The Union: 2024 Highlights Across Teams

Communications—Led by Kathy Haselmaier, this team played a critical role in connecting with The Union's members and volunteers, ensuring our message was consistent, clear, and impactful.

• Emails: 4.3 million sent with open rates exceeding industry averages (up to 3x higher for political groups).
• Abe Team: Starting 100 days before Election Day, we sent daily Call to Action (CTA) emails that were impressive, concise, and impactful. A dedicated team of 15 worked collaboratively daily to execute this effort, achieving an open rate exceeding 60%.
• Substack: 167 articles published by volunteers, engaging readers with unique topics and strong community sharing.
• SMS: Sent nearly 100,000 text messages per week leading up to Election Day, providing voting reminders, encouraging sign-ups for voter outreach events, and requesting donations.
• Website:
  • Hosted 55,000 visits, peaking at 2,210 on Election Day.
  • Supported 4,501 daily volunteer opportunities and 45,000 user clicks.
  • Secured 873 organic donations in the last 4 months.
• Social Media—Led by Katherine Caron:
  • Coordinated 24+ volunteers managing 20,000+ engaged followers across five platforms.
  • Grew weekly impressions from 100k to nearly 700k in October.
  • Highlights: 50% of Instagram engagement came from non-followers; on X, weekly impressions peaked at 676k before Election Day.
  • Threads had a significant impact, generating over 302k views and more than 56k interactions in the month before the election.

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State Teams—The state teams were central to The Union’s grassroots efforts in 2024. With 15 teams, including 7 battleground states, our state leads and volunteers were crucial in mobilizing voters, organizing events, and amplifying our pro-democracy message.

Each state team held monthly and bi-weekly meetings with guests like Stuart Stevens, Joe Trippi, Olivia Julianna, and partner organizations, providing volunteers with key updates and insights into critical races.

We organized Weekend of Action events in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina, and Florida. Volunteers canvassed, phone-banked, and engaged with local communities to boost voter registration and turnout for pro-democracy candidates. Reed Galen, Joe Walsh, and local pro-democracy candidates joined us.

State teams also helped organize text-banking, postcarding, and virtual events, mobilizing thousands of volunteers and supporting local leaders and candidates with our partners.

Our state team leads stepped up and rose to the challenge, showing incredible leadership and dedication. Their unwavering commitment was essential to our success, and we will be forever grateful for their efforts.

• Pennsylvania: Led by Kelly Brown and Kathy Dabundo. Onboarded 185+ new volunteers, hosted 14 team meetings, and retained PA-17.
• Wisconsin: Led by Amy Sloan and Kathy Clarke, the team helped with efforts to re-elect Senator Tammy Baldwin, flipped four State Senate and ten Assembly seats, promoted frequent calls to action in Slack, and launched a mentorship program for new volunteers.
• Georgia: Led by Mark Beasley. Organized postcard writing, student registration, and poll worker initiatives.
• Arizona: Led by Carolyn Zeiher and Gayl Howell. Hosted a Weekend of Action and town hall with Union leaders; supported key state candidates and ushered Ruben Gallego to the Senate.
• Michigan: Led by Donna Bova and Ashok Sethi, the team successfully held the Senate seat and organized a powerful Weekend of Action with local organizations, including in-person events at local churches. Christopher Graunstadt also played a key role in welcoming new volunteers to the team, contributing significantly to our efforts.
• North Carolina: Led by Daniel Ward and Trip Overholt. Hosted an in-person Democracy Town Hall and round table with Reed Galen & Duke Dems and collaborated with various organizations for door-knocking initiatives.
• Texas: Led by Jess Adams. Mobilized 1,200+ volunteers, ran GOTV campaigns, and celebrated congressional wins in South Texas.
• Virginia: Led by Carlton Tolsdorf. Contributed to winning 13 electoral votes and retaining 6 Democratic congressional seats.
• Illinois: Led by Dyannt Berndt. Supported wins for Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) and Eric Sorensen (IL-17); raised awareness through local Chicago radio interviews.
• Colorado: Hosted community meet-and-greets at local restaurants and libraries.
• Maine: Community Conversations was a series of virtual and in-person events hosted by Elliot Benjamin. During these events, he engaged with his community to discuss the importance of democracy and the risks posed by third-party movements.

