You are all doing an amazing job of energizing your groups, educating them on our campaigns, and placing orders that are making a difference for our partners. Our democracy may be challenged, but with organizers like you, we now have real hope that our work will bring electoral success in November.
You all know that our campaigns have empirical rigor. As an all-volunteer organization, our ability to work in coordination with candidates and Democratic county and state campaigns provides us with direct feedback on outcomes. In the five counties in Pennsylvania that we have been working with, data out of Allegheny county indicates that our work has significantly increased vote by mail engagement among low-propensity voters.
In lay terms, ”significant“ means that the volume of letters that you all sent made a big difference – a difference greater than what we usually expect. Because we are all veteran volunteers now, we know that even a small difference can be what assures victory in a campaign. Every postcard written by someone in your group is a part of our always-growing effort.
A Big Ask for This Week
In a planning call this week, Sarah, our host newsletters editor, talked with growing emotion about watching the 2022 Boston Marathon, and the two lead women running neck-and-neck to the finish line. She sparked my interest by describing how they worked in synchrony, faces and bodies spurring each other on, until the seconds of the final sprint to win.
We need to be working in synchrony as well: talking to one another about the importance of these final weeks, cheering each other on to do just a bit more, work a bit harder. This is perhaps the most important finish line of our lives. I know it is for mine, and, like you, I have worked on many important campaigns.
So, we are asking that you reach out this week. Find at least one more person to be part of your group. Tell them that we are sprinting to the finish line, and we need their help. We are finalizing one phase of our mailings for North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and beginning the final phase of the campaigns with the ballot chase and get out the vote mailings ahead.
Get Ready for New Initiatives
The eStore currently has ballot chase letters for Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and postcards for NC candidate Ricky Hurtado. We will soon also have postcards for NC candidate Laura Budd. Watch the #team-host-experience and #postcard-hosts channels on Slack for the latest campaign and eStore updates.
In closing, it’s never too late to recruit new volunteers, especially those newly aware and eager to help. I added a new volunteer to my group today, after a cup of tea with a neighbor, and encourage you to as well.
Remember, this is a group effort. Let’s continue to lean in together.
Thank you,
Janet Nelson and the Swing Blue Alliance team – Alix, Bob, Julia, Richard, Sarah, Susan
Do not stand idly by – Elie Wiesel
Activism is the antidote to despair
– Joan Baez