Start 2018 by Contributing to Airlift's Winning Strategy

If you contributed to Airlift this year, you sent money to the New Virginia Project, which fought for 12 candidates—11 of whom won in November.

If you followed Airlift recommendations in Alabama, you helped people like Rev. Kenneth Glasgow register 5,000 inmates in Alabama jails and prisons—in an election that was decided by 20,000 votes.

Airlift works with some amazing people who keep tabs on grassroots groups in battleground districts across the country. 

We help you focus your political giving like a zen archer. We give you winning strategies, vetted groups and monthly reports on what your money is doing. And none of it goes to consultants or TV.

So before you kiss 2017 goodbye, go to airlift.fund and end the year on a positive note. Contributions to Airlift are not tax-deductible because we are here to win elections.

Mobilizing the Grassroots for a Big Win in Alabama

Photo: DeJuana Thompson, AL.com

A mere few months ago, the New York Times and other media outlets were writing off the South in general and voters of color in particular for being disinterested in politics and in voting for Democrats. Now that Doug Jones has handily defeated Roy Moore in the Alabama special senate election, the media is catching up.

“The Alabama special election … affirms that the coalition that elected and re-elected an African-American as president of the United States remains a majority of the country’s population. By combining a large and inspired turnout of voters of color with the meaningful minority of whites who consistently vote progressive — even in a state like Alabama — Democrats can win across the country.”

“African-American voters were a decisive force in the election, showing up in huge numbers and casting nearly all their votes — 96 percent — for Mr. Jones.” 

By late November, the Democratic party had spent nearly $7 million on TV ads aimed at white voters and online fund-raising to continue to pay for those ads. Even after the previously “unwinnable” race had been deemed a wide-open contest.

At the same time, black organizers, particularly women – like DeJuana Thompson of Woke Vote and LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter – were mobilizing and organizing.

Airllift knew of 30 black grassroots groups around the state that needed money fast to hire organizers. We were part of an amazing operation that moved $300,000 to these groups almost overnight. We helped fund 30 local grassroots partners that hired 600 organizers and 108 "Righteous Vote Faith Captains," ran GOTV (Get Out the Vote) rallies in 6 major cities, engaged students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and provided rides to the polls in rural Black Belt communities.

Most importantly, we gave people who were already on the ground the tools to amplify their powerful voices. We helped give them the ability to build something for themselves by focusing not just on the election at hand but on helping them build the infrastructure to sustain their operations year-round, so they could continue to galvanize their networks to make change long after the current election cycle ends.

That last is at the heart of what Airlift is about. We seek to duplicate Alabama’s success story in Georgia and Florida, and around the U.S.

Movement for Black Lives Launches Electoral Justice Project and Black November

We’re excited about two new initiatives from Movement for Black Lives. In October, M4BL launched the Electoral Justice Project with 50 black organizations to:

·      Grow the capacity of grassroots organizations to enact political change

·      Expand and mobilize the black electorate

·      Help bring a more hopeful vision to people’s lives through political and social change

Watch a moving video about the Electoral Justice Project.

In addition, Movement for Black Lives hosted #BlackNovember, during which the group held 76 black-led town halls all around the U.S. to show what electoral justice can look like and to help create “a loving and strategic political home for black people to seek transformational political change”.

Movement for Black Lives, a part of Airlift's Network Effect Fund, is largely led by women of color, and while it arose in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, it addresses issues beyond police violence and criminal justice to include state violence in all of its manifestations, including health care and education justice and voting rights.

Just to give you an idea of how cool this group is, M4BL hosts its website in Spanish, French, Chinese and Arabic. A long way from Ferguson!

18 Who Beat the Odds

A pattern is already emerging in this young election season: “Improbable Winners”, the kinds of races and candidates that pundits and others are quick to write off, often because they don’t fit traditional profiles or molds. The kinds of candidates who are winning and who are going to win even more. The kinds of candidates and campaigns Airlift supports.

The Old School way was that candidates were dictated by the party, with messages, appeal and policies shaped by focus groups.

The following candidates are all New School. They rose from the bottom up, despite the odds against them. They were nurtured by the grassroots. Their backgrounds enable them to understand and work for their constituents, as they break various glass ceilings.

Let’s meet them!

DANICA ROEM (pictured, right) will serve in the Virginia House of Delegates and will be the first openly transgender person to serve in any state legislature in the country.  Roem soundly defeated Bob Marshall, a longtime Republican delegate who sponsored legislation that would have restricted transgender bathroom use and who called himself the state's "chief homophobe."

LEE CARTER is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a Marine Corps veteran. Go figure. Carter beat the Republican majority whip in Virginia, despite being given little chance by state Democratic party leaders.

HALA AYALA is one of the first Latinas in the Virginia House of Delegates. She just knocked off a four-term Republican incumbent in the 51st district. Not bad for someone running for the first time!

ELIZABETH GUZMAN came to America from Peru as a single mom looking for a better future for her daughter. I worked 3 jobs to be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment. My opponent accused me of wanting to protect criminals. Well guess what? now I am a Virginia state legislator. 

VI LYLES became the first African-American female mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, at the age of 66. We believe her election will lead more young women to think it’s possible for them.

KATHY TRAN came to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam when she was a little girl. She is now the first Asian American woman to join the Virginia House of Delegates,  replacing a Republican who served for 24 years.

RAVI BHALLA is the new Sikh-American mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey. Bhalla is everything Trump hates. Bhalla has pledged to defend our rights as immigrants and minorities whenever they come under attack.

