Meet Our Candidates
How It Works
1. First, sign up. Then, we connect you with a team of volunteers who live near you, led by a group of volunteer District Captains.
2. We handpick a small number of strategic state legislative races—probably in a different state—and assign your team to 2-3 of those races.
3. You work with your local team to fundraise, phonebank, postcard, textbank and, if you can, travel to knock on doors and get out the vote.
What You'll Do
Sister District teams act as an expansion of campaign's field and fundraising programs. That means you'll be writing postcards to voters, canvassing, phonebanking, textbanking, and raising money on behalf of amazing Democratic candidates. But more importantly, we believe long-term activism isn't possible without building an activism community, full of real connections and real relationships. At Sister District, you'll be part of a creative, innovative, passionate community of fellow activists—and, just maybe, lifelong friends.
What to Expect When You're Canvassing
Canvassing is not always so rewarding. Sometimes, you may knock on three or four doors in a row and get no answer. Each time there’s no answer, you leave a flyer at a house to remind the occupants to vote for your candidate, and you hope they will read it. Then it’s on to the next house, which you reach just as the person you want to talk to is driving away. Maybe she will roll down her car window to ask what you’re doing. You’ll tell her you’re there to ask for her support for your candidate. And maybe she’ll tell you, “No, we don’t vote.” (Even though her name is on your list of registered voters.)
Why Are States So Important? Focus On: Texas, Kansas, and Recent Decisions in Women’s Reproductive Health (Hint: There’s a Big Difference)
State Elections Matter. It’s times like this when this mantra goes from aspirational to undeniable. Because depending on where you live in the US, the past two weeks have been either a disaster or a victory for women’s health.
Why States Matter: Gerrymandering
Democrats have overlooked state legislatures for too long, and the Republicans realized that that was a loophole. It was the perfect bargain — in a gridlocked Washington, DC, where nothing could get done, if the Republicans were able to spend a little bit of money and focus down-ballot they would be able to take control of state legislatures in 2010 and would be able to draw themselves a lasting and durable majority and advance a very conservative agenda within states where it wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
We focus on state legislatures because:
- States are critical to securing fairly drawn districts and fighting back against gerrymandering and voter suppression.
- States are incubators of strong progressive policies and leaders.
- State level campaigns are often small and under-nourished—our volunteers' dollars and hard work can have an outsized impact.
2018 Impact Report: the results are in!
Our 40,000+ volunteers at Sister District have been working hard over the last two years. Check out our 2018 Impact Report for details about our fundraising and field efforts, how our volunteer base has grown, and feedback from campaigns on our work.
Overall, our teams have raised over $1m and reached out to over 1 million voters!
SISTER
DISTRICT
PROJECT
Going from Red to Blue
About Sister District
The Sister District Project works to turn states blue by winning state legislative elections. We are open to volunteers and candidates of all genders.
We have a strategic, targeted focus on critical down-ballot, state races that—if we win—will make it easier to win national elections. We support a portfolio of races, with the strategic goals of (1) flipping Republican-held state chambers (2) holding fragile Democratic majorities in state chambers, and (3) making blue inroads in badly gerrymandered states.