Two weeks ago we wrote to you about our Save the Iowa Senate Project. Today we can report victory. With Progressive Kick’s help, progressive Democrat Liz Mathis won Tuesday night in Cedar Rapids — stopping the complete GOP takeover of Iowa government!
How did we make the difference? As Bleeding Heartland (an Iowa political blog) puts it, “Without a doubt, the superlative early voting effort by Democrats and allied groups is largely responsible for Democrat Liz Mathis’ landslide victory over Republican Cindy Golding.”1 In a district of roughly 50,000 voters we (with Working Families Win) made over 12,000 calls and door knocks to key voters directly persuading more than 600 to vote early and directly contacting another 3000 Democrats to vote on Election Day — which was more than Liz Mathis’ margin of victory!2
2011 has been a great year for Progressive Kick. In April we teamed up with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin on a donation-matching program to raise over $20,000 for signature gathering expenses for the Wisconsin Senate Recall.3 Thanks to your support, 6 Republicans faced recall elections. Our success supporting the petition drive led to our second Wisconsin project, teaming up with EMILY’s List on a donation-matching program which raised over $60,000 for the Wisconsin recall candidates.4 Five of the six Democratic challengers running in the Wisconsin recall elections were progressive women — and two won their elections with your help.
Stay tuned for more progressive battles and more progressive wins in 2012. Also please join us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/progressivekick) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/progressivekick) for more up-to-the-minute updates.
References:
3. http://progressivekick.org/recall-the-wisconsin-republican-8/