In any normal election year, we would have started and already completed the post-election fundraising wrap up posts by now. Like many of you, I am still figuring out how to pick myself up off the floor after the election. My head knows that this isn’t the time to say “well, we tried, but we lost, and I’m done”. My heart? My heart knows that, too, even as it’s still broken, but how to move forward still isn’t exactly clear.
Had a great conversation with the folks at Worker Power last week. We’re going to be bringing in some of our organizations to talk with us about how we all move forward after this crushing blow, and I think we are going to start with them. These won’t be presentations so much as they will be discussions – probably on a weekend evening as we’ve done for some of our Balloon Juice zooms.
However devastating the election loss continues to be at the Presidential and US House and Senate levels, it’s important to remember that our efforts were not for naught. That’s the beauty of our focus mostly on organizations, as opposed to candidates. The work builds on itself, from year to year, election to election. With organizations, it’s not about just the top-level races, it’s about state races and down-ballot races, as well.
I am really proud of all the groups we supported – there’s not even one that I regret. In some ways the outcome is everything, but in other ways, it’s not about the outcome, it’s about doing the work, and building on that, and I have no regrets about the work we did.
We branched out to some new states, like North Carolina, to some new groups, and to some new communities.
So with that as background, let’s look at North Carolina, where we primarily focused on turning out the youth BIPOC vote.
Our first partnership was with the North Carolina Black Alliance Campus Engagement Project, and its charismatic leader, Marcus Bass. The Black Alliance already had a fully-operational registration and turnout team at the state’s 13 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In Phase I, Balloon Juice helped them expand to two public colleges with substantial BIPOC student populations. Our money helped them recruit, train and deploy on-campus canvassers.
Phase II expanded this effort to four urban community colleges in the state’s largest cities. Both efforts were overwhelmingly successful. In between, we flash-fundraised for security equipment for the canvassers after the mood on the street turned ugly after the Trump assassination attempt in July.
Over 150,000 provisional and challenged ballots were cast in NC, and we also funded the ballot curing efforts after the election. All told, between our donations thru ActBlue and external matches, we raised $155,000 for NC Black Alliance.
We also helped North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT) expand their outreach to Asian American students on the state’s largest campuses. The young women who lead this organization are impressive. And inspiring! NCAAT coordinated with their Black Alliance partners to make sure their ballot curing efforts were not duplicated. All told, between our donations thru ActBlue and external matches, we raised $100,000 for NCAAT in Action.
North Carolina didn’t go to Harris, but ticket-splitting in the state awarded major victories to the Democratic party in North Carolina. Josh Stein trounced the odious Mark Robinson by 14 points to become Governor. Democrats won other statewide races, electing Democrats as Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State. And, flipping a seat in the state House of Representatives cost the Republicans their ill-gotten gerrymandered veto-proof super majority.
The Republicans reacted by abusing their current supermajority power to pass a bill weakening the power of statewide offices held by Democrats and giving the Republicans more control over elections. Read about their perfidy here.
We supported 3 North Carolina candidates, based on recommendations from Marcus at NC Black Alliance.
Allison Riggs, one of two Democrats on the seven-justice NC Supreme Court, is currently leading by 748 votes over her Republican challenger. As of December 13, the race has not yet been called. But it is looking good – she picked up a few votes on a partial recount.
Carolyn Thompson, an African-American incumbent justice on the NC Court of Appeals. Alas, she lost by less than 100,000 votes out of over 5 million cast, to a very conservative white male challenger.
Raymond Smith is an African American Gulf War veteran challenging a white male Republican incumbent in Eastern North Carolina. He hoped to flip the seat and shatter the Senate super-majority. Unfortunatelyi, incumbent Eldon “Buck” Newton was easily reelected with a 10-point lead.
Despite all these heroic efforts, youth voter turnout (18-25 year olds) in 2024 was down 7% in the state from 2020 (60% vs. 53%). There are many potential explanations – some universal, and some unique to North Carolina (the hurricane aftermath). The result was beyond disappointing.
But the new voters registered and motivated to go to the polls is an investment in the future. The NC Democratic party is well-organized and well-led by its dynamic chair Anderson Clayton. The efforts of our partners and the state party have expanded the base of new Democratic voters – we can build on that in 2026 and 2028. Money spent identifying and motivating new voters is always money well-spent! As with everything we do, it’s about right now, and it’s also about the future!
I always think about Georgia, and Stacey Abrams. The work that gave us two Democratic Senate seats in 2020 didn’t start in 2020, or even in 2016. That work started way back in 2010, and that’s the work we’re involved in now in North Carolina. And 10 years later, we got the senate because of those two Georgia Senators, and Georgia got two of the finest senators around. I would not be at all surprised if Jon Ossoff runs for president in 2028, and wins.
I thought this could be the year that NC electoral votes would go to the Democrats. That was not to be, but electing Democrats to most state-wide offices and breaking the House supermajority will spare North Carolinians some of the worst of what the Republicans have in store for them. The work we have done for NC, and the work we have ahead of us, may well make as many waves as GA did in 2020.
