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<h2>WHY ALASKA? WHY NOW?&nbsp;</h2><p><em>Here's the exerpts from a conversation DJ and I had with Eric Croft, Mary's Campaign Manager and point person on fundraising. We learned a number of things that were interesting, counterintuitive and insightful as to WHY early money makes sense for her race. Here's his comments:&nbsp;</em></p><h3>Alaska is one of four key states to win the US Senate majority in 2026.</h3><p><br>• With Mary Peltola’s growing strength and GOP incumbent Dan Sullivan’s eroding support, Alaska is winnable this year.<br>• <strong>This victory depends on a statewide, comprehensive ground game</strong> with local Alaskans regularly speaking to their neighbors, and people Alaskans can trust in every village, town, and city.<br>• <strong>We have started, and are ahead of our GOP rivals.</strong><br>• <strong>To do it right and lock the bad guys out, we need to open the offices and hire the right people on the ground now.</strong><br><strong>• We need your investment to do that.</strong></p><figure id="figure-gsrf0o0m9cmonfsoqs"><img id="gsrf0o0m9cmonfsoqs" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/27p0ljq4qJwhc9GzZnWtxapBpfwQ0cTZDLmM4HbfBrPC2ECAspv6HWk7kRJnRFQt.jpg" alt="political education" title="political education" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="null" data-positiony="null" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/27p0ljq4qJwhc9GzZnWtxapBpfwQ0cTZDLmM4HbfBrPC2ECAspv6HWk7kRJnRFQt.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure><h3>ALASKA IS KEY TO A SENATE MAJORITY:</h3><p>To win the US Senate, Democrats must keep all their current seats, and win four more seats; Alaska, Ohio, North Carolina and Maine.1 With exciting&nbsp; Democratic candidates in each, and eroding support for Trump and MAGA, this seems increasingly likely.<em>&nbsp;Here is why Mary Peltola is going to win in Alaska.</em></p><h3>MARY IS BUILDING HER LEAD:</h3><p>Mary Peltola is a generational candidate, who won a seat in Congress that Democrats had lost for 50 years, then almost won in the 2024 red wave, over performing by 11 points. She is a rare combination; voters see her as new and genuine, but she also has legislative experience and the battle-tested team of a more established candidate. Even before she announced, polls showed Mary up an average of 2% and that lead has now grown in tracking polls to 5-7%.2</p><figure id="figure-l8nn3th9kjmonfsoqs"><img id="l8nn3th9kjmonfsoqs" src="https://images.unsplash.com/flagged/photo-1496517125700-5d0675f681f3?crop=entropy&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;fit=max&amp;fm=jpg&amp;ixid=M3wyNjI5NjF8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw4fHxhbGFza2F8ZW58MHx8fHwxNzc3OTI4MDA4fDA&amp;ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=80&amp;w=1080" alt="green trees near lake and snow covered mountain during daytime" title="green trees near lake and snow covered mountain during daytime" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="null" data-positiony="null" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://images.unsplash.com/flagged/photo-1496517125700-5d0675f681f3?crop=entropy&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;fit=max&amp;fm=jpg&amp;ixid=M3wyNjI5NjF8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw4fHxhbGFza2F8ZW58MHx8fHwxNzc3OTI4MDA4fDA&amp;ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=80&amp;w=1080" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure><h3>SULLIVAN IS UNPOPULAR AND STUCK:</h3><p>Sullivan is underwater in Alaska by 20%. This is partly due to his actions&nbsp; (voting for the Big Bad Bill, refusing to hold consituent meetings, shady $$ dealings in office) but also an 18-month independent accountability effort based on polling showing that swing voting Alaskans were open to the message of Dan being out-of-touch, not defending Alaska, and being too beholden to DC interests. A majority of Alaskans now agree with these messages about Dan. Mary is also hitting corruption on hard with her “Fixing the Rigged System” campaign.</p><h3>ALASKA FOLLOWS SOME NATIONAL TRENDS:</h3><p>Trump has a disapproval rating of 57%, with similar disapproval numbers for the Iran War, and a whopping 85% of Alaskans thinking the economy is getting worse. Like the rest of the nation, we have scored significant gains in interim local elections.&nbsp;</p><h3>ALASKA IS UNIQUE IN OTHERS WAYS:</h3><p>Alaska’s 740k people are spread over a huge land mass, larger than Texas, California and Montana combined. More than 80% of our communities are off the road system – accessible only by plane, boat, or snow machine (never “snowmobile”). 30% of voters have different mailing and residential addresses, increasing provisional ballot rates by 150%. Nearly 10% of voters live more than 20 miles from their mailing address, reducing both turnout and mail effecOveness. 84,000 voters (14%) live outside media markets with most of those people having PO Boxes, limiOng reach via traditional advertising and increasing reliance on digital and relational organizing. This combination of small population, huge distances, and remote communities is a challenge but also represents a significant opportunity as well.</p><figure id="figure-b1qgwpkslnmonfsoqs"><img id="b1qgwpkslnmonfsoqs" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1777428411691-e4d5c3423ed0?crop=entropy&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;fit=max&amp;fm=jpg&amp;ixid=M3wyNjI5NjF8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHx2b3RpbmclMjBwcm9jZXNzfGVufDB8fHx8MTc3NzY3MTY0MHww&amp;ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=80&amp;w=1080" alt="voting process" class="object-cover bg-gray-100" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9;" data-mce-src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1777428411691-e4d5c3423ed0?crop=entropy&amp;cs=tinysrgb&amp;fit=max&amp;fm=jpg&amp;ixid=M3wyNjI5NjF8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHx2b3RpbmclMjBwcm9jZXNzfGVufDB8fHx8MTc3NzY3MTY0MHww&amp;ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=80&amp;w=1080" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9;"></figure><h3>IT IS ORGANIZING, STUPID:</h3><p>Democrats and progressive groups are relearning the old political truth that continuous organizing and direct communication to votes from trusted sources; friends, acquaintances, neighbors, is the key to winning elections.</p><p>Mary and her team saw this coming over 5 years ago, in her first run for Congress. She made engaging with low propensity voters a core part of<br>her strategy. Part of the reason she overperforms the national average is that she talks to and brings out voters that other campaigns miss.</p><h3>A COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL GROUND GAME:</h3><p>In 2026, the Alaska Democratic Party intends to take this organizing and voter engagement effort and supercharge it. In cooperation with the DSCC and Mary’s campaign, we will run the largest and most complete field operation in Alaska’s history. We will have large staffed offices in the larger communities of Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, smaller offices in regional hub<br>communities, and a presence in every one of Alaska’s remote villages. We will engage voters in their homes with people they know or at least can relate to as Alaskans.</p><h3>WE ARE AHEAD NOW, BUT:</h3><p>The GOP seem to be thinking on a much smaller scale for their organizing effort for now. If we act quickly over the next few months to hire the right people in each community and make the initial contacts, we can get a lead that will be hard for the GOP to match. Late money simply cannot create an effective field organization for either party and late money spent on an already saturated (over-whelmed?) Alaska media market will not be impactful. <strong>Early funding is key.</strong></p><h3>WHAT WE NEED:</h3><p>This effort will cost $5,000,000 to do right. The DSCC is committed to this effort but is also funding the other races we need to hold or gain. <strong>We believe that we need to raise $1,000,000 outside of DSCC efforts to make this plan work</strong>. This is 40 contributions of $25k each to the Victory Fund, which is allocated $7k to Mary’s campaign, $10k to the Alaska Democratic Party, and $8k to the DSCC..</p><h3><a href="https://americanvotersfordemocracy.com/contact" data-mce-href="https://americanvotersfordemocracy.com/contact" title="click here to get access to the Donation form" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WHAT DO WE NEED YOU TO DO NOW? REGISTER HERE TO GET ACCESS TO THE DONATION LINK&nbsp;</a><br data-mce-bogus="1"></h3>

