Announcing TFC’s 2018 State Priorities List

Focusing digital volunteer efforts for maximum impact

Although a political news junkie for as long as I can remember, I had been satisfied as a bystander. I hosted a community event or two for Obama 2008 and donated some to Hillary 2016, obsessively refreshed Nate Silver and Politico like many, but doing more seemed like someone else’s job. In November 2016, like for many others, things changed. Within months, I had joined Tech for Campaigns as a volunteer and was running ads across Newport News and Williamsburg, Virginia for the successful re-election of Delegate Mike Mullin. This week, I am thrilled to be joining TFC full-time as Director of Campaign Relations to help scale our digital volunteer projects more than 10x in 2018. I wanted to share a bit about the approach we are taking this year towards maximizing our impact in this year’s midterm elections.

Last year, Tech for Campaigns partnered up with the Virginia House Democratic Caucus to execute 35 projects across twelve separate campaigns for the House of Delegates and several projects for the Caucus itself. We helped to secure wins in nine of the races and flip eight seats in the biggest Democratic pickup in Virginia since 1899. We’re not done!

In 2018, Tech for Campaigns will be continuing this effort, pairing up with key states, like we did in Virginia in 2017, to execute projects that range from paid social advertising to texting GOTV strategies to fundraising data analysis.

TFC will be working on campaigns at all levels of the ballot, including federal and statewide races, but we will be placing special emphasis on state legislatures. In many states, state legislatures:

• Make most of the laws that govern Americans’ daily lives;
• Are within just a few seats of flipping control of a chamber or breaking a Republican supermajority; and
• Are ground zero for the demographic change that may help flip control ahead of the key 2020 redistricting process (phenomenally important for long-term Democratic control of the U.S. House!)

Despite how important they are, state legislature races often fly below the radar and are the most in need of help from digital-savvy volunteers. For TFC, concentrating deeply within a state legislature has proven itself to be an effective strategy, so we’re back at it again.

Tech For Campaigns is thrilled to announce our 2018 State Priorities List:

In the coming weeks, we’ll be diving deep into our selection methodology and the political landscapes in some of our states. We’ve prioritized states based on our internal data team’s models and additional strategic decisions we’ve made to invest in important states. While there are fourteen total states, four remain in an exploratory stage for us.

A HUGE thank you to the many TFC volunteers participating in our Build The List data science and engineering effort — this process would not have been possible without your hard work.

If you are a candidate or represent one and would like to chat about becoming part of TFC’s efforts in these states, please let us know.