Democracy for America Purple to Blue Strategy Memo October, 2017 ------

DFA was founded on the principles of the 50 State Strategy and a vision of recruiting, training, and winning races at all levels of office.

In 2013, we doubled-down on our state-level candidate focus and launched our multi-year, multi-million dollar Purple to Blue campaign. With a targeted focus to flip state legislative races and Governorships from Republican to Democratic control nationwide, we have the three-fold goal of stopping terrible Republican policies incubated at the state level before they spread nationally, while building a farm team of progressive Democrats that are ready for higher office and making sure Democrats control as many legislatures as possible before the states are responsible for congressional redistricting in 2021.

This campaign has never been more important than right now.

Here are the stats: After 2016, the Democratic Party holds only 6 trifectas (unified control of all three state level chambers: Governor, Senate and House) while Republicans hold 26 trifectas, leaving 18 other states with divided governments. Democrats control 16 Governor’s seats; Republicans control 33. Between 2008 and 2016, Democrats lost more than 1000 seats at the state and local level - that cost Democrats 11 governorships and 32 state legislative chambers.

Now, in 2017 and 2018, there are 38 Governorships up for election with only 14 of these races in states Democrats won in 2016.

With elections in Virginia and only weeks away and several critical 2018 Governor races already up and running, building momentum and working hard to win, we want to give you a detailed look into our strategic thinking and highlight some of our exciting DFA endorsed candidates.

We can’t do this work without your support. You’re the reason we have the resources to win. Thank you for your leadership.

Charles Chamberlain, Executive Director Democracy for America O: 802.651.3202

VIRGINIA Election Day: November 7, 2017

Republicans hold a 66-34 seat majority in the Virginia House of Delegates. Democrats need to gain 17 seats in order to take control of the chamber, while Republicans would need to only gain one more seat to obtain a veto-proof supermajority. The good news is that the state is changing, getting more progressive election after election. In 2016, won 17 Republican- controlled House districts defeating Trump in 51 out of 100 Virginia House districts total. Even with this historical data, beating incumbents and winning 17 Republican-held seats while also defending all 34 seats held by Democrats will take both a wave election and great candidates running effective campaigns.

We aggressively recruited and vetted candidates across the state for endorsement. We focused on finding candidates running effective campaigns focused on an inclusive populist message and an organizing strategy based in direct voter contact designed to mobilize the Democratic base. In total, we’ve endorsed 18 great progressive leaders in Virginia and staff and volunteers are working hard on the ground right now to make sure they win.

VA CANDIDATE HIGHLIGHTS:

Justin Fairfax - Lieutenant Governor Justin understands what it means to fight for inclusive populism. His campaign is built on creating higher-paying jobs, economic security and equal opportunity for everyone. Justin’s message covers expanding access to capital for small businesses to restructuring student loan debt, reforming our juvenile justice system to expanding access to healthcare, and defending our constitutional rights. His winning campaign strategy is focused on direct voter contact and driving base Democrats to get out the vote. When we win this seat, with Democrats only one seat short of a 50/50 split in the State Senate, the Lt. Governor could cast tie-breaking votes in partisan battles over expanding Medicaid or funding early childhood education.

Chris Hurst - House of Delegates District 12 Republican Joseph Yost is a heinous right-wing Trump supporter running a reelection campaign largely bankrolled by other extreme House Republicans and outside groups like Dominion, a power company with huge influence in the VA legislature. In contrast, Chris's campaign has been funded by hundreds of low-dollar contributors and powered by grassroots volunteers out knocking doors and making phone calls talking directly to voters. Chris is campaigning on an inclusive populist message fighting for economic policies that challenge unchecked corporate power and lift up all working families. He’s also a strong advocate for gun violence prevention after his fiancée, a popular Virginia reporter, was shot and killed live on camera in 2015.

