Indivisibles,

Today I’m writing to you about one of the most crucial races in the country, and our plan to win.

Oregon’s 5th house district is one of just a few remaining true toss-up seats in the country. We absolutely must win this race if we’re going to hold the House. We’ve got an incredible candidate -- Jamie McLeod-Skinner -- powered by grassroots support. She’s taking on a pro-forced birth, big pharma-backed, MAGA opponent. And right now, they are tied in the polls.

I traveled to Oregon last week, where I hit the pavement with fired-up local Indivisibles for Jamie. And I want to share with you why we think this race is so important, what we’re going to do to win it, and how you can get involved today to win this seat and hold the House (and yes, ask you if you want to chip in to help).

State of the Race

We think OR-05 is winnable for three reasons:

1. Jamie McLeod Skinner is a fighter -- and a great candidate. Jamie pulled off a long-shot victory in the primary, where she was outspent 10-1 by pharma-backed, quasi-Republican Kurt Schrader. As a small business owner and emergency response coordinator who handled wildfire recovery for the area, she’s a great fit for the district. And part of how you can tell she’s a great candidate is...
   
2. She’s powered by a surge of Indivisible groups. OR-05 is a district with driven, local grassroots organizers: Indivisible Clackamas, Indivisible Oregon, Indivisible Sisters, the Vocal Seniority, Indivisible Bend, Oregonizers, the statewide Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network, and more. As I saw for myself in Oregon, the entire statewide network of Oregon Indivisibles has thrown in to support her! From door-knocking to phonebanking to grassroots fundraising, Jamie is truly running on the power of the people, not corporate donors.
   
3. SCOTUS overreach and MAGA extremism are a bad look for this district. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the Republican candidate, is doing her best to hide her positions. But the reality is, she’s an anti-abortion extremist, flirts with election denial, and attacks minimum wage increases while taking literally millions in COVID relief from taxpayers for her own businesses. We just need to make sure every voter knows about her extreme record.

For all these reasons, the race is close. As recently as a few months ago, FiveThirtyEight had this district favored to go Republican, but as Jamie’s had more time to get her message out and more voters have learned about the extreme anti-choice positions held by Chavez-DeRemer, the race has tightened to a tie. 

If we keep talking to voters, we know we can win this race. 

Our plan to win

This is a big district with lots of ground to cover, and Republican corporate donors are throwing buckets of money at this race. So we need to think creatively and use every tool we can to break through the big-dollar noise with tested messages that have the power to remind OR-05 voters exactly what’s at stake.

Our team is deciding whether to hit go on $40,000 worth of targeted social pressure mail and posters (you can see them below!) that will reach thousands of voters in the final days of this race (on top of the phonebanking, texting, and canvassing that we’re already doing). And if we hit our stretch goal of $50,000, we’ll add billboards all over the district with tested messaging about Jamie’s opponent and what’s at stake in November. We think this is critical investment in a race we can’t afford to lose and where national Democrats are massively underspending. But we need your support to make it happen, and fast:

1. If you can, chip in now to help us get mail out to 60,000 OR-5 voters, as well as billboards and posters up all over OR-5 immediately and to support all of our work to keep the House and expand our Senate majority in November.
2. If you can’t, that’s OK! Sign up to join our national phonebank party for Jamie TODAY at 5pm Eastern/2pm Pacific and talk to voters in OR-5. 

We need to make sure that every single voter in OR-05 understands that they’ll be making a fundamental choice at the ballot box this election: to protect reproductive freedoms or risk losing abortion rights nationwide. To protect fair, free elections or risk being represented by someone who *still* refuses to say that Biden won in 2020. 

This always sounds like a line in fundraising emails, but it’s really true: there’s a direct line between clicking that ‘donate’ button and our ability to reach more voters in this absolutely key toss-up district, and the stakes couldn’t be higher this year. Whether you’re giving your money or your time, thank you.

We’ve won close races before -- and I believe in OR-05, we can do it again.

In solidarity, 
Leah