John,

Happy New Year! In the coming year, we wish you and your loved ones
limitless wealth in the forms of health, safety, peace, and solidarity.

As 2021 draws to a close, we are overwhelmed with gratitude for you.
Without your vision, your values, and your dedication to building a better
world, we would not have the means to keep fighting for progressive
candidates and policies. But because you continue to show up with
relentless determination, we are transforming our country for the better-
candidate by candidate, city by city, election by election. Thank you.

Below, you’ll find a partial inventory of the achievements and lessons
learned in 2021 and a teaser of what we have planned for 2022.

But first, DFA faces an important end-of-year fundraising deadline tonight
at midnight and we can’t meet our goal without your help.

In order to achieve all of the goals we have planned in 2022, we need
supporters like you to step up and donate $22 or more today to meet our
end-of-year goal.

[ [link removed] ]Will you contribute $22 or whatever you can afford to Democracy for
America before our year-end deadline at midnight?

DONATE: [link removed]

The 2022 midterm elections are going to provide a thrilling forum to
broadcast our progressive message of hope and compassion. The candidates
you help us to elect will be our voices, and progressive policies will be
our legacy. Together, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

Happy New Year— Now let’s go make good trouble.

In solidarity,

All of us at DFA

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2021 LOOK BACK: ANALYSIS & SOLUTIONS

DFA Member Impact On National Narrative Shifts

Thanks to your support, we are no longer speaking in hushed tones about
mere inclusion. We are empowered to seek justice and demand
accountability. Thanks to progressives within the judiciary- we saw the
historic delivery of verdicts that affirmed the value of Black lives- and
the culpability of police. Thanks to diverse legislators at state and
federal levels, we saw historic adoption of policies that have begun
untangling the webs of patriarchy and structural racism.

With more progressive women (and especially women of color) in office,
women’s rights to medical self-determination, workplace dignity, and equal
pay are no longer negotiable. Indefatigable DFA-endorsed electeds like
Katie Porter and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez continue to hold the line on
debates about women’s rights, exploited by Republicans to distract voters
from their pro-corporate, anti-human policies. Without your early support,
we may not have elected such dedicated advocates in Washington.

Elections up and down the ballot have confirmed what progressives have
known for decades: status quo candidates are not enough to move voters and
win. The people want grassroots candidates who relate directly to the
working poor, middle class, and historically oppressed. Your contributions
have built the lane where grassroots candidates can rise from the working
class to represent real people in Washington.

Three Examples Of Historic Election Victories

* DFA members helped to elect St. Louis’s first Black female Mayor,
Tishaura Jones. In a city plagued by de facto segregation via poverty
and policy, Tishaura Jones’ victory ushers in a new era where voters
in St. Louis will see true representation and the end of appalling
exploitation and redlining that ran rampant within St. Louis City
Hall.
* DFA members made sure Sharetta Smith beat back red state opposition to
become the first Black person and first female Mayor of Lima, Ohio.
* DFA members helped to elect Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s first Black
District Attorney. In a city where police and prisons have earned the
censure of the global human rights community, Bragg brings his
irreproachable history of advocacy and integrity to a critical elected
office. Electing Alvin Bragg cleared a path for trying the criminal
cases against Donald Trump.

Three 2021 Diagnostic Observations That Solve 2022 Strategy Pain Points

* Internal Party Conflict As Self-Immolation:

2021 elections highlighted an alarming pattern among status quo
Democrats. In several races, Democrats withheld support for
progressive candidates despite their clear paths to victory. They
opted instead to support weaker candidates whose platforms would leave
stagnant policies unchallenged and continue to enrich only the wealthy
few. This cynical tactic- combined with attendant weak messaging- led
to widespread disappointments in battlegrounds like Virginia.

ANALYSIS: Throwing progressive candidates under the bus resulted in
Democrats “primarying” themselves when statistically weaker status quo
candidates failed to motivate voters.

SOLUTION: Close the support gap for progressives early enough to beat
back status quo opposition. The energy invested in obscuring
progressives exposed fears about the collective strength of grassroots
movements. The challenge between the center and the left is simple:
who will concede to the other in service of consolidating voting
power? Where progressives fail to fundraise early, a wide lane appears
for anti-progress entities to double down on tactics that endanger
general elections. In contrast, early and sustained contributions
signal that progressive candidates are the best investment for
ensuring Democrats hold majorities in the House and Senate.

* Historical Mid-Term Congressional Pattern Compounded By GOP Early
Targeting

Historically, whichever party holds the office of President will be
usurped in midterm elections. With both the Senate and House operating
with a slim majority (further complicated by retirements and alleged
Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema), Democrats face peril
in midterms. The GOP anticipated this and began rolling out an
aggressive targeting strategy in the spring of 2021. Composed of
robust GOP support for challengers as well as tens of millions
earmarked for media in battleground states- the Republican battle plan
is designed to seed fear of defeat and gin up the false perception
among centrist Democrats that progress is risky.

