John,

When Tiffany Cabán declared victory on election night, we thought we had the Queens District Attorney race in the bag. She was up by 1,090 votes. Even though paper ballots remained to be counted, her lead was deemed insurmountable by election experts.

We were wrong. At the end of the manual recount, Melinda Katz was up by 60 votes, and the Board of Elections certified her. Today, Cabán picked up five votes after a judge reviewed 90 uncounted ballots challenged in court. But Justice John Ingram said he would not open affidavit ballots where voters did not write their party affiliation, leaving Katz up by 55 votes.

We may very well have enough votes to win in those envelopes, but it seems we will never know. And that hurts. Tonight at an event to thank her supporters, Tiffany Cabán conceded.

As you know, I’m the co-founder of Real Justice. Our goal is to help elect reform-minded prosecutors and district attorneys that are committed to ending mass incarceration. And right now, I want to share a few lessons from this race that I think will help our readers across the country.

When we decided to endorse and support Tiffany Cabán, we were told that her race was the longest of long shots. But we made the conscious decision to support her anyway – even though the deck was stacked against us – for a few key reasons.

The majority of district attorneys run completely unopposed. This is a core dysfunction of the system. Many of them have been in power for so long that they are operating with de-facto lifetime appointments.

Queens has had a conservative white man running the DA’s office since 1991. He propped up mass incarceration at every turn. It was time for change. And we felt it was important for us to do the hard, necessary work of teaching voters that we have the power to change this system. So we decided to go ahead.

Here’s a rundown on what we did together:

• Sent 284,377 text messages to potential voters in Queens – and thousands of those people committed to vote.
• Devoted the $38,000 legal max for a campaign in Queens. We gave the campaign nearly $10,000 in cash and spent the remainder on volunteer recruitment, get out the vote efforts, rallies, events, and digital efforts.
• Reached tens of millions of potential voters, donors, and volunteers with our social media campaigns about Tiffany.
• Personally recruited endorsers – District Attorneys, prominent elected officials, and celebrities who publicly endorsed and campaigned for Tiffany.
• Raised $60,000 for Tiffany’s recount and to hire a top-notch lawyer. And we recruited volunteers to make sure the recount was fair.

It was not enough. The entrenched Democratic establishment still has huge amounts of money and power. Tiffany’s campaign helped show that it’s possible to take on the establishment. She nearly won. But moving forward, we have to work even harder to secure the wins we need in districts all over the country.

Here’s some of what could’ve happened better on Tiffany’s race:

• Long-shot candidates like Tiffany need more support, sooner. One of the biggest hurdles for radical reformers like Tiffany is getting enough financial support early on. Those resources are required to build critical groundwork, hire staff, recruit volunteers, and reach voters. For our next round of races, we need to make sure we’re well-resourced, way ahead of time.
  
  
• Organizations on the ground need to collaborate better with one another in smart ways. Dozens of organizations, including ours, backed Tiffany, but sometimes the left hand didn’t know what the right was doing. We have to fix that.
  
  
• We pivoted too quickly to victory and didn’t effectively mobilize a “count every vote” push. When it started to become clear that Katz was leading by a small number of votes, there could’ve been a larger, national campaign to make sure every valid vote was counted. In the next round of races, we need to be prepared to push even after election night.

Here’s what we accomplished (even though Tiffany didn’t ultimately win):

• We pushed Katz to take stronger stances on justice reform by building momentum for Tiffany – issues like marijuana possession and sex work. That will have real impacts to reduce mass incarceration in Queens if Katz keeps her word.
  
  
• We showed the country what real justice reform can look like. We helped build critical momentum for Tiffany and helped her ideas and policies catch national attention. A couple years ago, hardly anyone paid attention to district attorney races or understood how important these positions are. Together, we’re changing the game on criminal justice in this country.
  
  
• We sent a message that it’s possible for long-shot reformers to challenge the political establishment. Tiffany was up against big money and the entrenched establishment. It’s amazing that she came so close to winning, when at the beginning everyone said she didn’t have a chance. Her race is already inspiring more public defenders to run for district attorney and change the system from the inside out.

Lastly, we need to remember that our opponents are extremely well-organized and well-resourced. We have to be just as organized as they are. And we need enough resources to compete.

Next up: we will report back on Jody Owens’ election in Jackson, Mississippi – and we’re gearing up for more races, too. It’s going to take all of us, but I believe we’re going to score some really important wins.

-- Shaun King

P.S. If you are ready to make sure the next round of district attorney races are even stronger, more resourced, and readier to take on the political establishment than ever before, please make your best gift to our new fund. It’s specifically for public defenders similar to Tiffany – from the places most impacted by mass incarceration, who want to replace the system with something radically different.

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