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Indivisibles,

It’s Sarah, Indivisible’s Chief Campaigns Officer. And today, 28 days before election day, I’m here with a really transparent email about what I’m worried about, a decision we’re wrestling with here at Indivisible, and a question for you.

But first, thank you. Because this weekend, you showed up.

In Washington, D.C. by way of Brockway, Pennsylvania.

In Prescott, Arizona.

In St. Paul, Minnesota.

In Bend, Oregon.

In Concord, Massachusetts.

In Bellingham, Washington.

When all was said and done, you hit the streets at more than 450 marches, vigils, and rallies across all 50 states -- and your message was loud and clear: we won’t go back.

It was a powerful way to mark the 30-day mark before November 8. You reminded your neighbors that our rights are on the ballot in just a few short weeks. And you made sure that MAGA Republicans -- who would like nothing more than for all of us to sit down and STFU -- couldn’t run from that narrative on your home turf.

But we’re not done yet. And like I said up top, I want to talk to you about something I’m worried about and a decision we’re wrestling with (I’m also going to ask you to chip in $28 to help us expand our Give No Ground candidate slate, reach more voters in this final push, and support all our work to keep our House and Senate majorities in these last 28 days).

What I’m worried about: The race for control of the House is close & MAGA is wildly outspending us.

As The Washington Post reported¹ last week, House candidates -- and political nonprofits, like Indivisible -- are not meeting our fundraising goals (for transparency’s sake, we missed our goal by about 50% in September and are making decisions about our investments in races across the country based on real-time fundraising data from October). At the same time, we’re being wildly outspent by megarich MAGA donors at a moment when many House races have razor-thin margins.

As of last Thursday, Dave Wasserman at the Cook Political Report estimates that of the 30 “toss-up” races, Democrats need to win 24, or 80%, to keep our majority:

While we can’t compete with billionaires funneling money into races all over the country, we’ve got something they don’t: grassroots power putting in the work to win by talking to their neighbors, writing postcards and letters to the editor, canvassing, and holding events to expose MAGA’s extremism.

But with 28 days left, we’ve got to do more.

The decision we’re wrestling with here at Indivisible: Expanding our Give No Ground candidate slate & investing in majority-making races.

When we’re making decisions about our programs here at Indivisible, we want to do it with all the information we have available at a given moment. And right now, that tweet from Dave Wasserman -- and our fundraising numbers -- are keeping me up at night.

As you read this, we’re looking at the candidates we’re supporting with money and tools and asking hard questions about where we really need to focus our efforts to hold onto the House.

Last week, our team put together a list of the Toss-up and Lean-R House races that we’d expand to support with phonebanking, textbanking, direct support, and more if we could find the dollars. These are the folks who have incredible Indivisible grassroots support behind them and the folks we think are going to be the real majority makers come November 8th. These races are winnable.

I want to share it with you (and ask you what you think below):

Josh Riley (NY-19) is in a toss-up and running against an opponent who opposed allowing Medicaid funds to be used for abortions and even transferred thousands of dollars from his state campaign account to an anti-choice organization that operated crisis pregnancy centers.²

Jevin Hodge (AZ-01) is in a toss-up. He’s running against an opponent who wants to ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest³, repeatedly attacked birth control access and voted to defund Planned Parenthood (not to mention he voted to toss out the 2020 presidential election results).

Will Rollins (CA-41) is in a Lean-R race that we think is winnable. His opponent signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe and Casey, voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act, voted against a bipartisan law to make it illegal to barricade an abortion clinic, voted for a bill that would put doctors in jail for performing abortions, and voted against barring child rapists from being able to sue doctors who provided abortion care to a child incest victim.⁴

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) is in a Lean-R race. Her opponent was endorsed by Donald Trump and is giving Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene a run for their ultra-MAGA street cred money.