WHY ALASKA? WHY NOW? A direct, frank and unfiltered conversation we had with Eric Croft, Campaign Manager for Mary Peltola

<h3><br></h3><h3>Led by DJ Smith, the Recommendation Committee is laser focused on identifying approximately the top ten congressional districts where our support can make a difference.&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3><p>DJ Smith has over 40 years of experience in California politics, both as a consultant and polling expert. Under DJ's guidance, the Recommendation Committee has been using a wide range of research tools to identify those Democratic candidates with the best chance of winning, including legitimate local District polls where available, direct communication with individual campaigns and candidates, &nbsp;national political analytic groups like the Cook Political Report and Real Clear Polling, other appropriate national polling organizations like Emerson, Quinnipiac, CNN, RMG, Ipsos, Morning Consult, FOX News, Reuters, etc. &nbsp; We have been watching where other Democratic support groups are investing their resources.&nbsp;</p><p>We also are reaching out directly to the Campaigns. We just had two extremely informative calls with Mary Peltola's campaign staff on April 23rd with an inside view of Alaska polling, local politics and their really amazing ground game strategy to reach beyond Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks to the Native American villages- many of which are literally beyond even radio. This will be a new Blog post coming soon</p><h3>Here's Our Sources:&nbsp;</h3><figure id="figure-kszrz18kumodhesvn" data-full-width=""><img id="kszrz18kumodhesvn" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/14Uvdmq0ZTsxOXdHbmSLpTeiRJpCsOSPml7SA1LR18BE131fmgZHUTvtNcW0YCIQ.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="true" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/14Uvdmq0ZTsxOXdHbmSLpTeiRJpCsOSPml7SA1LR18BE131fmgZHUTvtNcW0YCIQ.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure><p>&nbsp;Finally, there are several national political consultants who are running several congressional races in multiple states with whom we are communicating- including direct meetings with the Campaign staff and State Democratic Party organizations</p><p>By approximately mid-June this committee will recommend our initial slate of races to help finance. &nbsp;At this point we plan to make our first round of donations. In mid-August we anticipate adjusting the slate of candidates, as the political landscape is certain to change. We will, again, donate to the updated slate.</p><p>Our plan is to send out a link to a secure Act Blue account preconfigured with the recommendations we have made, to equally fund our slate of democratic candidates. <em>Your donation will &nbsp;directly fund our candidates' campaigns.</em> Funding will take place when you click on the link we will send you in mid-June and again in mid-August. &nbsp;Your donations will be anonymous to our committee, so donors can donate privately. &nbsp;No donation will be too big or too small. &nbsp; There will be no email capture of your donor information- we are only tracking personal emails to send out regular updates- like the alert that the donation link is active. Your contact information will NOT be shared with ActBlue, and the ActBlue form itself is configured specifically in this manner, so that your donation here will not trigger ActBlue spam.&nbsp;</p><p>We further ask that each of you personally send this letter out to all of your like minded friends. &nbsp; The more people that participate, the better the chances of changing things in Washington.</p><h2><strong>Until we notify you- save your donation money until we have identified the candidates for whom your donations will be most effective.&nbsp;</strong></h2><p><strong>Once the donation link is active in June, you will be notified that its time to make your donation through our ActBlue link.&nbsp;</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

The Midterms Project 2026 will financially support approximately ten U.S. Congressional districts and possibly two or three Senate races in the 2026 midterm elections with the primary goal of gaining a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives and Senate.

American Voters for Democracy

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WHY ALASKA? WHY NOW? A direct, frank and unfiltered conve...

The Midterms Project 2026 will financially support approx...