Founded in 2018, the Adopt a Dem Program was conceived as a means of Twitter-boosting Democratic candidates challenging republican incumbents in the US House. The purpose was to flip the House blue — and what a success story! Okay, it wasn’t all down to Adopt a Dem but there’s no doubt in my mind that the program made an important contribution to the 2018 blue wave.
The idea was simple. Candidates followed program founder Claude Taylor who then RT’d their campaign tweets to his 219,000+ followers. In addition, Claude encouraged his followers to “adopt” one or more of the Dem challengers and stick with them throughout their run. Most of the support was in money donations but adopters also wrote postcards and phone banked and some even provided web design expertise. I heard of one lady who designed and printed leaflets for her candidates.
Though adopters rarely lived in the same congressional district as their adoptees, they nevertheless formed strong attachments to their chosen candidates. Taking on two, three or more candidates in different parts of the country was surprisingly common.
How they chose their candidates was unexpectedly interesting too; a candidate’s policy strengths was not necessarily a prime consideration. For example, some chose districts (rather than the candidate) based on a personal connection with the place. Some based their choices on an affinity with a candidate’s family status or career background or some aspect of their personal history. It was fascinating to watch. It quickly became apparent that the concept of “adoption” made a personal difference to how voters viewed those they supported.
It was also stunningly effective. Within a month, first-time candidates were reporting upwards of a 200%++ boost in their fundraising and that made all the difference to the depth and breadth of their campaigns. A surprising number of adoptees even out-raised their republican targets without any assistance from the DNC or DCCC. Of the 43 Democratic candidates who turned red districts blue, the majority were Adopt a Dem 2018 alumni.
My role was to keep track of them all — that was fun! (Not snark, it really was fun!) I started with a spreadsheet in excel then transferred the growing list to a google sheet so it could be viewed by anyone with the link. After each state’s primary/caucus, the list transformed from adoptees-only to a list of all primary/caucus winners which was then whittled down to a list of the final winners post-midterms.
Now that I know how much is involved in setting them up, this time I’m starting early! The sheets are organized alphabetically by state and include each candidate’s district, Twitter handle and website link plus the date (if known) of the primary/caucus, the R incumbent and a column for supplemental notes. The US House sheet is looking decidedly bare at this stage but it does list both the special elections (NC-03 and PA-12) and the one do-ever election (NC-09) slated for this year.
Now that the House has flipped blue, Claude wants to focus on doing the same in the Senate so there’s a sheet for that too. It is also looking bare at this stage but it will fill up fast enough.
The two current sheets are paired — if you look bottom left on the screenshots, you’ll see that each sheet has buttons for US House and US Senate which enable you to toggle from one to the other.
Keeping the sheets up-to-date and accurate is a constant challenge so I really reallyappreciate any and all assistance with information and/or corrections. Just kosmail me and I’ll get onto it asap.
Between now and when all general election results are certified, managing these spreadsheets is a huge job but I’m up for it! It’s one of the few constructive ways I can contribute to the 2020 election and that is important to me. I’ve never been much for the by-stander gig and I’ve learned from my American friends that getting involved in election campaigns is a hugely fulfilling experience.
May it also contribute to another blue wave in 2020!