Democrats recruiting thousands of candidates for election administration offices through 2024
A Democratic group is recruiting thousands of candidates for election administration offices through 2024 in preparation for the next presidential election.
The group, Run for Something, is looking to raise roughly $80 million in the next three years to spend on recruiting and supporting candidates running for local offices that oversee election administration in states across the country.
“We don’t have 1 national election. There are 50 state elections, ~3000 county elections, & thousands more municipal ones that all ladder up to give us our democracy,” co-founder Amanda Litman tweeted.
The group said the program, dubbed “Clerk Work,” will support more than 5,000 candidates that are vying for positions in more than 30 states, including approximately 50 election administrator races set for November.
The group is looking to raise $9 million by June to support candidates in 27 states this November. The funds will go toward candidate recruitment and support as well as local partnerships.
The venture has already raised almost $6 million, Litman told Politico, which first reported on the effort. She said fundraising began quietly late last year.
Run for Something is working with American Bridge, a Democratic opposition research group, and Open Democracy PAC, a super PAC that focuses on advertising to support candidates, according to Politico.
The enterprise is focused on using different strategies to recruit candidates, individualizing candidate support and developing more robust infrastructure in states to help with recruitment.
The effort by Run for Something comes after the 2020 presidential election brought attention to election workers in counties across the country. Former President Trump himself has also endorsed a number of individuals running for various election posts.
The Washington Post reported in September that Trump allies are working to deploy faithful supporters to election positions across the country in an effort to make elections more secure. Those posts reportedly include volunteer poll watchers, paid precinct judges, elected county clerks and state attorneys general.
The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) election integrity director announced in September that the party is looking to bolster its poll watching and election litigation efforts ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and beyond after its litigation efforts in the wake of the 2020 presidential election largely failed.
Josh Findlay said the RNC had already enlisted election integrity directors in nine states and that it plans to bring on several more before the midterm races.
Updated: 1:44 p.m.
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