Along with many others, I am personally increasing my political contributions in direct response to the GOP’s blatant Supreme Court hypocrisy. And, no, it’s not too late to contribute.
While early donations are better, late money can still help quite a bit. An influx of last-minute cash can be used for additional TV ad buys, for last-minute digital targeting, and – perhaps most importantly – for get-out-the-vote efforts.
Every poll out there is based on being able to identify of a “likely voter” – a concept that is tough to get right in a perfect world but is laughably impossible in a world consumed by a pandemic, fires, hurricanes, derechos, social unrest, voter suppression, intense political polarization, and a surprise Supreme Court vacancy. Since no one really knows who is going to actually vote, every single vote will be important in every race in every state, regardless of what any random poll says.
Since I’ve been asked, below are my personal donation targets in my personal order of importance. Most of the links below use ActBlue to easily allow donations to multiple campaigns via a single online account. (Hint: Create and log into your account before clicking on the ActBlue links below.)
The Presidency
Getting rid of Trump must be a first priority, so donations here are no-brainers:
The U.S. Senate
A close second priority is a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate. Biden can’t do a whole lot without a supportive Senate and we really need to get McConnell out of power if not out of the Senate altogether.
To help Senate Democrats, one could certainly donate to the DSCC or the Senate Majority PAC. My concern is that their targeting isn’t optimal and that these folks are casting too wide a net – spending money on too many races. On the other hand, it’s certainly easier to direct money to a single source that will distribute funds more-or-less appropriately. Thus, my pick for an independent Senate-focused fund would be:
That said, my personal preference is to donate directly to just enough of the right Democratic Senate campaigns. I discussed the state of the Senate races in my previous post, but in summary, here’s the Senate campaigns to which I’d donate first:
- John Hickenlooper (CO)
- Mark Kelly (AZ)
- Cal Cunningham (NC)
- Sara Gideon (ME)
- Steve Bullock (MT)
- Theresa Greenfield (IA)
If you feel so inclined, here are some other Senate campaigns that are worthy of consideration:
The Texas House
I live in Texas and a Democratic win of the Texas State House is important to me. It’s a long shot, but it is doable. I need to update my prior analysis of the individual races and I’ll try to do that soon. While I prefer contributing directly to campaigns, I’m fine with donating here for now:
The U.S. House
Democrats don’t appear to be in much danger of losing the U.S. House. But again, it’s all about who actually turns out to vote and nothing should be taken for granted. While I’d rather donate to individual campaigns, the DCCC does seem to have a relatively decent idea how to distribute money appropriately to guarantee another House majority. Thus, I’ll just donate here this cycle:
Honorable Mention
I’m also a fan of many of the independently-produced commercials from this group of former Republicans:
So…
If you’re looking to pitch in anywhere, try to do so before September 30 – the FEC’s donation cut-off date for third quarter campaign finance reports.