John --
An organization is only as strong as its frontline leaders. As a founding co-Chair of the Forward Party and the Chair of our State Party Committee, I get to see firsthand just how strong our Party is.
In 2024, the Forward Party put in the hard work of growing our movement with particular investments into local leaders. Building state parties is a challenging undertaking and the rules that govern forming a new party are different in every state, but all states do seem to have one thing in common, no matter which party is in power: The rules are set up to keep more competition out.
This sad truth is why the accomplishments of our state parties are so impressive. Over the past several weeks, I’ve been meeting with each of our state leadership teams to hear their successes, challenges, and plans for the future.
What Went Well
Much of our work with state parties in 2024 centered on growing connective tissue between the states and arming state leaders with the resources and tools they will need to continue forging ahead. Forward Party state leaders now regularly join convenings with other state leads around the country almost every week. We launched an expanded curriculum for state leads that we call our “modules” program, covering a range of topics from compliance to communications (and topics that don’t start with “c”).
We spent much of the second-half of the year working hand-in-hand with states to build out our candidate endorsement and support programs. As a former candidate, I know how valuable volunteers are, and Forward Party had people on the ground supporting our candidates at a tangible level. It’s a key part of how we had 30 affiliated candidates win office, from local seats to the US Senate.
Lessons Learned
2024 was not without its challenges. We are a small team and it can be hard to give the time and attention needed to our deserving state-parties, especially because the process for forming new state parties is different in every state. Additionally, we still don’t have sufficient “gathering places” for Forwardists in states that don’t yet have a critical mass of people to form a state party but want to roll up their sleeves to help get there. I look forward to finding a way to engage these individuals personally in 2025.
These are our thoughts from 2024, but we want to hear from you! Please head to this link and fill out your thoughts on lessons learned, the direction the party should head in, and projects we should tackle! We will read them all, and we will highlight our top 10, along with the people who submitted them, in early January as our New Years Resolutions. <[link removed]>
2025 Projects
Based on the discussions with the state parties, we have a lot of exciting things in store for 2025, turning challenges into opportunities. In Q1 of next year, we will roll out even more ways for state leads to collaborate with each other, including “working groups” for state leaders who are specializing in functional areas (e.g., comms, fundraising, field). We’ll be introducing better tracking systems to manage our shared work, as well as a “banding” system so that state parties can track their progress against goals, which will help us deploy resources to them more efficiently and responsively. Finally, we’ll keep cranking on building better “containers” for Forwardists who are eager to seed the ground in their states so that they can eventually turn a group of volunteers into a full-fledged party.
Bring on 2025!
If you're still feeling the season of giving, consider donating to Forward this season!
<[link removed]>Chip In $25 Today! <[link removed]>
Happy Holidays,
Governor Whitman
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Forward Party - 1701 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036, United States
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