When people ask us about the biggest “bang for buck” opportunities for Dem donors, we always focus on state legislature races. That’s why we were thrilled earlier this summer to catch up with Christina Polizzi, National Press Secretary of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC). The DLCC has been at the forefront of Team Blue’s state legislature efforts, and we are excited to help spread the word about the great work they’re doing to consolidate and extend Dems’ positions in these chambers. We encourage you to support the DLCC via the handy ActBlue link below!
This post is the kick-off to our upcoming analysis of specific state legislature candidates to support in 2021 and 2022, starting with Virginia — so please stay tuned!
In the meantime, read on to learn why state legislatures are so important for Dems, what it will take for us to win them, and why these races are such high-impact opportunities for donors. Christina’s conversation with Blue Ripple’s Frank David has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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Blue Ripple: Why should Democratic donors care about state legislatures?
Christina Polizzi: It’s impossible to overstate the strategic importance of state legislatures. First, everything from gerrymandering to voting rights, they are really the building blocks of democracy. Republicans prioritized and invested in them a lot earlier than Democrats, which is why they won in 2010 and were able to rig state legislative and congressional maps in their favor, and also control voting rights.
Second, if you care about progressive policies, you need to invest in state legislatures, because these policies are much more likely to get passed quickly at the state level in a Democratic trifecta than at the federal level. In states like Maryland, Virginia, and New York, we've been able to pass very comprehensive gun violence prevention bills, protect reproductive rights, and expand voting rights. And on the other side, horrible legislation has passed in states with a Republican trifecta, like anti-trans laws, voter suppression, and anti-abortion laws.
Finally, after the 2020 election there was talk about how Republican state legislatures were toying with the idea of not sending Presidential electors in accordance with their state. Sending Presidential electors is a power the Constitution gives to state legislatures, so that is also really critical.
BR: Looking back to 2020, how successful were Democrats in state legislature races, and what did we learn?
CP: We had a very ambitious list of target states in 2020, but given the importance of redistricting, we knew we had to lay it on the line. And although we came up short in some states, there were some silver linings. In Texas, we had flipped 12 state legislature seats in 2018 from red to blue, and in 2020, while we didn’t win the chamber, we held the line despite a groundswell of turnout for Trump. We also made gains in Arizona and blocked a Republican supermajority in Wisconsin. So even though we didn't get some of the big wins we were going for, we protected the progress that we made in 2018.
Moving forward, we learned two big lessons in 2020. First, we need to keep ringing the bell about how critical it is to have resources for state legislature races, and get them early so we can be proactive.
Second, we learned we have to keep doing everything we can on redistricting. Whether it’s through messaging, litigation, or other activities, we need to make sure we get the fairest maps possible. Otherwise, we know Republicans in some states are going to try to leverage their majorities to set themselves up for another 10 years of easy wins.
BR: Is there anything fundamentally different we need to do going forward to win state legislature races? Or are we doing all of the right things, but we need to do more of them?
CP: One thing we’ve learned is that state legislature elections are becoming increasingly nationalized. We know that the best way to win a local election is to talk about things that actually impact your community. So in Michigan, a lot of our candidates ran on the issue of clean water, and in Arizona most of our candidates ran on education funding. But we can’t ignore the idea that elections are increasingly nationalized, and we need to focus on this earlier. That means we need to communicate early in the race about Democrats’ accomplishments and what we stand for as a national party. Local issues should be and will remain a centerpiece, but we need to pay more attention to the reality that these races are becoming more nationalized.
We as a party also need to prioritize state legislative races. We are still living with the results of our failure to focus on downballot races — Republicans rigged maps that kept them in power despite regularly losing the popular vote. We need more attention and more resources at our level of the ballot.
BR: How do races for state legislature affect “up-ballot” contests, and vice versa?
CP: We know that when there are more candidates running aggressive campaigns in an area, it helps turnout for the entire ticket. That means we need to have good Democratic candidates running everywhere for state legislative seats, even in areas of a state where it’s more of a challenge. They might knock on a door that hasn't been knocked before, or register a Democratic voter that hadn't been registered, and that will lift all other Democratic candidates on the ticket.