ANALYSIS: Intentional negative branding of all Democrats as
“socialists” energizes the Republican base and seeds a culture of
second-guessing among Democrats. This pushes the center further right,
convincing status quo Democrats to sabotage the very campaigns that
resonate strongly with their base and stymying fundraising efforts.
With hesitancy delaying fundraising until later in the election cycle,
otherwise strong progressive contenders are forced to boot-strap and
enter the home stretch of elections without resources that assure wide
margins of victory.

SOLUTION: Recognizing tactics described by Republicans in their 2021
strategy memos offers Democrats- and especially progressives- an
enticing opportunity to disrupt what has often been a form of habitual
self-sabotage: hesitancy. Even before reviewing leaked strategy memos,
DFA’s electoral strategy provided a plan for resistance that precisely
aligned against the GOP’s planned battlefronts. We are uniquely
positioned to confront and defeat the GOP if our members join us in
building a plan of material support that keeps our candidates in
front.

* Off-Year Fundraising Challenges Led To Last Minute Election Scrambles

All major political organizations anticipated decreased contributions
after the tumult of 2020. However, the left has almost universally
reported that the hiccup has been severe enough to induce extreme
struggles. The consequences of anemic or last-minute support were
evident in defeats suffered by Democrats in November 2021. While
Democrats expressed surprise, it was clear that if the statistically
stronger progressive candidates had more early and sustained support,
they would have swept the polls.

ANALYSIS: While Republicans coalesced around a unified strategy two
years in advance of next November’s midterms, Democrats have struggled
to embrace the evolution of their base and form a unified strategy of
their own. To do so will require them to embrace the racially diverse
New American Majority and deliver material relief for the increasingly
beleaguered working class. To wit, perception by voters that these
concerns are being addressed will determine whether the passion of the
2020 general election is revived in time to secure victories for
Democrats in 2022.

SOLUTION: Correct gaps by establishing an early fundraising strategy
that puts progressive candidates at an advantage. Learn from the
strengths of our opposition and beat the GOP at their own game. Arrive
at the election “battlefront” with a bigger war chest and unified
“army” of organizers, canvassers, and allies who are well-trained and
ready to win.

2022 Paths To Victory

* DFA’s 50 State Strategy: Our 50 State Strategy is so effective that
even the GOP is attempting to emulate it. For nearly two decades, we
have created public awareness around progressive initiatives and
delivered outcomes that voters feel in their everyday lives. That’s
how you build a movement. Our work to elect progressives to every
level of office- from Aldermen to Presidents, has secured over 1,100
victories, including dozens of historic firsts for women and people of
color. In 2022, we must continue the 50 State Strategy not only to
capture more ground- but to defend communities from our Republican
counterparts’ mission to take over police departments, mayoral
offices, and statewide elected offices.

* Stand With The New American Majority: Did you know that there are no
red states without racial inequality? That’s right. In almost any red
state or battleground state, Democrats can win simply by earning votes
from the BIPOC and white progressive New American Majority. Our work
to engage BIPOC voters builds engagement for life and has been key to
flipping red and purple states blue. Historic 2020 flips like Arizona
and Georgia were made possible by Black and brown voters. It makes
sense to repeat this winning strategy and expand it. While there are
many organizations targeting specific populations within the New
American Majority, DFA is taking unique strides to engage meaningfully
with ALL communities of color. Earning the turn out of even a portion
of registered BIPOC voters can alter the electoral landscape in our
favor for decades.

* Flip the South: For over 40 years the GOP has chiseled away at our
democracy via their Southern Strategy. As many political experts have
noted, Democrats have never devised a similarly comprehensive
counter-strategy– until now. DFA’s Flip the South program was inspired
by our historic turnaround for the Virginia House in 2018. Our CEO
Yvette Simpson, then our national political director, was instrumental
in pushing the staunchly red Virginia legislative body to a blue
tipping point. Achieved through proven grassroots organizing tactics
and innovative applications of data science, the victory in Virginia
became a pilot for our comprehensive strategy to flip other southern
states like North Carolina and Texas. Given the enormous electoral
power of each of our targeted states, the long-term positive impact of
2021 victories is incalculable.

Summary:

Whether they identify as progressive or not, the majority of Americans
want the solutions that only progressives offer. However, the potential to
use this fact to expand alignment throughout the political spectrum has
been squandered with weak messaging, inconsistent funding, and misguided
attempts to court the center-right. However, while this has been a
dangerous oversight, we as progressives have abundant opportunities to
course correct and draw on the massive collective strength we’ve seen
coalesce around the people’s political movement. By reaching deeper into
historically oppressed communities we can harness the powerful numbers
that inhabit neglected margins of our nation.

In the coming months, we will be called upon to once again affirm our
commitment to the steady march of progress- to equality, to love of our
fellow man, and to life as we know and cherish it on this planet. Let’s
release the last year with thanks and take our earned insights into the
coming year and coming elections. Together we can win. Together we can
continue our good work - and good trouble- toward a true Democracy for
America.






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