Historic Outcomes for Hustle and the 2018 Midterm Election
This midterm election cycle saw an unprecedented effort across the nation to strategically engage and mobilize voters, fueling a record-breaking midterm election turnout. Organizers used Hustle as a volunteer-powered platform for fundraising, events attendance, relationship building, to share important voting day information, and to engage and excite new voters who cast ballots in favor of a new wave of candidates and a wide array of civil liberties.
On behalf of the Hustle team, we want to extend a huge THANK YOU to the DNC, DSCC, DLCC, 45 State Democratic Parties, 1,300+ campaigns and dozens of advocacy organizations who rallied more than 50,000 volunteers to exchange 200 million messages back-and-forth with over 47 million voters.
Human interactions fueled turnout and key wins:
The midterm elections saw an unprecedented use of peer-to-peer texting by campaigns, organizations and volunteers to reach more prospective voters than ever before.
“Hustle has been critical this cycle in reaching and mobilizing voters of all ages and demographics. Through millions of individual text conversations, the Democratic Party has been able to boost volunteer efforts, streamline events management, and provide voters with critical information including how to get involved, how and where to vote, and voting rights.”
-Jorge Aguilar, Executive Director of Nancy Pelosi for Congress, and Administrator of Red to Blue SF
Overall turnout jumped to 110 million voters, up from 83 million in 2014. Youth turnout alone increased by more than 10% since 2014.
Historic Candidates & Representation:
Hustle is proud to have contributed to the critical wins of 21 House seats, 14 Gubernatorial elections and 330 state legislative seats, helping Democrats to win back the House. In a year of fresh and first-time candidates, we extend a special congratulations to:
- Jared Polis (Gov, CO): who became the first openly gay Governor elected in the United States of America.
- Ayanna Pressley, MA-7: who won a stunning primary upset against 10-term incumbent Michael Capuano, and officially becomes the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress.
- Jahana Hayes, CT-5: a schoolteacher and first-time candidate who became the first black woman to represent Connecticut in Congress.
- Debra Haaland, NM-1: one of the first of two Native American women elected to Congress (alongside Sharice Davids).
- Ilhan Omar, MN-5: one of the first of two Muslim women elected to Congress (alongside Rashida Tlaib).
- Michelle Luján Grisham (Gov, NM): who is the first Latina Democratic Governor of New Mexico.
- Eleni Kounalakis (Lt. Gov, CA): who became California’s first elected female Lieutenant Governor.
And candidates who flipped key House districts from red to blue, including:
- Lauren Underwood, IL-14: a nurse and first-time candidate who flipped long-time conservative district from red to blue.
- Antonio Delgado, NY-19: a Rhodes scholar with a working-class upbringing who unseated incumbent and flipped this district from red to blue.
- Lizzie Fletcher, TX-07: an attorney and first-time candidate who flipped this hotly-contested district from red to blue.
- Lucy McBath, GA-06: a mother who lost her son to gun violence and ran against a NRA-backed opponent, but flipped this district from red to blue for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Hustle is also honored to have worked with historic candidates Stacey Abrams for Governor of Georgia and Andrew Gillum for Governor of Florida. Their candidacies, teams and volunteers inspired millions to exercise their right to vote.
“Hustle is a game changer for grassroots organizing and fundraising. It allowed us to connect with so many different parts of the district and was an important piece in our path to victory. Hustle was essential to us mobilizing a record amount of new votes for Ayanna’s primary.”
- Gina Christo, Finance Director for Ayanna Pressley for Congress
Historic Legislation:
FL Amendment 4 restored voting rights to more than 1.4 million people with felony convictions who have completed their sentences. This is the most significant expansion of voting rights since the women’s suffrage movement. More than a dozen organizations, including Second Chances Florida and Our Revolution, used Hustle to exchange 342,000 messages with 173,000 voters.
MA Amendment 3 upheld a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, marking it as one of the biggest transgender rights campaigns in US history. Freedom for MA (a bipartisan coalition of residents, businesses) spearheaded this effort: 300+ volunteers exchanged 325,000 messages with 124,000 voters.
Prop 12 in California secured the strongest farm confinement prevention laws in the world. The Yes on Prop 12 team as well as thousands of volunteers, used Hustle to text approximately 1.4 million Californians in the months leading up to election day. Thanks to their work, millions of farm animals can now look forward to a more humane future.
Onward and upward:
Hustle’s peer-to-peer texting model has been cemented as one of the most important tools in a campaign organizers’ toolkit this election cycle. Hustle facilitated a record-breaking 20 million messages per day during GOTV and our platform supported nearly 6 times the volume of messages that were sent during the 2016 election.
This work would not have been possible without the inspired resolve, effort and commitment of our staff, partner organizations, campaign leaders, volunteers, and individuals like yourself, who didn’t just hope for change but made it happen.
-The Hustle family
