I wanted to share some news with you, team.‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Hey team -- I want you to be the first to know that we’re going back up on TV in Iowa beginning Monday. This was possible because you stepped up and invested in this campaign. Thank you.

That’s why I wanted to take this opportunity before the new year to update you about our plan to position Cory for success in Iowa and beyond.

You can find the full memo below if you’d like to read more, team. Thanks for helping us get here. I’m so proud to be on this campaign with you.

TO: Cory 2020 Supporters and Friends
FROM: Addisu Demissie, Campaign Manager, Cory ‍2020
DATE: Friday, December 27, 2019
RE: Update on Cory’s Path to the Nomination — and Our Plan to Win

Happy holidays! I wanted to take this opportunity before the new year to update our campaign’s supporters and friends about our plan to position Cory for success in Iowa and beyond.

As you know, December has been an important month for Cory Booker and our campaign. Thanks to a narrowing field, an upswing in financial support, growing interest from caucus-goers and voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, and our strong on-the-ground organization, Cory has a real path to win the nomination.

But the challenges before us are real too -- namely, meeting the polling threshold to qualify for the January debate stage and having sufficient resources for paid communications with Iowa caucus-goers who are just tuning in and making their final decisions about whom to support.

We have fewer resources for paid communications than some of our top competitors, but we can overcome that gap with greater efficiency and discipline in communicating our message, which we know is the most compelling and persuasive in the field. We just need to make sure the right audiences -- particularly in Iowa -- see and hear it.

That’s why we wanted to write to you today: to outline Cory’s winning message, our plan to communicate it to Iowans, and how much more we can do with your support.

While we believe that the increased polling requirements are misguided given how few polls we’ve seen since the November debate, the rules are now set and we’re sprinting at the polls we need to make it to the stage. The good news: we’ve already hit the donor threshold of 225,000 unique individual donors.

The January debate in Iowa is a key opportunity to engage with voters and build our momentum at a time when caucus-goers and early state voters are tuning in, often for the first time, and paying attention to the debate and preparing to make final decisions about whom to support. And with the debate thresholds announced so late, we need to do everything we can now to make sure Cory is on that stage.

Second, our road to the nomination begins in Iowa. Performing well in the Hawkeye State is essential to our path to victory.

Once we make the January debate stage we will turn our full attention toward beating expectations in Iowa, which will set us up for strong performances in the February gauntlet of early state nominating contests leading to Super Tuesday, but to do that we need to invest now.

Our theory in this race has always been organize, organize, organize… and get hot at the end. Well, the Iowa caucuses are 38 days away and it’s time to get hot.

We’ve built the best organizing team in the 2020 presidential field in the early states, starting in Iowa. But we need to make sure voters are able to learn more about Cory’s biography, values, and vision and get our ground game in a position to close the deal with caucus-goers.

We have committed to an Iowa-focused advertising plan to persuade caucus-goers that they should pick Cory. We recognize that we will need to raise more funds immediately to grow our advertising budget to bring our program to scale, and will be asking for your help as our supporters to make this happen. In the meantime, we are being smart with your support and are carefully prioritizing our investments.

We will continue through the Iowa Caucus and beyond with the same message with which we began this campaign -- the same message that has propelled Cory’s entire career. There is no substitute for an authentic message, and, frankly, Cory wouldn’t have it any other way. We will work over the coming weeks to ensure tight message discipline across the campaign, from volunteers and organizers to every department in headquarters. That message is:

If you want to bring a fight, you bring people together. The stronger the coalition, the greater the victory.

And we need to bring a fight. The stakes in this election are enormous -- this is a struggle for the soul of our nation, which is being corrupted by the powerful, by the greedy, and by bullies, bigots, and demogogues who are trying to tear us apart to serve themselves.

In this moment, we need one another -- because fighting together is the only way we are going to beat Donald Trump and heal our country. That’s the only way change has ever happened in America.

That’s why it’s time to choose Cory Booker for president. He will help us see our common pain, ignite our spirit of common purpose, and inspire us to fight together to not only win this election, but to take on the biggest challenges in our country that are leaving so many people and so many communities behind.

Cory has spent his entire career running at the toughest challenges and bringing people together to accomplish things others said were impossible. Inspired by the work of civil rights activists who helped his family integrate an all-white community, Cory moved to an inner-city neighborhood in Newark after law school to help tenants fight slumlords and help families stay in their homes. He’s never left, and has delivered as a mayor and U.S. Senator, turning the tide against mass incarceration and sparking historic investment in vulnerable communities.

From taking on the NRA and the scourge of gun violence in our communities, to fighting for big economic changes that lift up those who have been struggling and deliver opportunity for all, to transforming a broken criminal justice system that disproportionately hurts poor and Black and Brown communities, Cory will make justice and opportunity real for every American as president by uniting us in the fight.

While Cory and this campaign will seek support from every corner of Iowa and beyond, in the interest of efficiency, we’ll target our paid communications to our key audience of Democratic women -- particularly college-educated women, women of color, and older women.

We expect Cory’s strength to be in urban and, especially, suburban areas of the state. In particular, the 3rd Congressional District -- which includes Polk County and its western and southern suburbs, as well as most of southwest Iowa -- is where we expect to show our strength and win the most delegates come caucus night. We will spend much of Cory’s time and our limited resources in this area, which is largely covered by the Des Moines media market, over the course of the last month leading up to the caucuses. We believe that we can and should win delegates in the other largest urban/suburban centers of the state (Cedar Rapids, Davenport/Quad Cities, Iowa City, Waterloo, and the two western cities of Council Bluffs and Sioux City), but we need additional resources to ensure that happens.

Underscoring all of this is the understanding -- supported by public and private data -- that even at this late stage of the race, most Democratic voters still remain unfamiliar with Cory’s record of accomplishments, his platform, and his biography. This is not due to lack of effort or, in the case of the February states, investment, but rather the reality of a crowded field, a media environment dominated by impeachment and other non-election news, and an electorate that historically has not fully tuned in until the closing weeks of a campaign.

If you’re receiving this memo, your support has gotten Cory and our campaign this far. You’ve helped build one of the strongest organizing teams in this race. You’ve contributed, traveled to see him in person, shared your time to knock doors or make calls, and amplified his message on social media -- we couldn’t be more grateful.

With your support, we’ve organized, organized, organized. Now, your support will help us get hot at the end.

With your support, we can strengthen and expand our Iowa TV and digital buys and begin TV and radio in South Carolina.