Election Results (11/9/23)
Let's give ourselves a much-deserved pat on the back!! While Democrats around the country celebrated Tuesday's wins, our community was directly involved in many of these important victories. Whether you joined our Markers For Democracy 2023 Giving Circle, wrote postcards, phone banked, text banked, canvassed, cure called, or joined us on one of our Zooms to hear from candidates, thank you for being a part of a community that tends to democracy every year, even in elections that the media and many of our fellow Democrats term “off year.”
We helped win in Virginia!
First, Virginia, where our Markers For Democracy 2023 Giving Circle raised over $80,000 for Democratic candidates running for the Virginia General Assembly, including several candidates who won the tipping point seats that flipped the House of Delegates and held the Senate. Democrats now have majorities in both Houses and can prevent Governor Glenn Youngkin from enacting laws against reproductive freedom, voting, and gun safety. Thank you again to all who joined our giving circle and donated so generously.
In addition to the funds raised through our giving circle, we supported Virginia candidates with our postcards, through Postcards For Democracy, Postcards4VA, Postcards To Voters, and other groups including Environmental Voter Project, Blue Wave Postcards, and Reclaim Our Vote. We also text banked, phone banked, and cure called to Virginia.
Finally, We hosted many Virginia candidates on our postcarding zooms:
December 2022 for their special elections: Senator Aaron Rouse, Representative Jennifer McClellan, and Delegate Holly Seibold (all won their races)
In 2023: Senators Lashrecse Aird, Jennifer Boysko, Schuyler VanValkenberg; Delegates Alex Askew, Josh Cole, Kelly Fowler, Phil Hernandez, Amy Laufer, Stella Pekarsky, Josh Thomas, Kathy Tran, and Rod Willett (all won their races)
Candidates for General Assembly who ran valiantly but didn’t win: Kimberly Pope Adams, Jessica Anderson, Heidi Draschak, Lily Franklin, Karen and Clint Jenkins, Victoria Luevanos, and Cat Porterfield
Candidates who ran down ballot: Juli Briskman, Dominique Chatters, and Deshundra Jefferson who won, and Traci Franssen who sadly lost
We also hosted two evening events featuring Virginia Democrats Delegate Dan Helmer, and the recently elected Speaker of the Virginia House, Don Scott; and we hosted and learned from Lynlee Thorne, a Virginia farmer who founded Rural Ground Game
We helped maintain reproductive freedom for women in Ohio!
Second, Ohio, where we wrote postcards through Postcards To Voters, Activate America, and other groups, first in the summer and then again in the fall. We also hosted Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters and former Chair David Pepper. Ohio and Virginia showed us that the issue of reproductive freedom is not going away as a critical issue in elections, and Democrats should run hard on it. We look forward to writing postcards to more states with reproductive freedom on the ballot in 2024, which hopefully will include Arizona, Florida, and New York.
We helped defeat Moms For Liberty School Board Candidates in PA!
Third, Pennsylvania, where we hosted the parents who organized to push back against the Moms for Liberty candidates for Pennridge School Board and then wrote thousands of postcards for the Pennridge Community Alliance candidates who swept their election on Tuesday night. We celebrated with Pennridge parents, including Jane Cramer, who was a guest on MSNBC on Friday night. Tuesday was a rebuke to the inaccurately named Moms for Liberty. Their candidates lost in Pennridge, Central Bucks, and across the country including in Iowa and Ohio. We hope to write more postcards to support candidates who run for school board against extremists like Moms for Liberty.
Some exciting wins in NY! Disappointing losses on Long Island where more work is needed.
Finally, New York, where we saw some wins – Manny Nneji and Steve Englebright, whom we hosted on Zoom and for whom we wrote postcards; and Justin Brannan and Rebecca Sanin, whom we hosted. Sadly we also saw a lot of disappointing losses by great candidates whom we met and supported, including Dave Calone, Ken Colon, Catherine Kent, Ryan McGarry, Jon Kaiman, Eve Meltzer-Krief, Derek Stein, and Marjorie Velazquez. Most of these candidates ran on Long Island, where Republicans have now had three “red wave” elections in 2021, 2022, and 2023. In 2021, Democrats also suffered losses in New Jersey and Virginia, but on Tuesday night those states swung back to Democrats while Nassau and Suffolk stayed red. The questions that we started to ask after Democrats lost key races on Long Island in 2022 continue, and, if anything, are more urgent now, as we begin the 2024 cycle with several must-flip Congressional seats on Long Island. We will be continuing to ask those questions and work with any group or individual interested in the hard work of turning Long Island blue again.
In the meantime, we have postcards to write, including thank you postcards to the candidates who stepped up to run but did not win. We have 2024 candidates to host, including Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who is running for the U.S. Senate from Florida and joins us this Friday. And we have community to build with our annual Thanksgiving recipe exchange this Tuesday, and our in-person Fifth Year Anniversary party on November 29th. Peruse our newsletter for more events – including a Zoom with Senator Warnock and Representative Jeff Jackson, and another with five frontline Democrats, as well as an in-person gathering to celebrate the publication of “Art Works.” As we work now towards 2024, we hope to see you on Zoom or in person soon. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we are grateful for you all and the community we have built together.