How Run for Something is adapting during the pandemic

WHAT WE’VE ALREADY DONE & WHAT WE’RE DOING

Run for Something’s north-star mission has not changed. We’re recruiting and supporting young diverse progressives to run for state and local office across the country — in fact, just after the pandemic started, we hit two key milestones:

• 1,000+ endorsements since we launched in 2017
• 50,000+ young people who’ve raised their hands expressing interest in running.

We’ll continue endorsing candidates (we expect to endorse between 600 and 1,000 for the 2020 cycle alone) and recruiting more to run both in 2020 and beyond. Our core program has not changed, as candidates progress through the pipeline in a series of conference calls, 1:1 calls with volunteers, and endorsement applications to yield us an endorsed class that our staff works closely with; meanwhile everyone in the funnel gets access to as many resources as we can provide at scale.

You can hear directly from our candidates on why our core program matters and how it’s made a difference over the last three years.

How We Help - Run For Something

That being said, we’ve quickly and nimbly adapted to the new reality — and are helping our candidates do the same.

CAMPAIGNING DURING THE PANDEMIC

Campaign tactics may have changed but the theory is the same: Winning campaigns build personal, genuine, authentic relationships with voters. Accordingly, to help Run for Something candidates and alumni navigate this moment in a way that allows them to support their communities, continue to build winning campaigns, and build long-term power, we’re adapting our support program with three key prongs.

Resources & master classes for campaigns

• Within the first week of the pandemic’s spread to the United States, we quickly launched resourcesforcampaigns.com, a hub for information on how to campaign in this new era that now includes materials from 40+ organizations and counting. Since launching, more than 10,000 candidates have taken advantage of the resources. We’re updating it regularly with new information, trainings, and webinars, and consistently circulating it to our pool of 50,000+ potential candidates who can access it for free, along with state and local organizations who are amplifying it to their own networks.
• Included on the hub is a crowd-sourced list of ways campaigns are putting these guides into action in specific, actionable ways. These tangible examples help bring theory to life; a one-pager on how to do a virtual town-hall (for example) is more valuable when paired with a real-life example of one.
• We’re kicking off Armchair Chats, a master class series for endorsed candidates, alumni, and the 50,000 potential candidates in our pipeline to provide candidates with advice from the best in the business: Our RFS Mentors.
  
  On April 6th, we held our first one with Dan Pfeiffer, Obama communications director and Pod Save America host (who happened to be in the White House during both the economic recession and the H1N1 outbreak, both relevant experiences right now.) We maxed out on RSVPs, had 150+ people join in real-time, and within 24 hours, more than 3,000 people had viewed the entire hour-long video on Facebook.
• As a bonus: these Armchair Chats serve as recruitment tools as well — the more we can provide free information about campaigning to potential candidates, the more we can show them there is a path for them to run themselves.
• We’ve negotiated access to peer-to-peer text message tools at cost for Run for Something endorsed candidates who need it, as well as partnerships with organizations who do texting on behalf of down-ballot candidates, ensuring that they have what they need to reach voters in this new environment.

Peer-to-peer candidate community

• We’re building out a massive peer-to-peer sharing program between our 1,000+ endorsed candidates and alumni that will culminate in a virtual conference. We launched the first part of this strategy on April 6th with a group call for more than 50 candidates and alumni who discussed their personal experiences, stories, and shared specific strategies and tactics they were using to respond to COVID-19. Next up will be a series of regional calls.
• We expanded our alumni Facebook group to include current endorsed candidates, facilitating stronger relationships between folks leading on a local level.
• Building peer-to-peer relationships will empower them to learn from each other and build strong, authentic, relationships that will be bigger than Run for Something. Those relationships will continue on for years to come, making us all stronger. This program will not go away: Today, we have 1,000+ endorsed candidates and alum; in 2022, it’ll be closer to 2,500, and the numbers will only grow from there.

Expanded 1:1 support

• Given all the challenges folks are facing, we need to be giving more tailored support. Our regional directors are doing wellness checks with every endorsed candidate, strategizing on how to best configure campaign plans that may have been thrown into disarray by changing election days, expanding or contracting budgets, and being stuck at home.
• Each week, our regional directors send update emails to our currently endorsed candidates. That will continue, with each week focusing on a different challenge in remote campaigning. Topics planned include fundraising, text-message programs, remote volunteer engagement, GOTV strategies, and vote-by-mail strategies. These emails will become the basis for follow-up and 1:1s over the course of that week. The materials will also be posted publicly, again serving as recruitment hooks as well.
• We’re leaning on our 500+ person volunteer mentor network for the 50,000+ folks in our pipeline, ensuring everyone knows how to request mentorship help.

Telling their stories

We’re continuing our efforts to amplify the stories of our candidates and alumni as they navigate this crisis and lead when it matters most. By working with reporters, lifting up stories across our social media platforms, and sharing them with our supporters, we’re reminding folks how local leadership is literally saving lives while the federal government falls down on the job.

• We’ll be launching “How I Lead” — a new twist on our previous series, “How I Run” — to spotlight people who are making progress and mitigating the worst of the crisis in their communities.
• We continue to host candidate takeovers on our Instagram account, allowing supporters an inside look at what a campaign looks like right now.
• We’re working with the press to educate the public (and other candidates) on what campaigns look like right now. Check out some of those stories The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, CBS News and Business Insider.

These stories also further our recruitment efforts, as we think about what our government will need to be capable of in a post-pandemic America.

Building community

We have experimented with free and low-cost community events to give people something to do (and in some cases, help raise small amounts of funds for our operating expenses).

A few weeks ago, we held a Netflix Party to watch “Knock Down the House” (aka the AOC documentary) that was extremely well attended. We’ve also held virtual happy-hours, called “Drink for Something,” where campaign alum and people interested in campaigns gather to share stories, be inspired, and think about something other than the pandemic for a little while — our first one included Jason Kander and actor Bradley Whitford, among others.

