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Over 70 Crowdpac candidates won their races this past Tuesday. You may recognize a few.

Salim Shariff
Crowdpac
Published in
8 min readNov 10, 2017

We’ve worked hard at Crowdpac to create a platform that makes it easy and realistic for Americans of all backgrounds to run for office and engage in politics for the first time.

We couldn’t be happier this week, watching candidates with amazingly diverse backgrounds win their races after getting started on Crowdpac.

Here are some of their stories:

Wilmot Collins, Mayor-elect of Helena, Montana

On Tuesday, Wilmot Collins became the first black mayor in the state of Montana. Mayor-elect Collins came to the US as a refugee from Liberia 23 years ago and was inspired to run for office after hearing former President Barack Obama urge citizens to get involved. He defeated a four term incumbent, winning by 338 votes.

Danica Roem, VA House of Delegates, 13th District

A former journalist, Danica is first openly transgender candidate elected to a state house seat in the country. She got her start with a Crowdpac page early on in her campaign. Despite making history, Danica focused her campaign on local issues, especially the traffic on Virginia’s Route 28.

John Curtis, Congressman-Elect for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District

John Curtis, former Mayor of Provo, Utah started running for Jason Chaffetz’s former Congressional seat in May after being drafted by a pledge campaign set up on Crowdpac which raised over $9000.

Dr. Kathie Allen, Democratic Nominee for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District

John’s Democratic opponent, Kathie Allen, raised over $520,000 on Crowdpac. Kathie set fundraising records (over 14,000 people donated to her on Crowdpac alone) and may have been the reason Chaffetz ultimately decided to retire.

Flippable

Flippable set up Crowdpac pages for what they identified as the most “flippable” districts in the Virginia House of Delegates, raising funds for the eventual democratic nominee in districts where there were primaries. They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for their candidates and sent hundreds of volunteers to knock doors and get out the vote. All of their candidates in Virginia won on Tuesday night.

Sister District

Sister District raised their inaugural funds on Crowdpac and went on to raise over $350,000 in small-dollar cash donations sent directly to campaigns and an additional $350,000 in partnership with allied organizations. Their volunteers made over 100,000 dials and door knocks, wrote 30,000 postcards, and sent 185,000 text messages to help Virginia state house candidates. Sister District won 13 of their 14 races on Tuesday. Their 14th race is in a recount, with a 13-vote margin.

One Vote at A Time

One Vote at A Time raised over $36,000 to fund the filming and distribution of campaign ads for targeted elections in Virginia using an all-female team of directors, cinematographers, and editors. All three of the candidates they supported and made ads for won on Tuesday.

Elizabeth Guzman, Virginia House of Delegates, 31st District

Elizabeth says that “through hard work and determination I have been able to provide for my family, get a higher education, and work to help others in my community — another opportunity I want all residents in the 31st district to share. Those are some of the many reasons why I’m going to work tirelessly from now until Election Day in 2017 to fight to become the delegate for Virginia’s 31st House District.” She made history alongside Hala Ayala as they became the first two Latinas elected to the House of Delegates.

Hala Ayala, Virginia House of Delegates, 51st District

Hala, a cyber security expert, has been a longtime activist and super-volunteer for Democratic campaigns in Prince William County. When she flipped her district blue, she made history by becoming one of the first two Latinas elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Dawn Adams, VA House of Delegates, 68th District

Dr. Dawn M. Adams is a nurse practitioner and public servant, not a career politician. As a resident of the 68th District for over two decades, Dawn understands the concerns and issues that Virginians currently face and plans to tackle limited access to healthcare, crushing student debt, and low paying jobs. Dawn made history by becoming the first Lesbian woman elected to the House of Delegates.

Debra Rodman, Virginia House of Delegates, 73rd District

Debra has spent the past 15 years of her life as an educator and the past ten years helping refugees seeking political asylum in federal courts. She says “it seemed that it was time for me to step up and make a difference.”

Cheryl Turpin, Virginia House of Delegates, 85th District

After serving in the Army for 23 years, Cheryl’s father retired from service and her family resided in Fairfax County, Virginia. For the past 18 years, Cheryl’s family has called the Kempsville area of Virginia Beach home. Cheryl has served her community as a high school teacher for 24 years.

Noelia Corzo, Member Elect San Mateo-Foster City, CA School Board

Noelia is a social worker by trade who has dedicated her career to working with foster youth and people with disabilities. She’s a child of immigrants, bi-lingual and multicultural. She plans to “bring a unique perspective that will advance education equity and community engagement to better our schools and neighborhoods.”

Michael “Mickey” Millsap, School Board member-elect in Birmingham, Alabama

Mickey Millsap, a father and entrepreneur, started his online fundraising on Crowdpac. Crowdfunding over $5000, Mickey committed to providing students in his district with the “21st century skills they need to compete in a growing, and increasingly complex economy.” Mickey won his race in early October.

Christy Holstege, City Councilor-Elect, Palm Springs, CA

Christy helped make history in Palm Springs . As a bisexual woman, her election has made the entire city council LGBTQ. She has dedicated her career to fighting for residents as a local attorney and has acted as a community leader on local issues, from LGBTQ rights to homelessness.

Lauren Colliver and Susan Mattingly, Blacksburg, Virginia Town Council

Lauren, left, and Susan, right

Lauren and Susan both used Crowdpac to trailblaze a path onto the Blacksburg Town Council. Susan says she’s a “1983 graduate of Virginia Tech who knew Blacksburg was a special place before it was a tag line.” Lauren says “I have grown three small businesses here that employ and serve members of our community.”

Some of our candidates are still duking it out in Virginia with races too close to call as of this post:

  • Shelly Simonds (D), Virginia House of Delegates, 94th District, is trailing her opponent by a razor thin margin of 13 votes (.05%).
  • Donte Tanner (D), Virginia House of Delegates, 40th District, had the race called for him on Tuesday night when the county officials realized they had made a mistake on Wednesday morning. He is currently behind 115 votes (.38%).
  • Larry Barnett (D), Virginia House of Delegates, 27th District, is down by jut 124 votes (.43 %).
  • Joshua Cole, Virginia House of Delegates, 28th District, is in a race to replace outgoing GOP Speaker Howell. He is down 84 votes (.36%).

If you want to help in the recount efforts, you can contribute to Run Everywhere Virginia, a leadership committee led by Democratic House Caucus Finance Chair Jennifer Boysko.

Cheers to the rest of these fantastic candidates who raised money on Crowdpac and won their races:

Many of these candidates ran for the first time and won. We work every day to make it easier for anybody to run for office anywhere in America. If you’re feeling inspired, you should run for office too. We’ll help you get started at Crowdpac.com.

2017
Politics
Crowdpac
US Elections
Crowdfunding

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Salim Shariff
Crowdpac

Written by Salim Shariff

560 Followers
Editor for

Doing my best to make a little brighter, one step at a time. Lover of all things internet, words, and images.

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