(image provided by Daily Kos Elections) All Current VA Endorsements: Justin Fairfax - Lieutenant Governor of Virginia

Jennifer Carroll Foy - House District 02 Wendy Gooditis - House District 10 Chris Hurst - House District 12 Elizabeth Guzman - House District 31 David Reid - House District 32 Donte Tanner - House District 40 Mark Levine - House District 45 Charniele Herring - House District 46 Lee Carter - House District 50 Hala Ayala - House District 51 Jamaal Johnston - House District 60 Sheila Bynum-Coleman - House District 62 Lashrecse Aird - House District 63 Delores L. McQuinn - House District 70 Jeff Bourne - House District 71 Jennifer Boysko - House District 86 Jeion Ward - House District 92 Marcia Price - House District 95

NEW JERSEY Election Day: November 7, 2017

New Jersey elections this year offer an exciting opportunity to build on anti-Trump momentum and expand progressive power in the state at the same time. With a strong slate of unabashedly progressive champions running across the state, Democrats won’t just take control of the Governor’s mansion, progressives will be able to turn core legislative priorities like free college and a $15 minimum wage into law.

Candidates in our diverse slate for legislative office have strong records of standing up for working families and against corporate power. In addition, New Jersey has a powerhouse coalition of candidates inspired by running for office for the first time. These candidates expanded our ability to fight in districts where Republicans have gone unopposed in past elections. They’ve inspired an incredible amount of grassroots energy driving voter contact at the doors, building toward mass GOTV mobilization not usually possible in local elections, especially in a year with no federal level candidates on the ballot.

All Current NJ Endorsements: Troy Singleton - State Senate District 7 Vin Gopal - State Senate District 11

Carol Murphy - State Assembly District 7 Joann Downey - State Assembly District 11 Eric Houghtaling - State Assembly District 11 Herb Conaway - State Assembly District 7

Ed Zipprich - Red Bank City Council

NJ CANDIDATE HIGHLIGHTS:

Vin Gopal - State Senate District 11 Vin Gopal’s campaign is centered around delivering results for working families. Vin is fighting to make sure everyone - regardless of economic status, race, gender, or age -- has access to quality education, affordable health care, and good, living wage jobs. He is a champion of women’s reproductive rights and equal pay. He is a proponent of consolidating the state’s smallest towns to build local power and use resources more efficiently.

Incumbent Republican Jennifer Beck has been an empty seat who has failed to deliver results for the district despite being in office for over 10 years. In contrast, Vin served as a volunteer EMT responding to hundreds of 911 emergencies for the Colts Neck and Freehold First Aid Squads, as well as the Long Branch Fire Department. Vin’s strong ties to the community and years of effective political activism will instantly make him a leader in New Jersey’s legislature.

WASHINGTON STATE Election Day: November 7, 2017

Washington State is considered a “blue” state at the federal level. The last time it voted for a Republican presidential candidate was in 1984. No Republicans have represented WA in the US Senate since 2000. It should be deep blue at the state level as well - and in fact, all statewide offices but the Secretary of State are held by Democrats. But Democrats have been steadily losing ground in the state legislature and, in 2012, Democrats lost control of the State Senate.

Current WA Endorsements: Pramila Jayapal - US House 7th District Manka Dhingra - State Senate 45th District Cary Moon - Mayor of Seattle

WASHINGTON CANDIDATE HIGHLIGHT:

Manka Dhingra - State Senate District 45 Manka is a Senior Deputy Prosecutor for King County and has seen first hand the impact of the racism in the criminal justice system. She’s a co-founder of Chaya, an organization to end domestic violence in the South Asian Community, and she helped lead an initiative with the state to challenge the rise of hate crimes against Muslim, Arab-American, and South Asian communities following 9/11. In contrast, Manka’s opponent recently got caught trying to delete numerous tweets espousing a radical anti-choice agenda and supporting Obamacare repeal.

After the 2016 election, a small group of concerned DFA citizens reached out asking how could they help us build a wall of resistance against Trump at the local level. Working together with this group of inspired volunteer leaders, we helped them identify key races in several states where their work could have a specifically targeted impact that would add real value to a DFA endorsed candidate and their campaign.

Their choice: progressive Democrat Manka Dhingra running against right-wing Republican Jinyoung Englund. With Democrats only needing to win one seat in the State Senate to take control of the chamber, this special election race is a top priority and critical to building power for progressives in a traditionally blue state.

