One Final Fundraising Pitch
Three weeks to go!
At this point of the campaign, the days blend together. Campaign staff no longer get a single day off, and weekly goals significantly increase. Leaving the field office before 10 PM is seen as a huge victory and getting all your data put into the system by 1 AM feels like you've won the lottery. If you're in a swing state, you not only have to meet these goals but also prepare for big-name surrogates to hold rallies, oftentimes doing so in less than 48 hours. At these events, you are doing crowd control, volunteer sign-ups, and being loud and vocally supportive of your candidates simultaneously. Back at the local field office, you are working to identify a core leadership team that will do two practice runs and then a final GOTV weekend where they will be the ones running the field office and handing out volunteer assignments. You know that there's a chance you may be shifted at the last minute to a turf or region across the state where you would be needed the final 96 hours before the polls close. The only certain thing is that nothing is certain.
And that's just the field team, which makes up the bulk of the paid staff on a political campaign. Let's not forget the communications team which works diligently on messaging, the financial team which works tirelessly on the money, and the candidate's staff who mentor and guide the candidate as she or he chooses where to be during the campaign's final push. We also see during this time various specialists come in from out of state, who bring with them GOTV experience and who know where and how to motivate a campaign over the final 21 days. During this stretch run, there will be a chaotic cacophony of hundreds of field offices throughout the country with campaign staff and volunteers interacting in all-too-close corners. You'll see utility closets being used to take Zoom calls. You'll see introverted phone bankers sitting in a corner so they can hear themselves talk. You'll see pickup trucks pulling up, grabbing 100 lawn signs, departing, and then returning again two hours later to do it all again. In short, you're seeing the messy, unruly, and hectic American democracy in action at a time when it matters most.
But for this controlled chaos to happen efficiently, campaigns need money. And while we all should be proud of the fact that Kamala Harris has raised $1 billion over the past 3 months, the truth is that Democrats still needs to raise even more. Donations that come in this week are immediately put to work. Last-minute staff are brought in for GOTV. Critical ad buys are made in the 7 key swing states and during prime-time television events. Billboards are put up in highly visible locations. Online social media ads are created to combat misinformation. And campaign staff are compensated for their time, even after Election Day comes and goes. Whereas Donald Trump cuts everyone off the night of November 5th, Kamala Harris seems likely to continue in the tradition of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and will continue paying her staff through the calendar year, a gesture that will certainly be appreciated by the thousands of millennials and xennials who have been so invested in Harris' campaign over the past several months.
For today's holiday post, let's come together for one final fundraising drive for our friends at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who have invested heavily this cycle to flip the House blue. This is the time when last-minute donations can be crucial to a campaign's success so let's all humbly dig into our coffers and give what we can for our beloved Democrats and give Kamala the Congress she deserves. All donations today will be transferred to the DCCC tomorrow, providing them with a full three weeks to divide up our contribution as is best deemed fit. A friendly reminder that we must be FEC-compliant and thus cannot take foreign donations from our beautiful international community members. On behalf of LL and all the EB authors, we cannot thank you all enough for the work you've done this cycle to support Kamala, Tim, and Democrats up and down the ticket.
Now, go on and SMASH that donate button for democracy!
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