My wife is running for a local State Rep seat in a red Georgia district. We're brainstorming things we can do to campaign and I'm curious if people have helpful proposals about things we haven't yet thought of.

Note that we cannot afford anything like a campaign manager, marketer, or stuff like that. We have a tiny budget and are trying to do our best with that. And we're in a small mostly suburban/rural district which has not been blue, probably since The Southern Strategy happened. There aren't universities or any hotbeds of liberalism out here to tap into, except maybe libraries, and they won't allow political advertising.

So this is very much a grass-roots, pavement-pounding retail politics kind of operation.

What we're doing so far:

• Door knocking.
• Sending mailers.
• Posting to social media.
• Taking out a billboard ad and buying ads at local business TV screens.
• Of course, using the local Democratic organization's network and people we know personally.
• We probably can't do much posting physical flyers because there's no university, the population density is low, people tend not to walk anywhere, so on and so on.

In about a week she's going to hold a meet-n-greet, so that's what we're especially focused on trying to promote right now. I'm researching what would be involved to buy targeted Facebook and Instagram ads. (If anyone wants to recommend a high-energy, enthusiastic, friendly, warm, etc. music track to put on the ad, I'm all ears!)

So. Thoughts, ideas, recommendations, guidance, whatever?

I also imagine there might be a few other people either running for office or trying to help someone who is, reading these posts. So feel free to make this an idea session for all people running for local office.

My wife is running for State Rep in District 100 and tells me that many of the campaigns she's interacting with (hers included) need more volunteers. She had one person to canvas with and that person didn't show up -- and you're supposed to go in pairs for safety. (Luckily I was not busy with work and could fill the spot.)

But for future canvasing she has no volunteers lined up, and the same story is true for a lot of local races.

She and others could use help writing postcards for mailers too. I'm sure there are several other ways that your local Democratic organization would love to have you and could put you to work. Enough online posting, time to actually do something that matters and changes things!

This feels like an all-hands-on-deck moment and we're short-handed. I'm not appealing just for our district, but all over Georgia. If possible, volunteer yourself, and tell friends about it too.

I'll also note that donations are down something dramatic. I forget the numbers, but last election candidates were awash in cash and this election people are operating on a fraction of the budget. Donors are tired and discouraged, but right now we need resources to buy material, run ads, and hold events. We can't win if we can't get our message to regular people -- and that takes money! So if you have $10 you can part with, consider sending it.

Thanks!

I would link to an Insta post by Amanda Nelson, but it gets flagged for being social media. If anyone is interested, though, I highly recommend following her, she does great content.

In a recent video of her's, she points out that progressives lost a lot more than current headlines would have you believe.

Right now everybody is talking about the big news that El-Syed won. And admittedly that is huge news. Although, as she points out in the video, more people actually voted against him than for him (a small percent went to a spoiler, but enough that if it had gone to Stevens she would have won).

However, pretty much every other progressive up for election just lost to the moderate.

So interpreting the recent election as a blowout for progressives is very much over-shooting the goal.

Explanation of why your rate keeps going down but your bill keeps going up.

A candidate for my House district, Metin Vargonen, found that the George maps for house districts get an F for competitiveness. He promises to work to make fair maps.

The definition of a genocide is to eliminate a race or ethnicity of people, which Israel has not done or tried to do. In international law it can include displacing a people, and Palestinians remain in Palestine.