Working for a better future is an act of faith. We took our body blows, we are licking our wounds, and in the new year we will have our work cut out for us. I will not let Trump and his henchmen break my spirit. Not for long, anyway.
Almost Retired
I don’t regret a single donation I made through BJ/Act Blue this cycle. I hope we continue to focus on North Carolina as a potential swing state.
Miss Bianca
Thanks for the round-up *and* for spearheading these fundraising efforts, WG.
ETA: I didn’t contribute much this election cycle, for a variety of reasons. But I am glad to hear that other folks were able to step up so impressively.
john b
This very much felt like a step forward for NC Dems this year. Not on a federal level, but I think we’ll have a real contest in ’26 for Tillis’s seat. I think pressure on Tillis’s Cabinet confirmation votes will be crucial in the short-run. And probably votes on things like whatever immigration / tariff / abortion measures the GOP dreams up over the next 12 months.
EDIT: and continuing to press hard in NC leading up to redistricting in 2030 is key. A lot of the nonsense at the state level can be traced back to a bad 2010 election cycle.
Professor Bigfoot
Ossoff in ’28 (assuming, of course, there IS an election in ’28 that matters)… well, he’s a white (presenting) man; he’s a genuinely good man, and he’s also very much a bad dude.
I could get to that!
Professor Bigfoot
@Almost Retired: I don’t regret any, but I sure got tired of having my phone blown up multiple times daily by organizations I don’t know from Adam supporting candidates far, far away from me.
We’ll see just how things are gonna be in ’26.
Matt McIrvin
Any gains that happened this year may be eliminated by the criminalization of the Democratic Party followed by mass arrests. I guess we’ll see. I have a hard time believing a Democrat will ever be allowed to be President again.
Almost Retired
@Professor Bigfoot: Yeah, I made a small donation to an unsuccessful Democratic challenger in an Iowa Congressional race, and appear to have gained a new pen pal for my trouble.
Fortunately, when you donate through Act Blue on BJ your personal contact information is not shared with the recipient, AFAIK.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Won’t stop me from constantly criticizing Dems for everything on social media.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: The Facebook political fundraising appeals got almost unbearable for me. The thing is, that’s kind of a bad way to motivate your political donations if you make them. You won’t necessarily get money to the campaigns that can make best use of your dollar
Erik Loomis argued late in the cycle that donating money to politicians is pointless, period. The results make it harder to push back against that argument.
WaterGirl
@Almost Retired: If you donate to an organization through a Balloon Juice ActBlue link, you won’t be contacted unless you click the the link to say okay.
For candidates, I think ActBlue is required by law to share some specific information, but I don’t think that would include email. I should find out for sure before our next cycle.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s the problem with the argument that Dems should use the money they raise for permanent messaging. Donors are focused as election day draws near. You can’t assume all that money is just available to Dems to just spend whenever they wish.
H.E.Wolf
Amen.
Thank you for making a way for us to do the work that we did!
And thank you to the people in the organizations Balloon Juice supported.
Betty
Your efforts were highly commendable. Voters aren’t always going to use good judgment no matte what you do.
Baud
@H.E.Wolf:
@Betty:
Thirded.
No Nym
“I would not be at all surprised if Jon Ossoff runs for president in 2028, and wins.”
That is a dazzling thought. Thank you for seeding it in my brain.
Professor Bigfoot
I was a monthly donor to Dark Brandon/Steppin’ Razor/Coach, but I still got constant texts even from the campaign.
Nevermind the various “PACs” and the odd long-shot candidate from Godknowswhere.
It’s one of the things that rankles me about this election- ALL THAT MONEY, all those packed rallies, all those small donors and America still chose the white supremacist felon.
I’ve a choice- a conspiracy theory that somehow the Republicans with Putin (and Musk’s) help– or well, William of Ockham just reminds me of what Toni Morrison said about “Americans.
Edited to add– yeah, I’m kinda angry and bitter; but a back-pat and salute to WG and the Jackaltariat– goddamit, we tried our damnedest, didn’t we? Here’s wishing luck to every single one of us who did.
dc
Another important win in NC was for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Mo Brooks won against a crazy and dangerous woman.
As far as Loomis, he is great on labor history. He’s also recently had some get-involved-in real-life to combat the coming disaster posts, actually reasonable and considered in tone. However, other posts, especially any attempt at election analysis are just him screaming into the dark. If it weren’t for all the resources that national party and the Harris campaign poured into NC, we would have done even worse here and our statewide and legislative victories would have been much sparser. Looking nationally, we were swimming against the current, so as disappointing as the results were, it could easily have been much worse. My county party office was more organized than I’ve ever seen it, it was a machine in every sense. And that took money, money that did not just come from local or even state sources.
sab
@Matt McIrvin: With few exceptions I kept all my donations early and local. Early so that they can staff up a campaign. And locally everyone and every issue I wanted won.
Next cycle locally will be school board.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Sarcasm?
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin:
You do know that’s not what we do here on Balloon Juice, right?
WTFGhost
@Matt McIrvin: I agree of course. In fact, I heard a high ranking CIA person saying…
Jackie
Happening now: School shooting in Madison, WI. Multiple injuries, small K-12 christian school.
