Fifth, we assess candidate quality in the seats we have identified as potential targets. We evaluate candidates based on a number of factors, including their leadership ability, policy platform, how well they reflect their district, the local and broader coalitions of support they have built, campaign staff quality, and the campaign’s interest in our support. We support Democratic candidates from all backgrounds, and are particularly proud to support women, candidates of color, and other candidates from diverse communities and backgrounds so that we can help build a democracy that reflects the full chorus of American voices.
This step of the process involves candidates’ completion of an endorsement questionnaire and interview by Sister District staff with the candidate and their campaign staff. We also follow up with our local- and state-based allied organizations to gain additional insights. And to ensure that our candidates’ values match those of our volunteer community, we require all endorsed candidates to agree with these statements:
- We must protect and expand the legal right to abortion, dismantle barriers to reproductive health services, and pursue policies that create the conditions to achieve reproductive justice, where all people can choose to have a child, not have a child, and parent with dignity.
- We need to protect and expand our social safety net, not dismantle it.
- We should pursue common-sense gun safety policies, consistent with the Second Amendment and local community standards, which vary from community to community.
- Climate change is real and we need to protect our environment.
- We need to protect all members of our diverse community, and ensure that everyone, including the most vulnerable, is treated with fairness, justice, and equality.
- We need to ensure that districts are drawn fairly and protect the right to vote, so that everyone can have a voice in politics.
The timing of this step depends on candidate filing deadlines. As you can see, filing deadlines occur at different times in different states. Some states have early deadlines (e.g., Texas); other states have much later deadlines (e.g., Florida). Where we can, we have and will continue to talk with candidates to begin to get to know them early in the cycle. But generally, we wait to reach out to candidates until the filing deadline has passed in the state, such that all candidates who will be running have filed to run, and we can begin the endorsement process with a full view of the field.
In general, we do not get involved in primaries. This means that in districts where more than one Democrat has filed to run, we will generally need to wait until after the primary to move forward with an endorsement. However, in districts where only one Democrat has announced their candidacy, we can finalize our candidate assessment and endorse shortly after the filing deadline. There are limited exceptions to the rule that we will not get involved in primaries; for example, we may get involved if the state’s primary is extremely late, and we need to endorse earlier in order to have a meaningful impact in the race. Under these circumstances, we would only move forward with endorsement at the guidance of our local teams in that state, as well as other local stakeholders.