ASHLEY BENNETT, a New Jersey woman of color, took the job of her local county freeholder—after the man had posted a Facebook meme asking if the participants in the Women’s March would be home in time to make dinner

JANET DIAZ is the first Latina city council member in Lancaster, PA. She believes that the political climate following the presidential election has spurred many people to engage in the political process on the local level to protect their own communities.

ALLISON IKLEY-FREEMAN is a 26-year-old lesbian who picked up a key state Senate seat in Oklahoma, marking the 4th seat Democrats have gained in special elections in the Oklahoma this year. Her district went for Trump by a 40% margin,

ANDREA JENKINS won the race on November 7th for an open seat on the Minneapolis City Council with over 73 percent of the vote. She is a 56-year-old poet and historian who transitioned in her 30s, and spent years as a policy aide to two previous council members in the same ward. She is the first openly transgender candidate elected to the city council of a major U.S. city.

PHILLIPE CUNNINGHAM is a 29-year old transgender black man who unseated Barb Johnson, the leader of the Minneapolis City Council. Phillipe’s issues are environmental justice, clean energy access, and good governance.

RANDALL WOODFIN is a 36-year-old black man who was elected Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. Woodfin ran on a platform of debt-free college for high school graduates, a summer jobs program for city teens, and a $15 minimum wage. Woodfin beat his two-term opponent by 17 points, even winning the opponent’s home district. 

MANKA DHINGRA was born in India. After her father died, she moved to the U.S., where I studied at UC Berkeley and became a District Attorney in Seattle, fighting for immigrants and women who were victims of domestic violence. She is Washington’s newest state senator, which means the Democrats now control the governorship and both houses of the WA state legislature.

JOYCE CRAIG is the first woman mayor in the 266-year history of Manchester,  New Hampshire. She almost beat the Republican mayor in 2015. This time it wasn’t even close. She pledges to improve city schools, reduce crime, and address the opioid crisis.

WILMOT COLLINS (pictured) arrived in Helena, Montana, 23 years ago as a refugee from Liberia. Collins, a 54-year-old black man, Naval Reservist and child protection specialist with the state of Montana, was recently elected Mayor of Helena, Montana.

STEPHANIE MORALES is a black woman who just got reelected as the District Attorney of Portsmouth County, Virginia. Morales prosecuted and won a conviction in a case of a white police officer who killed a young, unarmed black man in a Wal-Mart parking lot. A lot of folks thought that would get her unelected. She got 62% of the vote.

JENNY DURKAN was just elected to be Seattle’s first lesbian mayor, sending a clear message to Donald Trump…Keep your hands off Seattle.

MELVIN CARTER is the first black mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. “We’ve built what I’m excited to say is a big, bold, bad vision for the future of St. Paul.”

We look forward to meeting and supporting more "improbable" winners in 2018 and beyond.

Photos: Courtesy Danica Roem, Montana Senior News/ Nann Parrett

Say Hello to the New Virginia Majority

Virginia Governor-elect Ralph Northam’s victory in the Nov. 2017 VA gubernatorial election  is being hailed by the press as “the first forceful rebuke of Trump and his party.” On a night that saw other exciting and improbable wins, the Northam vote was the widest victory in decades for a Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia. 

And yet, in the lead-up to the election, the Democrats had no Get out the Vote (GOTV) effort aimed at communities of color and others who would be needed to push the eventual winner, Dem. Ralph Northam, over the finish line. New Virginia Majority stepped into the breach to:

·      Register 30,666 voters in 2017

·      Organize a statewide plan with partners NextGen, Planned Parenthood, SEIU, For Our Future, and Equality Virginia that knocked on 689,000 doors

·      Run $150,000 in ads on African-American radio stations

·      Fight for 12 candidates—11 of whom won in November

New Virginia Majority, a part of Airlift's Voter Moter Fund, has been around a while and has demonstrated a track record of success organizing working-class communities of color to enact longstanding and large-scale change year-round on issues of racial, economic, and environmental

They’re poised to do more important work on the ground in 2018, and Airlift will be there to support them.

Photo: Mallory Noe-Payne/ WVTF

Airlift in Huffington Post!

Airlift’s launch was featured in the Huffington Post!

“If you get depressed about the state of the [Democratic National Committee], you can raise your spirits by looking at some of the sophisticated and high impact local organizing that is happening and led nearly entirely by volunteers. Airlift is a beautiful example of what this new wave of local community-level progressive groups are capable of” – Becky Bond, key strategic advisor to Bernie Sanders, longtime political activist, and advisor to Airlift.

Read the story.

Why Airlift?

Airlift grew out of the realization that the hard work in battleground districts and states is being done by unsung grassroots organizations on shoestring budgets, while the majority of political fundraising is channeled to the very top of the Democratic party and its fleet of high-priced consultants, focus groups and TV campaigns.

At the same time, it became clear that there was a desire among donors to stop throwing money at the same political sources and get funds where they could truly make a difference.

Airlift matches donors with grassroots groups who are making long-term transformative change­–the kind of change that endures even after the current election cycle is over. The kind of change that people are especially hungry for since the election of Donald Trump.

Airlift gets money directly to three distinct funds which have been carefully vetted for their effectiveness and track records of organizing and mobilizing voters, many of whom have previously been left behind and who are precisely the constituents Democrats need to capture in order to start winning again. The Airlift team maintains relationships with the groups we’re funding, and reports back to donors about the groups they support.

Airlift is poised to change the way money gets to the front lines, so that important progressive work can be done. We look forward to involving you and sharing our successes along the way.