FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2017
CONTACT:
Carolyn Fiddler
National Communications Director
[email protected]
DLCC Launches New Programs for 2018-2020 Fight
Committee Expands at All Levels to Prep for Pre-Redistricting Statehouse Wins
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Executive Director Jessica Post announced significant programmatic, staff, and capacity expansions as the organization prepares to expand Democratic power in statehouses and flip legislative chambers in the upcoming election cycles.
“DLCC’s expansion will provide Democrats with the capacity and support needed to win legislative chamber majorities and build Democratic power across the country by helping states build candidate recruitment, digital, and fundraising infrastructure,” said Post. “Our work in the state legislative space is essential to rebuilding the party at all levels of the ballot. The lawmakers we help elect will become future cycles’ congressional, gubernatorial, and even presidential candidates, and the chamber majorities we win will prevent Democrats from spending another decade fighting against extreme GOP gerrymanders to win a majority in the U.S. House and state legislatures. Legislative Majority PAC, the Grassroots Victory Program, and The Combine recruitment table are essential weapons in the Democratic arsenal to force Trump’s Republican Party into full retreat.”
• Legislative Majority PAC is DLCC’s affiliated super PAC and independent expenditure operation. LMP supports state independent expenditure efforts to retake Democratic majorities and make strategic electoral gains, provides critical insights to our allies and partners, and improves Democrats’ strategic and tactical approach to campaigns by testing new and innovative methods that allow us to campaign more efficiently. LMP makes direct investments to state IE programs as well as running its own paid communications in targeted races. Following its success in 2016, when LMP investments helped Democrats flip chambers in Nevada and New Mexico, the program is expanding in 2017 to play a lead role in competitive special elections across the country. This work will inform strategic and tactical insights moving into the critical 2018 cycle.
• DLCC’s Grassroots Victory Program initially launched in 2012 and has grown to a $3 million effort that accounted for over 15 million doors knocked and phones called in 2016. DLCC held 36 separate GVP organizer trainings to train 414 field staff working in 22 states. Last year, 70 state legislative candidates with GVP-trained staff won their races by 1,000 votes or less. In 2018, the program will expand to incorporate both staff and candidates in 60 trainings around the country, leading to the training of over 500 staffers to recruit 600,000 volunteers, resulting in over 20 million voter contact attempts.
• The Combine is DLCC’s recruitment table that will convene and coordinate efforts from across the progressive community to identify and recruit talented legislative candidates in states across the country while diagnosing and remedying gaps in local recruiting infrastructure and practices.
To support these expanded programs, DLCC is growing its staff infrastructure. Our three most recent hires include Josh Handelman, Jacob Dusseau, and Josie Bradley, and additional digital and fundraising staff will be hired in the coming weeks.
• Josh Handelman is DLCC’s National Development Director. He has served on the finance teams of five U.S. Senate campaigns and was most recently the National Finance Director for Katie McGinty’s U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania – ultimately the most expensive Senate race in history. He was previously National Finance Director for U.S. Senator Brian Schatz’s successful 2014 election campaign in Hawaii.
•Jacob Dusseau is the director of Legislative Majority Project, DLCC’s affiliated super PAC and independent expenditure operation. Jacob brings over 10 years of campaign experience to the role, and he has organized and managed highly competitive campaigns in eight states — California, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maryland, West Virginia, Nebraska — and at nearly all levels of the ballot. In 2014, Jacob successfully managed a nationally targeted reelection campaign for Representative Julia Brownley (CA-26).
• Josie Bradley has been named DLCC’s Associate Political Director after her success in directing the Grassroots Victory Program. Josie joined the DLCC after working multiple cycles on races throughout the Midwest, most recently as the caucus director for the Iowa Democratic Party for the 2016 Precinct Caucuses. She previously worked as the field director for the Iowa Senate Majority Fund in 2014, and she was the field director for Representative Cheri Bustos’ congressional race in 2012.
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