WHAT WE’RE LEARNING Of the eighty-three candidates we endorsed in the primary and general election, thirty-one candidates won their races, including races for local office, state House and Senate, and Congress. While we didn’t win in every race we engaged in, we executed our most robust voter engagement fieldwork plan to date and we learned a lot about our organizational strengths and challenges, the political landscape in Kentucky, the voter engagement work of our allies, and what is on the hearts and minds of thousands of Kentucky voters.
DANA’S STORY
Dana Beasley Brown, a KFTC leader and former KFTC Chairperson, ran for Bowling Green City Commission. In a 12-person at-large race with 4 strong incumbents, Dana received 15 percent of the vote (the 2nd highest vote-getter), beating out three-quarters of the incumbent council members and breaking into a City Commission that progressive candidates had previously found impossible to get into. She did it by taking her message directly to voters, leading with vision, relentlessly going door to door, leveraging her experience as a grassroots leader, investing in her community members, and investing in herself by participating in extensive candidate training before she ran. 10
And we learned more about the scale it takes to win local, state, and federal elections and where and how we can have the most impact on voter turnout. We capitalized on the opportunity to endorse many of the inspiring and progressive candidates running for office this year. But the breadth of endorsements reminded us of how difficult it can be to make substantial impacts on such a wide variety of races. We know that it will take more resources and staff and volunteer capacity to get to the scale we need to win big in future election years.