The added support for this endorsed candidate means that not only is DFA providing all of our normal endorsement deliverables -- like fund raising, campaign consulting, volunteer recruitment, and candidate, staff and activist training -- we’re also able to manage a six figure independent expenditure with a paid field canvass banking mail-in votes at the door, a targeted direct mail program, and radio and television ads for on-air messaging. The extra resources delivered by our partnership allows DFA to turn resistance against Trump into turnout of non- traditional voters at the polls on Election Day. 2018 GOVERNOR RACES Georgia, Maryland, Florida, Arizona

With 36 Governor races in 2018 alone, DFA could make as many as a dozen endorsements before Election Day. However, several of these fights have already begun. While we’ll work to build the progressive power it’ll take to unseat Republicans in Governors’ mansions across the country, it’s worth highlighting four key states -- where we’re already on the ground embedded in critical campaigns -- as lynch pins of our Gubernatorial strategy: Georgia, Maryland, Florida, and Arizona.

Here’s what these four states have in common:

● The Rising American Electorate is transforming the map - All of these states are in the midst of seismic demographic shifts, moving away from older, white, conservative voters and towards what author and strategist Steve Phillips calls “the New American Majority” - people of color, millennials, progressive white voters, and working class people - communities that are statistically and historically likelier to vote for progressive candidates and who traditionally have formed the base of the Democratic Party’s support.

However, these shifts have yet to be fully reflected in most of the organizing strategies, voter targeting, and get-out-the-vote operations of candidates’ campaigns, which means huge groups of potential voters have yet to see their values, needs, and experiences not just represented in the halls of power, but often even in the policies and message of the campaigns themselves. We’re investing in candidates who through both the message and the strategy of the campaign are recognizing the power of the New American Majority.

● Voter turnout is key: In recent cycles, voter turnout has hit devastating lows, and this trend worsens in midterm election years. There are two major factors at play - the first is active voter suppression, where rightwing legislatures have used their majorities to push for racist “voter ID” laws, eliminate early voting or close down polling locations, defund ballot translation programs, gerrymander districts, and disenfranchise folks who’ve been through our broken criminal justice system.

Secondly, these same Rising American Electorate voters, especially voters of color, have been cyclically abandoned by the consultant class and corporate wing of the Democratic Party, whose strategy has been instead to focus resources on persuading white, wealthier, Republican-lite voters to support Democrats, costing billions of dollars and nearly 1000 seats at the state and local level. By working with campaigns early on to fund effective, voter-focused grassroots organizing programs, and maintain them consistently instead of only for GOTV, we can drive the turnout progressives need to win.

● The “political layer cake”: People-powered campaigns at the gubernatorial level can build momentum for victories up and down the ballot, and we’ve prioritized places where we can not only change the top of the ticket, but pave the way for wins at the county, municipal, and ballot-initiative level as well.

So in Arizona, as we campaign for David Garcia for Governor, we can also support people like January Contreras, running for Arizona’s Attorney General and Mary Matiella, running for Arizona’s Second Congressional District. In Florida, it means that as we work for Andrew Gillum for Governor, we’ll bolster the statewide ballot drive to restore the voting rights of previously incarcerated Floridians.

In each of these states, this layer cake gives DFA the ability to maximize the power- building investment of supporting multiple candidates with the resources they need to win.

● Powerhouse candidates running on racial and economic justice - These are not run-of-the-mill, go-along-to-get-along politicians. These candidates are formidable, authentic leaders building big, energizing, serious operations, to run on their inclusive populist values -- and win. They are former House Leaders, mayors, NAACP presidents, and community organizers. They have incredible track records of showing up and fighting with skill, courage, and conviction for their communities.

(image provided by Wikipedia)

2018 GOVERNOR RACES State Landscape and Candidate Highlights

Georgia: DFA Endorsed Stacey Abrams (R) Incumbent: Gov. Nathan Deal (term-limited) (R) Primary Candidates: Sec of State, Brian Kemp; State Sen. Hunter Hill, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, State Sen. Michael Williams, Marc Alan Urbach (D) Primary Opponent: State Rep. Stacey Evans

State Landscape: Georgia is one of the best opportunities this cycle to transform a Republican- held map up and down the ballot. Though Republicans have won five out of five of the most recent Presidential elections in the state, Donald Trump’s margins were the weakest yet - he won by just 5% in 2016. The state’s demographics are shifting rapidly towards the growing New American Majority - millennials, Black voters, Latino/a voters, and working class folks who’ve been most hurt by the rising inequality and economic hardship. In Rep. Stacey Abrams, Democrats have a unifying, powerhouse candidate building the kind of rigorous, people- powered operation it will take to engage these voters in an unprecedented way and meaningfully expand the electorate.