Rudy Salas (CA-22) is in a Toss-up race. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee calls the race “one of the best pickup opportunities in the country.” His opponent voted to allow an age tax on older Californians that would charge them five times more for their health care. He even voted against protecting paid sick leave.⁵

Christy Smith (CA-27) is in a Toss-up race. Her opponent signed an amicus brief asking SCOTUS to overturn Roe, voted against the Women’s Health Protect Act, and co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, the federal personhood bill that would ban all abortions and certain types of birth control such as IUDs.⁶

Tom Malinowski (NJ-07) is in a Lean-R race. His opponent voted against codifying a woman’s right to choose in New Jersey and supported the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe. During the many times he’s run for office, anti-choice groups spent tens of thousands of dollars to elect him.⁷

Kim Schrier (WA-08) is in a Toss-up race. Her opponent is about as extreme as they come, confirming that he’d be in favor of a nationwide ban on abortion, outlawing abortion even in cases of rape and incest, has called for banning abortion outright from conception, supports defunding Planned Parenthood, and was praised by the far-right Family Policy Institute.⁸

Yadira Caraveo (CO-08) is in a Toss-up race. Her opponent called the day that SCOTUS overturned Roe, “an exciting day,” and opposes abortion, even in instances of rape and incest (she also doesn’t believe in climate change).⁹

Wiley Nickel (NC-13) is in a Toss-up race. At one point, his opponent’s website declared he was “100 percent Pro-Life” and “100 percent Pro-Trump,” as well as including his position that “life begins at conception.” He’s since scrubbed it all (he knows he’s in trouble).¹⁰

Mary Peltola (AK-AL) is in a Toss-up race. There aren’t enough words in this email to remind you about Sarah “I can see Russia” Palin. And the other guy isn’t much better.

Christopher Deluzio (PA-17) is in a Toss-up race. His opponent openly supported overturning Roe and signaled support for a constitutional amendment to restrict abortion access nationwide.¹¹

Kirsten Engel (AZ-06) is in a Lean-R race. Her opponent both refused to condemn white nationalism¹² and literally walked away from Arizona voters asking about his position on abortion.¹³

Frank Mrvan (IN-01) is in a Toss-up race. His opponent was endorsed by an extremist anti-abortion group and continues to double down on supporting a nationwide abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother.¹⁴

Gabriel Vasquez (NM-02) is in a Toss-up race. His opponent’s first ever act in Congress was to overturn the 2020 election, and she has since cheered on abortion bans in states like Texas that are putting pregnant people’s lives at risk.¹⁵

Jay Chen (CA-45) is in a Lean-R race. His MAGA opponent voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act and signed onto an amicus brief asking the Republicans on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. She even cosponsored legislation to ban all abortions and some birth control.¹⁶

Christina Bohannan (IA-01) is in a Lean-R race. Her opponent is a Republican incumbent who won by only SIX VOTES in 2020 and who now supports a national abortion ban and is pushing efforts to allow insurance companies to discriminate against patients.¹⁷

Later this week, I’ll meet with Leah, Ezra, and our team to make final decisions about if we can expand Give No Ground and invest in these races with direct candidate support, phonebanking, textingbanking, group support, and more. Real-talk: to get to yes, fundraising needs to be in a better place than it's in right now.

The question: can you give a few dollars to help us throw down on these races?

So, how much does it cost to add a candidate, anyway? Great question. Let me tell you.

For about $16,000 we can add a candidate and:

Host textbanking parties to help Indivisible groups reach voters in their district to make sure they know how important this election is,
Activate our national phonebanking tools so Indivisible volunteers can reach potential voters and help them make a plan to cast their ballot on election day,
Include the race in our new canvassing tools that allow individual activists to make an outsized impact in their own communities

Can you chip in $28 dollars right now to help fund this expansion of Give No Ground to support majority-making House races and all of our work to keep our majorities this November?

I also want to know which of the candidates you’re feeling most excited about. Click their name to let us know:

Josh Riley (NY-19)

Jevin Hodge (AZ-01)

Will Rollins (CA-41)

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03)

Rudy Salas (CA-22)

Christy Smith (CA-27)

Tom Malinowski (NJ-07)

Kim Schrier (WA-08)

Yadira Caraveo (CO-08)

Wiley Nickel (NC-13)

Mary Peltola (AK-AL)

Christopher Deluzio (PA-17)

Kirsten Engel (AZ-06)

Frank Mrvan (IN-01)

Gabriel Vasquez (NM-02)

Jay Chen (CA-45)

Christina Bohannan (IA-01)

While I don’t yet know how much this email is going to raise, or how many candidates we’ll be able to add to our slate, I’ll circle back with you on Friday to let you know more about the decision about expanding and how you can get involved to win.

Thank you for all that you’re doing right now.

28 days.

In solidarity,
Sarah

_____________________________

Paid for by Indivisible Action (indivisible.org). Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Indivisible Action is a Hybrid Political Action Committee fueled by the grassroots movement to win elections and build local, independent progressive power nationwide. Read more about the formation of our PAC here.

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