Hi, John. It's been a little while since I last reached out — I'm Jesse, Jamaal's Finance Director.
It's my job to make sure that our movement can stay financially solvent. I make sure that we have enough money coming in through fundraising so we can pay our staff, bring people into our movement, organize across New York's 16th District, and most importantly — make sure that Jamaal can keep legislating and fighting for our communities.
Now, as a Finance Director, I can tell you that most campaigns make up a lot of their fundraising revenue from something called "call time": when representatives get on the phone and call wealthy donors to write big checks to the campaign.
During our primary this past June — before Jamaal took office as a member of Congress — a sizable chunk (26%) of our fundraising was from call time. The rest of our fundraising revenue came from emails, digital ads, events, social media, and our progressive allies mobilizing for us.
But now that Jamaal has taken office, doing call time like he used to isn't an option anymore. But our movement is growing rapidly, and we need our fundraising to keep up, even without the inclusion of call time.
In 11 days, we'll officially have a Democrat-controlled Congress, Senate, and White House. The next two years will be our best chance since 2008 to advance progressive legislation. Not having to worry about fundraising or call time will give Jamaal the room to focus on his job entirely and fight for us during this critical time.
Thank you for everything you do to keep our movement strong.
In solidarity,
Jesse Guy-Herman, Finance Director
Bowman for Congress
