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Press Releases |

National Journal: The Underground House Majority Fight

Democrats will capitalize on the year of Trump and plan to flip at least 10 legislative chambers in 2016. With a motivated base and Trump’s toxicity spreading down the GOP ballot, we see our long and ongoing string of successes in this year’s special elections as a springboard for the fall. The success of Democrats at the state level this cycle will directly impact the rapidly approaching post-2020 round of redistricting. Read the full story here! 

“On the last Wednesday of April, as Donald Trump reveled on cable talk shows over his Acela primary sweep the night be­fore, some 60 Democratic state legislative campaign operatives from around the country gathered in a boutique hotel ballroom just off Scott Circle in Washington to kick-start the final six months of the election cycle—and figure out how to take advantage of Trump’s presence on the ballot
.

“The organization is among the key national party players seated at the table hoping to ensure the political massacre of 2010 doesn’t recur. For its part, the DLCC invited legislative caucus staffers to D.C. last month for basic training, to facilitate coordination, and to prepare for a potentially big year.

“The summit included training on hiring and managing staff, budgeting, and working with the press. Its first day featured a generically titled session on the “Election Environment,” where the subject at hand was how to maximize victories with Trump at the top of the ticket. In an interview, Post said the most notable reaction to Trump so far is the number of people stepping forward to run for office. 


“Along with un­pre­ced­en­ted co­ordin­a­tion between na­tion­al com­mit­tees, the DLCC is push­ing for in­creased buy-in from its al­lies while help­ing state-level le­gis­lat­ive caucuses util­ize a pres­id­en­tial-level data pro­gram to amp­li­fy the tar­get­ing ca­pa­city of its field ef­fort. 


“The DLCC already had a ma­jor suc­cess this year. With Demo­crats’ lone cham­ber in the South on the line, the party won three of four Ken­tucky state House spe­cial elec­tions in March, in­clud­ing flip­ping a Re­pub­lic­an seat. It also picked up a state Sen­ate seat last month in New York. But the work has just be­gun.

“‘My job as the ex­ec­ut­ive dir­ect­or at DLCC,’ Post said, ‘is to make sure that every­one who con­trib­utes at the fed­er­al level gets what we get—that the states are where it’s at, and the way to take back our coun­try is to make sure that we con­trol state le­gis­latures.’”

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