With the 2024 elections coming up, it’s time to figure out how to support Team Blue. And we’ve got you covered!
Depending on what’s most important to you, there are many ways to give to candidates and organizations where your donation will have greatest “bang for buck.”
Use the “self-assessment” categories below to figure out how you want to focus your giving, and we’ll help you have the greatest impact!
1. If you want to support abortion rights…
… support key State Legislature races.
As we’ve said before, State Legislature races are a highly efficient way for progressives to move the needle with donations. These bodies are the key decision-makers on tons of issues that matter, like abortion, voting rights, and gun control, and most of the contests are lightly funded, so your incremental dollar (or $5, or $50) has an outsized impact.
But although we’ve done a ton work modeling specific districts (details here), for most folks a simpler solution is just to spread donations across Dems running in target states.
The States Project has identified nine states that need the most focus from Team Blue this year, and activist Charles Gaba has put together ActBlue slates that direct money to Dem candidates in each of them. So, we recommend that you focus on some or all of the following – click each state’s name to go directly to its ActBlue page:
Arizona: Republicans have a one-seat majority in both chambers, so we could plausibly flip one or both.
Kansas: We can break Republicans’ supermajority by flipping just two seats in the House.
Michigan: We need to protect the 4-seat majority in the House that we won in 2022.
Minnesota: We have a trifecta, but the margin is only one seat in the Senate and six in the House.
Nevada: We are within one Senate seat of building a veto-proof Dem supermajority in both chambers.
New Hampshire: We need to flip two House seats to gain control and flip two seats in the Senate to be able to block right-wing legislation.
North Carolina: We can break Republicans’ supermajority by flipping just one House seat.
Pennsylvania: We need to protect our one-seat majority in the House, and if we flip just three seats in the Senate we can even up that chamber.
Wisconsin: We have just a two-seat buffer in the Assembly against a Republican supermajority, but with new, fairer maps and all seats up for grabs this year, Dems could plausibly flip 15 seats and actually gain control.
2. If you want to help Dems reclaim the House majority…
… focus on winnable but less-funded races that yield “multiple word scores.”
No two ways about it: the House map is ugly for Dems this year, and Team Blue is playing a lot of defense. So although it’s always attractive and exciting to try to flip seats, our main focus needs to be on holding on to the ones we already have.
The good news is that there are several options to support House races in states where donations could also help in crucial State Legislature races. Based on data from Open Secrets, we prioritized five Dems in (relatively) lightly-funded contests that were rated as toss-up or “lean R” by Cook Political Report in April. You can donate to all of them via this single ActBlue page:
MI-07: Hertel (uncontested in primary; open race for Slotkin’s seat); $4.2M raised by all candidates in the race to date
MI-08: McDonald Rivet (open race for Kildee’s seat); $2.2M
PA-07: Wild (incumbent; uncontested in primary); $4.0M
PA-08: Cartright (incumbent; uncontested in primary); $5.0M
PA-10: Stelson (chellenging GOP incumbent Perry); $3.6M
To be clear: even these House races have quite low bang-for-buck compared with State Legislature contests. But we understand that you may really, really want to support Dems running for Congress. So you do you … but maybe also donate to the State Legislature races in #1 above?
3. If you want to help Harris win the presidency…
… donate to grassroots groups in battleground states.
The Electoral College math is pretty clear: Harris’s path to the White House runs through seven battleground states. And the good news is, five of them are also important for state legislatures: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. (The other two are Georgia and North Carolina; nothing against them, but all else being equal, we prefer multi-word-score options.)
The most efficient way to support state-level grassroots efforts is by funding Movement Voter Project. They call themselves a “mutual fund for political donations,” and we like what they’re doing to vet and support boots-on-the-ground organizations. Here’s the link to MVP’s ActBlue page.
If you want to get in the weeds, you can go to MVP’s state-specific pages for Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where you can learn about and support specific grassroots groups in key states. (Scroll down to “partner snapshots.”)
4. If you want to help Dems keep the Senate majority…
… pick one of the categories above and send your money there.
Look, we get it: Ted Cruz sucks. We all hate him. But he’s raised almost $50M and has a 2:1 fundraising advantage over Colin Allred. So it’s no wonder that most pundits say he’ll cruise (pun intended) into another term.
And to be clear: More money isn’t going to help Allred win this one. We’re not saying Dems have no chance in Texas, but let’s be honest: if Cruz loses, it’ll be because of some crazy macro-level Blue wave that sweeps the country, not because folks like you and we donated to him. Allred is like this year’s version of Amy McGrath in 2020 or Val Demings in 2022. Hope is not a strategy, and hate-donations won’t move the needle.
In the seven Senate races that are even remotely competitive according to Cook, fundraising has been insane – and it’s only going to get worse. And Dems, who are largely playing defense, are far ahead on the dollars front as of now.
So instead of literally lighting your hard-earned dough on fire, put it to work somewhere it’ll actually do some good – like the races and organizations we highlighted above.
Post last updated 9/8/24: Added links for MVP-NV and post-primary Dem candidates in MI and PA.
Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash.