Campaigns are full of highs and lows—the first few weeks of July, I have been ecstatic since we were able to surpass out fundraising goal for the first half of this year, showing the entire state that this campaign is for real. But the truth is, any given goal is only as good as the one after it—the pressure is on, and we have to show we have the momentum not just to keep it up, but to surpass the goals we’ve set so far.
I’ll just cut to the chase: July has been a bit of a slump for us in terms of our fundraising. We had an incredible first fundraising report of the year, but we’ve got to keep up the momentum if we want to build the warchest that we know we’ll need to win next Fall.
Now for the perspective: this isn’t unique to our campaign. I don’t know if your inbox looks anything like mine, but if it does, you’ve probably got about a million emails about “the summer slump” sitting in there right now.
Truth is, this was always going to be a harder time for campaigns to fundraise—the “summer slump” is actually a really well-documented phenomenon in the non-profit space, and politics is no different. But that doesn’t mean we get to take our foot off the gas.
You see, right now, John Bradford, who will likely be the Republican nominee for this office, isn’t sitting here sweating the summer slump (in fact, he’s been busy vacationing in Rome, which I’m sure brings the NCGOP way closer to actually passing a budget): he knows he’s going to have a bunch of lobbyist checks come in as soon as we’re out of session at the General Assembly, and what he doesn’t make in actual donations, he can always give his campaign a loan for. We don’t have that luxury here—this campaign relies on the grassroots. Donors like you.
So, John, can I count on you to help sustain us through the summer months? If you believe in our mission to build opportunity for every North Carolinian, then I’m asking you to step up and contribute whatever you can today to help our campaign succeed.
