Thanks to thousands of you, we won on Tuesday. After two years of one party rule, we flipped the House. We won a check on authoritarianism and white nationalism.
A week later and the good news has kept on coming. There’s so much to celebrate. My prayer is that this email gives you and everyone in our movement space to celebrate, to feel hope, and connect to the vision of what we’re building together — because it is beautiful and majestic.
Here’s a recap of the impact Bend the Arc volunteers and donors made on the midterm elections:
When we started, they said it was impossible.
“CNN poll: Democrats' 2018 advantage is nearly gone”
“Donald Trump's 2018 Midterm Strategy Is Total Warfare”
We proved them wrong. Our Jewish community showed up alongside our allies — one door knock, one phone call, one text, one donation at a time.
Our top goal was to replace Republicans who enable Trump’s immoral agenda and flip control of the House, powered by volunteers and our PAC.
Result:
➕ Flipped 25 seats to win a Democratic House majority (with 2 more races still too close to call!)
➕ With Katie Porter currently in the lead in CA-45, we may ultimately flip 4 of the 5 California House races we worked on
So many of you signed up to volunteer in the final days of the election that we had to expand our textbanking to an additional 34 races.
Our goal had been to reach out to 100,000 voters in the closest races. In the end, you helped reach out to over 375,000 voters all across the country.
Result:31,512 door knocks
59,695 calls
285,385 texts
Our PAC — the only domestic-focused, progressive Jewish PAC in the country — raised nearly $600,000 for 43 candidates in key House, Senate, and Gubernatorial races.
Result:
➕ Through our PAC, donors helped elect a diverse slate of 30 Democratic Representatives and Senators (with a few races still too close to call).
➕ We helped Jacky Rosen flip a Senate seat in Nevada. In 2016, we helped her win her first race in the House. We’re proud to have a new ally in the Senate.
In some of the closest races in the country, your donations and energy helped make the difference:
CA-10 was won by 4,919 votes
Bend the Arc volunteers reached: 4,271 doors
CA-25 was won by 9,917 votes
Bend the Arc volunteers reached: 4,593 doors,
694 calls
FL-26 was won by 4,098 votes
Bend the Arc volunteers reached: 551 doors,
13,595 calls,
6,844 texts
NY-19 was won by 7,573 votes
Bend the Arc volunteers reached: 5,029 doors,
7,877 calls,
7,460 texts
Together we showed up Jewishly in this election to fight candidates who supported and embraced white nationalism.
After two years of tyranny, where Trump succeeded in convincing the Republican Party to become more toxic, racist, antisemitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, misogynist, ableist, and violent, we demonstrated to those in power that we will call out authoritarianism and white supremacy when we see it, and we will take action to defeat them.
This Election Day was a major battle in the fight for our democracy. And while we grieve for the races and ballot initiatives we lost, we are also lifted up by the momentum we’ve built and the wins we’ve achieved. More than ever before, I believe that we will build this country with love.
We’ll have more to share soon on how you can join us to defeat white nationalism in our democracy. For now, you have my deepest gratitude and solidarity.
Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block, Washington Director
