Welcome back, Saturday Campaign D.I.Y.ers! For those who tune in, welcome to the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. Each week we discuss issues that help drive successful campaigns. If you’ve missed prior diaries, please visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
During the 2015-2016 election cycle, we focused a lot on a specific candidate, Jessica Jones, who ran for state Senate. Thanks to so many groups looking for social and direct activism, we’re going to start this cycle following three different fictional people: an educator in Tim Smith; a stay-at-home mom in Nancy Wood; and an accountant activist in Sarah Goodnow.
With the rise of Indivisible, PSN, and many other local organizations hoping to make an impact on 2018 elections, now is a good time to start talking about how these organizations can begin to make an impact. Over the next 17 months, we’re going to follow different paths they can take in the process. Whether it is being an outside agitator, forming a state-level PAC, leveling endorsements, or providing campaigns outside support.
Tim, Nancy and Sarah met one another through post campaign activism. Immediately following the election in 2016, they found one another through Facebook participating in a local group aimed at discussing what to do next. The group had met a few times locally. Thousands of members participated online, and it was pretty comforting to know that others were interested in doing something to stand up to Trump.
As time went on, the group continued to grow and things like the Indivisible Guide, Move On, and even stories they had read on sites like Daily Kos were shared to help keep the group informed as to what was happening. Nancy, however, wasn’t content with this: griping on the internet wasn’t going to change election results. It wouldn’t alter the outcomes in 2018 either. How could they take the bottled up energy of their ever-growing Facebook group and start turning it into actual political power?
One of the things Nancy really liked about things like the Indivisible Guide was that it had direct ideas about what to do. Concrete steps of things she could implement. Tim, a friend she had met through the group had great camera equipment and enjoyed taping local political meetings in case anything happened. Sarah had great local business contacts to try and figure out how to support candidates if they ran.
All of this, though, struck Nancy as step one. Lots of opposition, but how do they get to the next step, using the opposition to overturn sitting elected people they didn’t like? Sitting down with her group, they moved forward with the first three steps.
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