Empower Us: An Open Letter to DNC Chair Jamie Harrison

Dear Chairman Harrison, 

I don't envy your position.

As DNC Chairman, you are responsible for uniting a diverse and robust political party that is the only thing separating the United States from authoritarianism. There exists factions within the party, including those like the Justice Democrats, who would willingly let the world burn if it helped them increase their influence. You also have conservative members hellbent on keeping their positions so much so that they refuse to amend the antiquated and undemocratic filibuster that would save us from a fascist Republican takeover. You do all this while simultaneously battling a corrupt media that downplays the current administration's successes and overhypes its challenges. Combing all that with inflation, rising gas prices, and an impulsive American public that wants to blame Democrats for problems beyond their control and it's clear that 2022 will be an uphill battle to maintain control of the House and Senate. Even with a slate of outstanding candidates, a favorable Senate map, and redistricting that is put keeping the house within reach, there still will be challenges in the months to come.

But these challenges can be overcome if you consider what's possible.

For the first time in our nation's history, you, Chairman Harrison, have tens of thousands of loyal Democrats at your fingertips. Through the evolution of voter engagement techniques that we saw utilized for the first real time in 2020, you now can have dedicated party members working across the country to help win some of these critical races. Through the use of virtual phone and text banks as well as the ability to fundraise for candidates anywhere, Democrats in all 50 states can join these campaigns from the comfort of their own homes and can reach out to unregistered and undecided voters in the races that truly matter. This gives those of us in dark blue states the opportunity to actually make an impact rather than thinking that our votes won't matter. Because each of us can easily adopt one or more races to provide our time and talents to help those on the ground doing the hard work of organizing, knocking on doors, registering voters, and providing education, resources, and even Election Day transportation to those that need. What you have, Chairman Harrison, is a virtual army at your disposal. 

But sadly, this army is not being utilized to its fullest potential. 

Currently, there exists a huge gap in how the state parties are utilizing these resources. While larger, more efficient state parties like the CA Democratic Party have robust opportunities and trainings to become involved, other states like Florida simply do not offer those from out-of-state with the opportunity to do targeted voter engagement work. The fact that we are less than 6 months away from the election and that we don't have establishing phone and text banking opportunities in the swing states is a huge missed opportunity. The DNC has raised record amounts of money in 2022 thus far, why aren't they investing in the human and financial capital needed for these programs? There are tens of thousands of dedicated Democrats itching to hop on these races, yet by leaving it up to the state parties we are seeing a huge mismanagement of resources as to what is possible. At some point, Chairman Harrison, there needs to be accountability from the DNC to step in and create organizing teams that set up these virtual campaign trainings and adapt the already existing software to their own voter registration rolls. You have dozens of young, talented organizers who have been trained on the software, why not let them lead workshops to train others to start their own statewide programs? 

In addition to overhauling the the state programs, what you need to do, Chairman Harrison, is to utilize the talents of these Democratic leaders who want to reach people where they are at. You have the ability in doing voter engagement and voter contact to identify what these voters care about. You also have experts among these Democrats who can speak to these exact voter concerns. Why not utilize their expertise by identifying advocacy groups on various topics like immigration, health care, women's rights, education, and climate change? Imagine how powerful it would be in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade to have 20,000 women leaders calling women throughout the country, letting them express their anger and encouraging them to not only vote for Democrats but to volunteer locally as well. But again, this is something that needs to happen now, Chairman Harrison. We cannot wait until the decision is rendered to begin mobilizing. We need to create lists, state-by-state, of women Democratic voters and to be able to launch a nation-wide phone bank within 24 hours. It can and should be the largest mass mobilization that Democrats have ever done and all the systems are in place for it to happen. 

Think of this potential, Chairman Harrison. Of mass mobilization with the strongest, most-educated Democrats leading this grassroots movement. Doing targeted outreach by issue. Bringing in out-of-state talent to work on critical races. Imagine, Chairman Harrison, the week before the election having a digital army of 50,000+ Democrats at your disposal to be able to virtually "send" them wherever they need to go. Tightening race for the Pennsylvania Senate? Send 10,000 members there. Stacy Abrams in a neck-and-neck race in Georgia? Send 10,000 members there. Rep. Underwood needs a last-minute boost to keep her House seat? Send 10,000 members there. All of this is possible, Mr. Chairman, with the current tools at your disposal. We're here, all of us, ready and willing to dig in these next 6 months. But we can't do it alone. We can't continue to work in silos. Not now. Not with so much on the line. If you're serious, truly serious, Chairman Harrison, about winning in 2022 you'll heed this advice and immediately get to work on creating a nationwide coordinated campaign that empowers your best and brightest members.

Because time, Chairman Harrison, is running out. 


Signed, 

A Digital Democratic Foot Soldier