Friends,

This was a big year for us at Forward Majority. We secured Democratic majorities in both chambers of the Virginia legislature and continued making inroads on retaking the Texas States House with a special election in House District 28.

Thanks to your support, we’ve been on the frontlines of the fight to win back power where it counts—in the key state legislative chambers that’ll redraw dozens of congressional districts in 2021 and establish the balance of political power for the next decade. A quick recap of some of our highlights from 2019:

• Although the Supreme Court barred federal courts from challenges to partisan gerrymandering this summer, we’ve long anticipated that the courts will not save our democracy. As I wrote in an op-ed in The Los Angeles Times before the ruling, “The fight against partisan gerrymandering is far from over. We can, and we must, restore integrity to our democracy by checking Republican power at the ballot box in 2020, the last major election before 2021 redistricting begins and the fate of our congressional elections is sealed for years to come.”

• After we helped flip 15 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017, we doubled-down to our commitment to retake the key chamber in 2019. As our Communications Director Ben Wexler-Waite told The Washington Post after the announcement of our investment in the Commonwealth: “It’s really important for Democrats to be aggressive in state legislative elections, because there’s so much at stake for the future of the party.”

• We also continued our work to retake the Texas State House in 2019. As I wrote in Salon with our advisor David Daley, “Democrats now need only 9 more seats to win the majority…Flipping the state house would have huge implications not only for Texas; it would transform the national electoral landscape.” Recognizing the unique opportunity of a special election for the Texas State House District 28 this past November, we invested to help close the resource gap as reported in the Texas Tribune and ultimately help the Democrat win the most votes in a crowded race—now headed for a run-off in the new year.

• After the 2019 elections, I shared my thoughts with USA Today about how our investments paid off with Democrats retaking control of both state house chambers in Virginia: “Trump should be very worried that we successfully targeted and carried districts he won in 2016...that are a microcosm for inroads Democrats are making in suburban districts across the country.” My key takeaway: Virginia shows us what’s possible when Democratic energy and resources show up in the fight to retake key GOP-held statehouses.

• Earlier this month in Florida, we launched a new partnership with the former Mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum, to help spearhead our efforts to retake the Florida State House in 2020. “It’s a no-brainer,” Gillum explained to Politico. “We’ve got to be a lot more aggressive in expanding the map...I do believe that we are in reach of those 14 seats. But we’ve got to compete, and we’ve got to bring a level of unprecedented resources to that fight.”

• Last week I published an op-ed with our Campaigns Director, Ethan Roeder, in Quartz to explain how the principles of value investing and winning back GOP-held state legislatures go hand in hand. Simply put, your dollar goes further in states: “While presidential and congressional campaigns dominate the headlines and the fundraising hauls, many political investors systematically miss the critical way state legislatures affect national power in Congress, specifically by blocking the gerrymandering that makes key congressional races impossible to win in the first place.”

We made incredible progress in 2019, but our greatest fights lie ahead in 2020 when it comes to retaking other key state legislative chambers, like the Texas State House, that have been entrenched in Republican control and gerrymandered for decades.

We only get one chance to get this right and win back power before the 2021 redistricting process. Help us continue to lead the fight to reclaim power in states and restore our democracy.

We cannot let up now. Your political contributions go further by investing in these critical state races and supporting the expansion of our programs leading up to 2020:

Thank you for all the support,