1,000 Reasons to be Grateful | Celebrating Run for Something
As we wrap up November at Run for Something we have so much to be grateful for — for starters, 2023 turned out to be our best year yet at Run for Something!
This year 416 of our endorsed candidates made their mark up on the ballot and for the first time EVER we hit a 54% WIN RATE with 218 of our candidates winning. When you add those young, diverse progressives to our win tally over the last six years, that is OVER 1,000 people under the age of 40 elected to state and local office!
1,000 leaders passionate about improving their communities.
1,000 leaders hyper-focused on people-centered policy.
1,000 young, fearless, and totally badass changemakers showing up in halls of power nationwide to create impactful, meaningful, lasting change.
A REFLECTIVE BENCH
That’s not all, though…a lot of organizations can get people elected, but very few are locked in on changing what the face of American politics looks like. Of our 2023 endorsees:
- 50% were women
- 53% were people of color
- 27% are LGBTQIA+
MAKING HISTORY
St. Paul, MN elected their first all-woman City Council — and four of those council members were Run for Something candidates.
Even more thrilling? Every. single. trans state senator in THE ENTIRE COUNTRY has been a Run for Something endorsee. The days of our institutions not being reflective of who we are as a country are coming to end — old, cis, white men take note.
In other ceiling-shattering moments, we witnessed our candidate, Brandon Sakbun, a queer 27-year-old veteran oust a 16-year Republican incumbent to become Mayor of Terre Haute, Illinois and over in Pennsylvania our candidates flipped an entire county to Democrat after a century of Republican rule.
A Run for Something endorsee, Michael Feggans, was even the majority-maker that flipped the Virginia House back blue ensuring abortion access will continue in at least one Southern state.
SCHOOLING BOOK BANNERS
We haven’t even talked about school boards yet! In 2022 Run for Something tripled down on our commitment to run candidates for school board to protect kids and democracy. Since 2017, we have endorsed 354 education-related candidates (over 70 of them being teachers) and elected 182.
Our continual, long-term investment in these types of races, usually ignored elsewhere in Democratic politics, yielded one of our most impressive data points yet; In November 72% of our school board candidates WON! That’s compared to just 30% of Moms for Liberty candidates nationwide.
COMMITMENT TO ELECTION INTEGRITY
As we continue to fight for democracy and open, free, and fair elections, our Clerk Work program is also coming up big. This year we recruited and endorsed 233 candidates to help run their local elections and protect democracy. We are thrilled to report a 59% win rate for these races this year. Even better, 34 of the races our candidates won were against proven 2020 election deniers.
While we are thrilled by our results this year, we wouldn’t be able to celebrate any of these victories without supporters like you championing and funding our work. We know even bigger victories (and challenges) lie ahead, but we can’t do it alone. To join our movement, chip in at secure.actblue.com/donate/rfs.
