep is not a good Democrat, or is a lousy Republican, or is retiring, check Ballotpedia and see who’s challenging for the seat.

Let’s assume for the sake of this example that your House Rep is a good Dem. There’s one of your four settled.

Now look for a challenger who’s aiming to take a terrible House Republican out.

How about Tedra Cobb? She hopes to push freshman House Rep Elise Stefanik out of New York’s 21st Congressional District. Stefanik, you will recall, made a fool of herself by going Full Metal Trumpista during the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry at the tail of 2019. Decent choice. Allocate time and money to Cobb. There. You’ve chosen your two House Dems, one incumbent and one challenger.

Now turn to the senators. It so happens that neither of the incumbent senators from California are up for re-election in 2020. You are free to devote your resources elsewhere.

Doug Jones of Alabama is up in 2020, and he’s regarded as the most vulnerable sitting Democratic Senator. How about you get behind him?

Now look for a candidate who hopes to push out a terrible sitting Republican Senator. You’re spoiled for choice here, truly. Maybe consider Jaime Harrison, who’s running against Lindsay Graham in South Carolina.

And there’s your Core Four: Your good incumbent Democratic House Rep, Tedra Cobb in New York state, Doug Jones in Alabama, and Jaime Harrison in South Carolina.

Of course, you can choose more than four Congressional candidates to back. But the idea here is to help you focus.

If you can take on more than four candidates, do it. But four is just enough, in our opinion–more than one, but still a number small enough to count on one hand.

Because it’s 2020, and because fighting dirty is kind of the Republican brand now, we’re asking you to pick a Core Four Plus, with the plus being an organization that fights for voting rights. We named three above, but they’re not the only three that are out there. We will devote a separate, periodically updated post that lists voting rights orgs, and we’ll link it here in a few places once it’s ready.

You can certainly look to orgs such as Swing Left, Sister District, Emily’s List, and the like to help you make your choices. The main thing is nowrightnow is the time to think seriously about those choices.

Also, if you live in one of the states listed below, neither of your Senators is up for re-election, and you can devote your resources to incumbents and candidates in other states:

California

Connecticut

New York state

Florida

Indiana

Maryland

Missouri

North Dakota

Nevada

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Washington state

Wisconsin

Utah

Vermont

* Our ‘Core Four’ only covers federal Congress races. You might have other important races happening at the state and local level–for governor, attorney general, mayor, what have you. Please don’t neglect those races.

See the website for Ballotpedia.org:

https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page

Visit the website of Swing Left, which focuses on taking back the House of Representatives:

https://swingleft.org

Visit the website of Sister District, which connects you with districts and regions near you with races that could use your support:

Home

Visit the website of Emily’s List, which helps elect pro-choice Democratic women to office:

https://www.emilyslist.org

See OTYCD‘s past posts on picking House Reps and Senators to support in 2018, and on starting a 2018 fund:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2017/12/09/start-scouting-for-senators-who-you-can-donate-time-and-money-to-in-2018/

https://onethingyoucando.com/2017/12/09/think-about-which-house-reps-to-support-or-oppose-in-2018/

https://onethingyoucando.com/2017/12/09/start-a-2018-fund/

Choose Your Core Four · Community Activism · Elections · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends

Believe It, You Matter, Part VIII: No Matter What the Polls Say, Act Like Your Candidates Are Ten Points Behind

January 5, 2020December 22, 2019 otycd

This OTYCD post originally appeared in August 2018. As we head into 2020, and the fight that it promises, it’s time to repost some classics.

No matter what the polls say, always act like your candidates are ten points behind.

If you’ve been watching the polls on “generic Democratic Congressional candidates” vs the GOP, you know that they’ve been all over the place–sometimes giving the Dems a huge lead, sometimes showing the GOP closing the gap.

Ignore those polls.

Ok, let’s be more specific. No matter what’s happening with the polls, always act like the candidates you’re supporting are ten points behind. Even if they’re not.

2018 promises to be the most consequential midterm election in several decades, and possibly the most consequential since midterms began. [Do I need to tell you that 2020 will be bigger than 2018? Yeah.]

You need to focus and stay focused on your candidates. (You’re using the Core Four technique, yes?)

Keep talking to friends and family about them. Keep volunteering for them. Keep donating to them regularly (small sums given monthly are better than a big lump sum given once). Keep boosting them on social media.

Stick to your schedule of self-imposed breaks. Burnout is a thing. We need you. Yes, things are bad and this election is crucial, but still, don’t try to do everything all the time or you won’t be able to do anything.

And! Keep talking to friends and family about voting, and make sure everyone you know is registered to vote, knows where the polling place is, and knows how they’re getting there on the day.

Polls say many things. Don’t be lulled into complacency if your candidates are doing well. Keep putting in the same amount of time, money, and effort that you’ve put in all along, and encourage everyone you know who’s game to do more than show up and vote to do whatever else they’re willing to do, whatever that is.

Stay strong. Stay steady. Stay focused.

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Choose Your Core Four · Community Activism · Elections · Postcard Campaigns · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends

Choose Your Core Four PLUS a Voting Rights Org to Support in 2020

December 27, 2019December 22, 2019 otycd