As Trump was sworn into office on January 20, 2017, Daily Kos Founder Markos Moulitsas declared that we would “resist Trump every single day for the next four years and beyond.” And that’s exactly what we did.
A key part of our work in the Trump era and beyond has been our endorsement program, which is unlike anything else on the left. Endorsements aren’t one-off actions for us, which they are for many groups. And they’re not swindles in which we used a popular candidate’s name to raise money solely for ourselves, which has of course become a feature in Republican fundraising over the past several years. (If there’s ever a way to swindle people, Trump and company will find it.)
Daily Kos endorsements stand apart from others because they’re part of a larger strategic plan to find the weak points in the Republican Party’s grip on power and break them. Our decisions are underpinned by the unparalleled analysis of the Daily Kos Elections team; every candidate is vetted carefully by our endorsements team; and all of our endorsees are supported with grassroots fundraising and volunteer recruitment by our activism team. No other group in the country combines independent electoral analysis with direct activism like this. And you know what? It works. Look at how far we’ve come since the dark days of 2016:
On net, Democrats broke Republican control of four states and expanded their own control of state legislatures from 13 to 19. We’ve had a huge impact in some of the biggest swing states, including flipping Michigan’s legislature from red to blue and ending the GOP hammerlock in Pennsylvania. And remember, this happened during a midterm year with Joe Biden in the White House—a year Democrats were supposed to lose. Only they didn’t.
And Daily Kos played a crucial role in making all this happen, but you don’t need to take my word for it. Just ask the Pennsylvania Democrats:
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Hell yeah! Election season is already here, and it’s already off to an amazing start with Democrats’ huge flip of a critical seat in the Virginia state Senate, which kicks off this week’s episode of The Downballot. Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard dissect what Aaron Rouse’s victory means for November (abortion is still issue #1!) when every seat in the legislature will be on the ballot. They also discuss big goings-on in two U.S. Senate races: California, where Rep. Katie Porter just became the first Democrat to kick off a bid despite Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s lack of a decision about her own future, and Michigan, which just saw veteran Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow announce her retirement.
