The Harris campaign seems to have money up to the eyeballs, but if a person wanted to make a last-minute money bump somewhere, where should it go? A specific state party? A specific county party? The DNC? A specific PAC?
Who’s doing last-minute targeted ads that could swing a needle? Is an extra hundred dollars to the Harris-Walz campaign effective this late in the game? Or should it go to a specific organization that’s doing ad work/GOTV? Are donations to local campaign offices possible? If you know of an org or are volunteering for an org that you know takes donations, how’s the money going to help?
Or is it just throwing money away at this point? Does everyone have what they need, and now it just comes down to execution?
I agree local races are important. But if you don’t feel giving money to those would be of much use, I can tell you I’m still getting quite earnest pleas from Senator Jon Tester of Montana and Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Those are both crucial wins for Dems, so… just a suggestion.
There is no point in money for presidential candidates. I kind of think there is not time to edit and send out new TV ads. There are ads that go through social media. Those might engage a few people. mostly in local races and ballot issues.
I like ActBlue but I donated to them once and then I was pestered non-stop for more money over and over again. They even had a button I could press to get fewer requests for money…I could never tell the difference.
I am deep blue politically and I want to support blue candidates but this was very annoying. It seemed every other day there was some new outrage and they NEED MONEY NOW!
I am guessing ActBlue is not unique in this regard. I suspect it is common among all such organizations that try to raise money for candidates.
I agree with the above to donate to down-ballot candidates you like. You might also donate your time doing something like driving people to the polls or some other way to donate your time.
For the most absolute bang for the buck, spend it yourself. A Harris tee shirt will get more eyeballs on a per-dollar basis than any dollar you donate. Likewise, your blogging or posting on social media or on Reddit will do more (for free, in fact) than any dollar you donate.
Oh I’m definitely doing that. And I encourage anyone to go to mobilize.us to find an Election Weekend GOTV activity near them to engage in. That website makes is so easy to find something, PLEASE go there and do something!
That being said, this is about where to put the final push of donation dollars. Local and down ballot candidates are good ideas. I’ve been giving regularly since February at all levels. I guess what I’m really asking is, does anyone know specifically how the donations from the final weekend are spent, and is it more effective to do a donation to a swing state party or the national party? A pac, or the candidate themselves?
Or, like, is there a pac that supplies gas cards to local campaign offices? A pac that’s doing hyper-local social media ads? Local campaign offices in swing areas that you know are advertising for financial donations for the final push? Etc.
I do not know but I can’t imagine more money to a candidate today can make much difference before next Tuesday. I would think all ads are already made. All media buys to run advertisements are already done. No time to rent a billboard and put up a new ad. I’d think the lead time to do more (buy more ad time, print more posters, etc.) is pretty much passed. Whatever money they get will go into a war chest for the future.
I suppose they could still phone bank but does that still work anymore in the age of cell phones?
That’s what I’m thinking too. So that’s why I’m looking for other groups (pacs?) to give to that will mobilize donation dollars for GOTV in the final weekend
Ok, so I’ve been poking around, looking for pacs, non-profits, etc to help me figure out where to put any last-minute donations I may make.
I’ve found this website called Oath, which uses analytics and data engineers and polling data and donation data from tens of thousands of down-ballot races all across the country. They give each Democratic candidate a score based on the race’s competitiveness, candidate’s financial need and the election’s stakes.
Then the candidates with the highest scores are placed on these priority lists that you can pick from.
Or pick an issue group that’s important to you. There’s “Defeat Trump” group that hopes to boost Harris turnout in swing states with a reverse coattail effect from ten progressive candidates in close state races. Or there is a Gun Safety group where your donation to their panel of chosen candidates has the potential to have the biggest impact in that issue. There’s a Protect Democracy group, an LGBTQ group, a Next Gen (candidates under 50) group.
So you can give to their selected slate of candidates by state or issue, or just learn about a candidate and give to that single candidate. They don’t take any cut of your donation (just the usual cc processing fee), and they don’t share any of your contact info with the candidates (no follow up spam!)
So I guess to answer my own question (and following the advice of my fellow dopers to look at down-ballot races), this is likely where I’ll be dropping my final-weekend donations this year (specifically, the Defeat Trump group of candidates).
I agree that donating to local candidates will have the most impact, but one reason to keep giving to the Presidential campaign is that those funds will inevitably be needed to fight the bullshit legal and procedural challenges that Trump will raise if he loses the election.
World Central Kitchen. I stopped donating to politicians after the last election and started sending money to WCK, where I can be sure it will do some good. You should, too.