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Creative—Led by Ryan Pfeiffer, this team was essential in producing visually compelling materials that supported our campaigns and outreach efforts.

• Produced 100+ graphics and videos for events, GOTV efforts, rapid response, and Union campaigns like “Take Back the Flag,” “What is your Tipping Point,” and “Project 2025.”
• Designed holiday-themed posts and comprehensive fact sheets on voting rights and poll worker recruitment.

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Intel & Research—Led by Liz McClure, this team supported strategic decision-making and day-to-day campaign efforts, ensuring that The Union stayed ahead of emerging challenges.

• Created tools like the 2024 Race Tracker for 30+ priority elections and Ballot Curing Rules for 11 states.
• Conducted focus groups to enhance messaging on voting rights and Project 2025.
• Supported states with research, media contacts, and organizational tools via the Union's Google Sites intranet.

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Tech—Led by Tony Noblett, worked behind the scenes to support daily operations, handling everything from website updates to Slack management and Mobilize training sessions.

• Helped set up The Union's Google Sites intranet
• Managed daily updates on Slack, website, Google Drive, and email imports/sends
• Tracked volunteer activity and platform engagement
• Implemented NGP VAN integrated donation, email sending, and volunteer management system
• Setup SMS and implemented campaign
• Setup and Implemented donor campaign expanding and cleaning data lists 
• Setup and managed ActBlue donation platform

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Outreach & Onboarding—Led by Leslie Button. Through personalized outreach, the team kept volunteers connected and engaged, helping to build a dedicated, nationwide network of pro-democracy activists. Their efforts ensured that every volunteer had the resources and guidance needed to make a tangible impact.

• Sent 5,000+ welcome emails to new volunteers starting in March 2024.
• Onboarded 651 volunteers through personalized communication and The Union Hub on Slack.
• Supported prospective and current volunteers through Democracy Defender training and placements to engage volunteers rapidly.

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Action Center—A small but mighty team—Todd Buikema, Theressa Harrigan, and Giri Venkatraman—was the driving force behind the daily actions posted on our Volunteer Action Center. They tracked race initiatives, made strategic pivots, and prioritized the highest-impact events from our partner organizations.

• 200,000+ voter outreach events promoted from September to November
• 57,000+ unique users engaged
• 20,000 sign-ups on the Action Center
• Top events included community gatherings, training, phone and text banks.

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Partners Team—Led by Mike Ahern. This team cultivated relationships with current and potential partner organizations, channeling information to state leads and the Action Center team. They amplified key partner events and supported voter engagement and outreach efforts.

• 124 pro-democracy partner organizations: 46 national, 21 state-level
• Partners include organizations focused on voter registration, voting assistance, voting rights, grassroots partisan and issue advocacy, education, youth engagement, social initiatives, and national political efforts.

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Democracy Defender Training Sessions—Led by Luis Esteva Sueiro and myself, we held nearly 2,000 weekly volunteer training sessions. These sessions provided new and returning volunteers with an opportunity to:

• Review the nationwide races we were supporting
• Gain insight into our campaign initiatives
• Ask questions and make suggestions
• Learn more about the work of our state teams.

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2024 was a monumental year for The Union. These collective accomplishments highlight the passion and dedication of thousands of volunteers working toward a pro-democracy future. By adding the PAC tools to our quiver during the last 10 weeks of the campaign, we had new and exciting opportunities to defend democracy. Imagine what we can do now over the next 2-4 years as a PAC supported by engaged and determined volunteers! Together, we will continue to grow, strengthen, and make an impact at every level. It will take ALL of us.

Thank you for standing with us on this journey.

Jacqueline Westman
National Organizing Director