Why Abrams? Stacey is the daughter of a shipyard worker and a librarian. As Representative of Georgia’s 89th District, and the House Majority Leader of the Georgia State House, Abrams has built an unparalleled track record of effective leadership for working families - spearheading efforts for living wages, for accessible quality public education for all zip codes, for voting rights, reproductive rights and more. As the founder of the New Georgia Project, a civic engagement organization, she built the operation that registered more than 200,000 voters of color between 2014 and 2016.

Maryland: DFA Endorsed Ben Jealous (R) Incumbent: Gov. Larry Hogan (D) Primary Opponents: Alec Ross; State Sen. Rich Madaleno, Prince George’s County Executive; Rushern L. Baker III; Attorney Jim Shea; former Michelle Obama Policy Director, Krishanti Vignarajah, Ralph Jaffe

State Landscape: Maryland's incumbent governor, Republican Larry Hogan, represents the bluest Republican-held Governor’s seat. In a state where Democrats have a 10% voter registration advantage, Hogan has stood with Trump against climate action, refused to oppose Trump’s unconstitutional Muslim ban and pushed state authorities to help carry out federal attacks on immigrants. He was elected in 2014 in a low-turnout race against Democratic candidate Anthony Brown. Maryland has voted Democratic for five out of five of the last presidential elections and, of those, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 margin of victory was the widest, at 26%.

Why Jealous? Ben transformed the NAACP when he was elected to lead the historic organization in 2008, expanding the organization’s membership and launching new on-the- ground organizing initiatives nationwide. In 2016, he endorsed Bernie Sanders and campaigned relentlessly for him across the country; he's been a leader in Maryland on the climate crisis and on racial and economic justice. Even before he announced his campaign, over 3,400 DFA members pledged to volunteer and support Ben on day one.

Arizona: DFA Endorsed David Garcia (R) Incumbent: Gov. Doug Ducey (D) Primary Opponent: State Sen. Steve Farley

State Landscape: Trump won Arizona by less than 4% -- 49% to Clinton’s 45.4%. Still Republicans have consolidated control of the governorship, the state senate, and the state house, which they’ve used to undermine reproductive rights, attack immigrants and refugees, gut labor and workers protections, push voter suppression laws, and the list goes on. Democrats can take control of the legislature by winning three seats in the State Senate and six seats in the State House. And U.S. Senator Jeff Flake is widely regarded as one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the Senate, making Arizona one of the biggest battleground states for 2018.

Why Garcia? David Garcia is a skilled campaigner, organizer, and an accountable leader for progressive values, particularly public education, where right-wing cuts have devastated communities statewide. We’ve endorsed his run for Governor; he’ll be the best candidate in the race to galvanize sporadic voters and draw clear lines of contrast with the right-wing governor and the Trump Republicans in Arizona up and down the ballot.

Florida: DFA Endorsed Andrew Gillum (R) Incumbent Gov. Rick Scott (term-limited) (R) Primary Candidates: State Sen. Jack Latvala; Physician, Usha Jain; Physical Therapist, Bruce Nathan; Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and former U.S. Representative, Adam Putnam; Businessman, Angel Luis Rivera; Chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida, Bob White; Businessman, Daniel Zutler; several other candidates may still announce in this crowded Republican primary. (D) Primary Opponents: Rep. Gwen Graham; Businessman, Chris King.

State Landscape: With a crowded Republican primary field jockeying to replace term-limited Governor Rick Scott, Florida’s gubernatorial contest in 2018 is going to be one of the most competitive in the country. It’s hard to predict how big of an impact the Florida Senate race -- with Scott likely attempting to unseat Democratic Senator Bill Nelson -- will have directly in the Governor’s race, but there is little question that several ballot initiatives, especially one to restore voting rights to over 1.5 million formerly incarcerated Floridians, will dramatically increase Democratic turnout on Election Day.

Why Gillum? Andrew Gillum is a young dynamic leader with a strong track record of progressive leadership as the Mayor of Tallahassee. He’s already building the statewide campaign infrastructure and small dollar donor base needed to win, bringing in just under a million dollars during the first quarter of reporting. His campaign message is focused on creating jobs and economic security for all of Florida and healthcare coverage for all by protecting and expanding Medicaid in the state and supporting a Medicare for All system nationwide.