Democrat Christine Pellegrino’s Campaign Uses Hustle to Flip Red District

Off-year elections have hardly been in the wheelhouse of progressive campaigns, which are marked by lower turnout and a decidedly older and more conservative electorate. Couple that with a special election and you have a steeper climb. But technological advancements in text-based organizing have put more districts in play.

The Democratic resistance to Trump landed a win last night with Christine Pellegrino’s huge upset in Long Island’s reliably red 9th Assembly District. In a seat that Trump won by 23 points, Democrat Pellegrino carried it by 16 — a whopping 39 point swing!

How did they manage to do it? Campaign Manager Andrew Smith says,

“Hard Work. Discipline. A great candidate. The support of a national movement to resist the Trump agenda.

And a shit ton of texts.”

All over the country, there was an outpouring of support for the campaign. And in Long Island, they mobilized this excitement with Hustle.

By using personalized, one-on-one text messaging to recruit hundreds of volunteers to canvass, phone bank, and pack town halls, Team Pellegrino freed up over 80 hours that would have been spent on the phone leaving voicemails.

Team Pellegrino built a people-powered campaign that valued genuine conversations between supporters and voters, and resoundingly won.