Dem group launches plan to elect local election officials
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Run for Something, a Democratic group, is launching a plan to recruit more than 5,000 candidates for local offices in charge of election administration, as former President Trump continues to spread election conspiracy theories.
State of play: The group hopes to raise $80 million over the next three years and recruit candidates in 35 states — where election administrators are elected by voters — who will run to become county election board members, county clerks and other election-related positions.
- Amanda Litman, one of the group's co-founders, said the plan — known as "Clerk Work" — will be run on more than just battleground states because "democracy is at stake even when the electoral college outcome isn't."
- Run for Something is working alongside partners, including Open Democracy PAC, which will spend on advertising to boost the candidates.
Details: The group has a pitch memo to donors that says, "early support has an outsize impact as we race to recruit good candidates before it's too late," per Politico, which first reported the story.
- "The left is decades behind in investing in the local infrastructure needed to fight back against emerging anti-democracy forces on the right."
- "Taking over our election administration infrastructure at the local level is our last best option. If we want to win, we need to go big quickly."
What they're saying: "Election subversion in 2024 may not require a violent mob storming the Capitol — instead, a sh-ty county board in Michigan or a Nazi running elections in Kansas will have enough power to undermine the entire process. Malicious incompetence will be enough to do serious damage," Litman said in a tweet.
- Litman told Politico that Run for Something has raised nearly $6 million since fundraising started in late 2021.
Background: Run for Something launched in 2017 to "recruit and support young, diverse progressives to run for down-ballot races in order to build sustainable power for Democrats in all 50 states," per the group's website.