Update: suspect is down, multiple casualties with several ambulances in route to hospitals.
So sad 😞
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Yes.
Matt McIrvin
@sab: Locally, the general-election candidates I wanted all won, but this is a very blue state and I didn’t donate any money to them because they were shoo-ins.
The ballot measures I voted for didn’t all win, and one I voted against DID win, but most of those were genuinely tough calls where you could make a decent argument for either side. The real slam dunk (letting Uber drivers unionize)… that one won.
Steve LaBonne
@Professor Bigfoot: I have no idea how not to be angry and bitter about the results of the election. My fellow wypipo never tire of showing their asses. Well, the country they pretend to love is about to enter a steep decline and that will be on them
KatKapCC
I would not be surprised if he ran. Winning, on the other hand…remember that there are just as many people who hate Jews in this country as people who hate Black folks and women. They already think we secretly run the government. Having a Jewish person in the Oval Office would only ramp that shit up to 11. The same way people said Kennedy would take orders from the Pope, they would claim Ossoff was being shadow-puppeted by Bibi or whatever other asshole is in charge in Israel at that time. Yes, I realize he got elected to the Senate from Georgia. That doesn’t mean anything when it comes to a nationwide race.
Obviously I would like to see a Jewish president one day. But I’m not the only Jew whose excitement about the prospect is heavily tempered by trepidation and doubt.
sab
@Matt McIrvin: Our Congressperson wasn’t a shoo-in but she won. It will be her second term.Maybe this will get her a more solid base going forward.
She is good, but they tacked half of a red county onto her district.
E.
@WTFGhost: have some pie bro.
eemom
@KatKapCC:
Back in the 1980s I had a Jewish bf who predicted there would be a Black president before a Jewish one. He got that right, if not much else.
eta: spelled my nym wrong and landed in mod. 😢
Joe Falco
@Professor Bigfoot: I can see both parties’ nominees being from Georgia in ’28. Ossoff and Kemp.
WaterGirl
@eemom: I took the liberty of adding the M and released you.
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
And let’s not forget blaming us Democrats for everything the Republicans do.
Matt McIrvin
@KatKapCC: It seems like voters who will contemplate electing people to all sorts of other offices have this special atavistic reaction when it comes to the Presidency. They’ll elect a woman Senator, a woman Governor, but not a woman President–there’s some special scariness about that.
WTFGhost
@WTFGhost: Remember, dummy, people don’t understand “satire” about “despair”.
Matt McIrvin
@Professor Bigfoot: Putin’s trolls and people like Musk can only build on things that are already out there, and nudge people in directions they might already be inclined to go. It was so in 2016 as well.
KatKapCC
@Matt McIrvin: Yep. The president can sort of be seen as the “boss” of the whole country (which is why people think electing a “businessman” is a good idea, even if he is a shitty businessman), and there are a LOT of people who hate the idea of having a female boss, a boss who isn’t white, a boss who basically isn’t as much like them as possible.
Matt McIrvin
@eemom: There are way more Black people than Jewish people in the US. The thing that surprised me was that people seemed way more willing to elect a Black man as President than any woman, even a white woman, but it probably shouldn’t have been.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: i occasionally wonder whether you are ever able to see the positive in anything Democrats say or do.
Steve LaBonne
@Melancholy Jaques: As I have often said, Murc’s Law is harsh but it’s the law and must be obeyed.
Matt McIrvin
@KatKapCC: And there’s just the general idea that the President is a kind of dictator whose word is law (which slides closer to being reality as the rest of the government ties itself up in partisan obstructions, and as we insist on electing a mobbed-up authoritarian as President, but it’s still a weird kind of folk idea).
WaterGirl
@WTFGhost: At first it seemed like what you wroteit might be satire, but you got so graphic that it seemed out of character for you, and it really didn’t have a place here.
eemom
@WaterGirl:
Thank you WG!
KatKapCC
@WaterGirl: It was…jarring.
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: In political fora, I don’t see much point in talking about things that are basically OK. Threats and problems are another matter.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: I got texts from many of the candidates and organizations we supported, but I found that they all responded correctly to texting Stop.
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@KatKapCC: Ditto. As an old Jewish guy, I’ve been waiting all my life for the first Jewish president. Now I don’t expect to see it, and I don’t know if anyone will — not as long as 30% of the voting public thinks America is or should be a “Christian nation.” Given those numbers, a major party would have to be meshugah to pick one of us for the top spot.
The Audacity of Krope
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride: In four years Democrats will be saying we can only nominate a white Christian male. They might not use those precise words, but the message will be loud and clear. See also, 2020.
WTFGhost
@KatKapCC: Sometimes, if someone is speaking dark thoughts, I get the urge to say “you think you know the darkness?”
Then, when people see what real darkness is, they recoil from it, as they do from ugly people like me.
Meh. It’s a living.
naijalola
@The Audacity of Krope: and they are right. as a black woman, I will never again tie my future to the hope that the US is anything other than what it is. doesn’t feel good to know that a woman can’t win, but I can’t afford to think otherwise