Our major virtual event series, Front Row Seat, was a week of low-dollar fundraisers with pay-what-you-can prices, intended to engage supporters in a conversation about what leadership looks like right now. More than 1,100 people joined four nights of panels that included leaders like Secretary Hillary Clinton, Senators Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Brian Schatz, Governors Terry McAuliffe, Howard Dean, and Deval Patrick, and many many more.

We plan on doing more of these types of events over the coming weeks and months as we find ways to bring people together around a cause they care about, replicating the fun and optimism of our in-person events.

HOW WE WERE PREPARED

Operationally, Run for Something was well-situated for the new environment. For example:

• Our team has always been 100% remote, with staff working from home across 10 states. Our organizational processes have been built for this type of work, with clear structures for meetings, information flow, and flexible work hours.
• Our culture is accommodating to those who need to act as caregivers or handle other pressing matters, with clear expectations on what is moveable and what isn’t, and how to communicate that to the team. We see our employees as full people and have always empowered them to set work/life boundaries that support their needs. Rather than let the crisis veer us off course, we’re doubling down on that culture now.
• We have always had unlimited paid time off, unlimited sick leave, generous family leave policies, and strong health insurance.

Programmatically, our candidate-support curriculum was always built with a digital-first lens: We know that a vast majority of our candidates are not full-time candidates and couldn’t spend significant work-day time or their limited funds on traveling to in-person trainings. All of our materials and resources were created to scale and be accessible for free and at the candidate’s convenience.

WHY THIS WORK MATTERS NOW

It’s unfortunately indisputable: the White House has absolutely failed us — and in the process, has illustrated how important it is to empower Democratic local government.

Cities and states that implemented social distancing and shut-downs early are quite literally saving lives. Even and especially in red states, where Republican governors have dragged their feet to take action, Democratic municipal leaders are showing courage and stepping up to lead when it matters most.

Our alumni have been at the forefront of that:

• Tennessee state Senator Katrina Robinson came up to New York City to work as an ICU nurse after her legislative session ended.
• Virginia Delegate Danica Roem took on the USDA and won a national waiver for millions of kids to be able to get free meals — without having to be physically present at the school sites serving them — so they can safely shelter in place.
• In Texas, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is leading the charge on keeping residents of one of the largest counties in America safe.
• Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani is fighting against landlords who are charging college students rent for apartments they’re no longer living in.

Americans are looking to state and local leaders for guidance. Polls have shown that 52% of people (including 75% of Democrats and 43% of independents) trust local leadership over the federal government and the president right now.

While it’s an international pandemic, the national government’s failure to competently respond means the crisis hits differently depending on how states and municipalities are handling this, among other factors. Empowering local leaders to better reach their communities with information further builds on that trust and re-engages citizens’ faith in government, at least on a local level.

The kinds of candidates and alumni we work with are also the ones who can meaningfully change election law — for example, the Democratic majority in Virginia just expanded no-excuse absentee voting; county clerks in Missouri are pushing the state legislature to do the same. The reality is, we simply can’t count on Congress to find the courage to act.

Democrats have failed to invest in these kinds of races in the past. This pandemic has shown us why that was a critical error we can’t afford to repeat.

At the same time, it’s now even harder for local candidates to break through. A majority of our candidates also have full-time or part-time jobs, many have kids, and those who are not essential workers or first-responders are now working from home, managing their households, and also trying to run virtual campaigns — while dealing with the additional responsibility of leading. They are struggling to raise money, can’t knock doors the way they used to, can’t attend in-person events, and some are even having a tough time navigating the barriers to get on the ballot in the first place. Local candidates need Run for Something’s support now more than ever — especially as the candidates we support are predominately from communities being disproportionately affected by the virus.

And of course, all the reasons our work has always mattered in 2020 — winning state legislative elections to make a difference in redistricting next year; helping increase turn-out among young people, rural communities, and communities of color to spur reverse coattails for federal elections (including the Senate and the presidency); and building a pipeline of leaders for the future — are still and even more true.

By pushing for in-person voting during the Wisconsin primary, Republicans demonstrated exactly how far they’ll go to win state and local offices — they forced that election to occur specifically to try and win a state supreme court seat that will have clear implications for redistricting. They’re willing to allow a deadly virus to kill people in order to win these offices.

That is why these races are so important! We know it’ll be harder than ever to get resources for these campaigns, as attention gets further scattered between all the coronavirus relief efforts and the presidential campaign, and as the economy continues to suffer.

But we can’t afford to underfund politics right now. Political action (or inaction) is what allowed this crisis to become so deadly.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If we were in non-COVID-19 times, we’d explain how proud we are of our diversified funding base, that’s evenly split between grassroots donations, in-person events, foundations, and major donors. I’d talk about how we’ve significantly and responsibly increased our budget every year. From 2019 to 2020, our plan was to increase our budget from $2.6 million to $3.1 million.

But the pandemic blew a $500k hole in our budget that we had planned on raising through in-person events. So we’re trying everything and anything we can both to sustain ourselves and support our candidates, while being cognizant of the sad reality that people are losing jobs, losing loved ones, and struggling to financially and psychologically cope with this trauma.

If you can afford to give, please do. Every dollar goes a long way for us.

Let's win lasting power

We know how scary these times are — people are losing their jobs and, unfortunately, their loved ones, and it’s hard to look beyond today or tomorrow, let alone six months or years from now.

But even still, every single day folks are signing up with Run for Something to tell us they want to run for office. This crisis has spurred them to lead. If our community steps up now, as we believe you all will, Run for Something will be here to help them, in 2020, 2021, and beyond.