Sister District works to elect great Democrats to state legislatures. When we are successful, our candidates become sitting legislators and Sister District alums. And, when all goes well, they run for reelection.
Incumbent legislators have a certain amount of advantage over challengers when seeking reelection. The advantage of incumbency grows the longer a legislator is in office. This means that the most recently elected legislators are the most fragile, the most in need of support.
At Sister District, we believe it’s important to continue supporting our alums. That is why we’ve launched the Sister District Alumni Fund. Through this page, volunteers and supporters donate funds that go directly to our Sister District alumni who are now sitting legislators, running for re-election this year.
This year, we have three Sister District alums who are running for re-election. Each of these women was elected in a special election in 2017 or 2018, which means that they will be heavily targeted by aggressive Republicans this November. Each legislator has been extremely effective in the short time that she has taken office — proposing important bills, sitting on legislative committees, and actually seeing their own bills pass and be signed into law.
Read on for a bit of information about each of the three SDP alumnae running for re-election this year. Visit their webpages to learn about other ways to get involved.
Manka Dhingra, Washington Senate LD-45
- Strategic importance: Manka’s win flipped the entire Washington State senate chamber blue and turned Washington into a Democratic trifecta state.
- Legislative accomplishments: Manka had an incredibly impactful first legislative session. She sponsored 14 bills, five of which passed and were signed into law. These included a gun control bill protecting domestic violence survivors (SB6298), and bills modernizing child support & health care programs (SB6334) and strengthening Medicaid within Washington (SB6051). She also introduced a number of bills pushing for progressive, innovative solutions to social problems and criminal justice, which didn’t pass into law, but which did move important conversations forward. These included SB6502, which would improve housing stability for people with disabilities and seniors, and SB6025, which would expand recovery support and treatment services for individuals participating in drug court.
Margaret Good, Florida House of Representatives HD-72
- Strategic importance: Margaret’s win staved off a Republican supermajority.
- Legislative accomplishments: Margaret jumped in to session immediately after winning her special election. The day after she was elected, Florida was shattered by the Parkland high school shooting. Margaret held town halls on gun violence and fought for gun safety legislation in the legislature, and will continue to fight for this issue next session. During the 2018 session, she cosponsored a bill that passed into law, under which Florida will now cover post-traumatic stress disorder under workers compensation for first responders (HB227).
Stephanie Hansen, Delaware State Senate SD-10
- Strategic importance: Stephanie’s win held the Delaware senate blue.
- Legislative accomplishments: Stephanie has hit the ground running. In the 2017 session, she introduced three important bills that passed and were signed into law. These included SB41, a bill aimed at curbing the growing epidemic of opioid addiction, which expanded health insurance requirements for the coverage of substance abuse treatment. Another successful bill was SB107, a bill facilitating collaboration among school districts and the public health department to improve air quality at schools.
These legislators need our help to win reelection this year. They are facing increasingly hostile Republican challengers, who will be fueled by incredible quantities of dark money. We can do our part by contributing some “light money” to these fragile incumbents now, who are each proving their effectiveness as legislators right out of the gate. Our Sister District community was instrumental in helping these legislators win last year — let’s help keep them in office now.
