Was it a squeaker? Did the underdog win?
With many, many thanks to readers and members of Daily Kos, Alyshia Dyer won her campaign to be the Democratic nominee for the office of County Sheriff of Washtenaw County. (The University of Michigan is of course located in Ann Arbor, the county seat.)
Alyshia won by a margin of 384 votes out of 61,534 votes cast for the county sheriff, which is 0.6% of the total votes cast! These were come-from-behind votes.
Was Alyshia the underdog?
I call Alyshia the underdog because her main opponent had almost-unanimous endorsements from the members of the Ann Arbor City Council and from members of the Ypsilanti City Council. (Ypsilanti is the second-largest city in Washtenaw County.) Her main opponent also had the endorsement of Eli Savit, the progressive Washtenaw County Prosecutor.
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Preliminary election results from August 6:
Original chart here.
|
|
|
|
| County Sheriff Dem |
View Precinct Detail |
|
Alyshia M. Dyer
|
Early Votes
1473
|
Absentee Votes
16096
|
Election Day Votes
9237
|
Total Votes
26806
|
Percent
43.53%
|
| Derrick Jackson |
1456 |
16878 |
8088 |
26422 |
42.91% |
| Ken Magee |
407 |
5340 |
2559 |
8306 |
13.49% |
| Rejected write-ins |
0 |
7 |
0 |
7 |
0.01% |
| Unassigned write-ins |
2 |
16 |
21 |
39 |
0.06% |
| County Sheriff Rep |
View Precinct Detail |
| Rejected write-ins |
0 |
28 |
0 |
28 |
2.39% |
| Unassigned write-ins |
35 |
273 |
837 |
1145 |
97.61% |
|
We romped on Election Day!
Alyshia was 20 votes ahead in the early voting, got crushed by 800 votes in the absentee votes, and tromped to victory with a surfeit of 1200 votes on Election Day, thanks to readers and members of Daily Kos! We did that!
Alyshia is the better Democrat.
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Donations
We raised $594 from Daily Kos donors in the final days of the election! Because of final-week donations from readers and members of Daily Kos, the campaign was able to:
1. Robocall 40,407 homes throughout Washtenaw County on Election Day!
2. Target 3,424 texts to low-performing precincts on the afternoon of Election day!
The campaign manager expressed his gratitude to me and the Daily Kos community in an email on August 7th, the day after polls closed. He also provided details:
Hi [2thanks] ,
Thank you for all of your work in raising $594 for us from the Daily Kos community over the last week.
This was additional money that we were not expecting -- and we put it to work on Election Day. Here's how.
1) We originally did not intend to record a robocall for Election Day, having sent one the day before. However, with the additional cash on hand from the Daily Kos community, we were able to allocate funds to call an extra 40,407 homes throughout Washtenaw County.
2) Most of the feedback that we had received from our poll greeters was that reception from voters was positive, but -- like any election -- some locations were having more positive feedback than others. Entirely funded by Daily Kos members, and without previous planning, we were able to send an additional 3,424 texts on the afternoon of Election Day to voters in the communities that needed support.
For a race that came within 384 votes, the Daily Kos community very easily may have been a deciding factor in this election. Your support in organizing this was crucial. Thank you so much.
In solidarity,
Will
August 7, 2024
A Final Note — Unintended Consequences
Alyshia told me that my cascade of daily diaries washed a possibly negative article about her down in the social media timelines. Every diary of mine that came out pushed that possibly negative article further down and out of view on social media.
It never occurred to me that a series of my diaries might help my candidate recover from possibly detrimental news about her.
My diaries in support of Alyshia
Was it a squeaker? Did the underdog win? Yes and Yes.
Did I coin a political expression? Yes I did! “Late Money Is Like Lemonade,” a play on words on EMILY‘S List: EARLY MONEY IS LIKE YEAST.
Update 10 a.m. ET: (Minor editing changes made in several places.)
Update 8/12/2024: Two paragraphs removed. ~2t