But 2020 showed us that we can’t rely on Federal races and momentum to carry state legislature elections. They are different levels of the ballot, and they require their own unique investments. For example, Georgia turned blue for both Senate elections and at the presidential level, but candidates for state legislature can’t rely on a groundswell of turnout in mainly Democratic areas — just like how running up the score in California does not help us win the electoral college. We need to focus individually on these districts and win a majority of them to flip the legislature, which means we need to organize everywhere and get good Democratic candidates on the ballot in every race, even if it’s a long shot. That’s one reason resources at our level of the ballot are so critical.
BR: Which are the key states where Democrats should focus their attention right now?
CP: In a perfect world, if we had unlimited resources, we would be competing for every state legislature. But when we think about which states to target, we try to think about how close we are to an actual legislative majority, what the demographics of the state look like, and where we have a realistic chance of recapturing the majority in the next election.
Arizona is one of our top targets. It’s a true swing state and absolutely up for grabs. And because it has an independent redistricting commission, we can actually get fair maps. So in 2022, we will have maps that more accurately reflect their population than we did in 2020.
Michigan also has an independent redistricting commission, so this year we will get our first shot with fair maps. Democrats won the popular vote for the state legislature in Michigan in almost every election the last decade, but we weren't ever able to capture the majority because the state was gerrymandered. So we are absolutely going to make a play for that majority in both chambers in 2022.
We have a few other state legislatures we’re prioritizing. New Hampshire is a true swing state that has switched party control in six of the last eight elections, so that's another place that we're targeting. In Pennsylvania, we believe that we'll be able to get fair maps this year because of the makeup of State Supreme Court, and because it’s a key swing state, we think we'll also be able to help make some tangible gains in the U.S. House and Senate. And in Minnesota we came up short in 2020, so we are going to come back for that majority under the new maps.
We are also keeping our eye on states with changing demographics like Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia. We want to make sure that we're investing in strong campaign infrastructure so that even if we can't necessarily recapture the majority in 2022, we’ll set ourselves up to chip away at it and recapture it later in the decade. A big part of that is to make sure that we have resources for the redistricting fight. It will be more difficult for us to win Texas if the districts are gerrymandered, so another really important tactical aspect of turning Texas blue is supporting groups that are pursuing redistricting litigation efforts, like Democracy Docket and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. Change won’t happen overnight. We need to start building now, and it is going to take time for us to flip those states, and it's going to require investments.
But first up is Virginia. Virginia is our first fight of this new decade, and holding the House of Delegates in 2021 is our top priority. Getting the majority in 2019 really transformed the state of Virginia – they made is easier to vote, banned LGBTQ discrimination, repealed anti-abortion laws, and made a lot of good progress in other areas. We know that Republicans will roll all of that back if they get their hands on the gavel, and they really want to win there and prove that they can still be competitive.
BR: What are the best ways for donors to help Democrats win state legislature races?
CP: If you care about getting the biggest bang for your buck, the best place to give is our level of the ballot. Each Democratic candidate needs to have enough resources to communicate their message and run a good GOTV campaign in order to win. State legislative races don’t get as much attention as other levels of the ballot from the national media outlets, so it’s even more important that they are able to be out in front of their constituents and get their name out there. These candidates are not being covered as extensively by national media outlets as a congressional representative or a senator or the president but many have to try to run ads in expensive media markets in states like Pennsylvania and Arizona. So it is very, very, very critical that they have ample resources to be able to get their message out.
If you're a donor looking at state legislatures, and you want to make sure the Democrats have a strong showing in 2022, great places to invest early in the cycle are the DLCC and individual states’ Democratic state legislative campaign arms. We try to help build Democratic infrastructure early in the cycle, so that when we have candidates in place they’re set up for success. The key is to help those places get resources early.
Later in the cycle, the DLCC has a spotlight page on our website where we try to lift up competitive races, where your dollar will do the most good. That’s how we let donors know which specific races need resources the most and where their donations to individual candidates will have the most impact.
Image via The Freedom Trail.