Let me first share what you should NOT do – give to the national organizations who are claiming credit for Eric Cantor’s defeat! Laura Ingraham has it partially correct, the national tea party organizations did not lift a finger to help. They are now trying to financially benefit from a race they refused to publicly support. They were Dave Brat’s biggest closet cheerleaders. I can testify to the fact that they prefer this role. Behind closet doors they tell you they are pulling for you and want you to win. They were always promising to jump in the race and help, but they sat on the sidelines and did nothing. Don’t reward organizations that did nothing and want to take credit and your money.
The only edit I would make to Ingraham’s comments is that an overwhelming majority of the credit goes to the LOCAL tea party grassroots. Hundreds of volunteers worked tirelessly the last four months for yesterday’s upset. They did it without a dime of compensation. As Dave Brat said in his victory speech last night, “they have the worn shoe leather to prove it!”
So, are you pumped that Dave Brat won despite the lack of support from national conservative organizations? Are you thrilled that the grassroots sent a strong message to the Washington politicians and the consultant class to take a hike? Are you ready to visibly demonstrate your support even more? Well, there are two critical things you need to do immediately, because our work is not done.
Dave Brat has a Democrat challenger in November. It was announced less than 48 hours ago. You should not assume that the district is safe. We have a U.S. Senate race this year and tens of millions of dollars will be poured into that race. Liberal Democrat senator, Mark Warner, will spend millions in Virginia to win and congressional races will be significantly impacted. Under Cantor’s leadership, Henrico has trended more and more blue. Democrats continue to place a lot of financial and human resources in turning Henrico county blue, so nothing should be taken for granted.
So, you need to join the Brat Pack and do two things immediately:
1) Donate today. Seriously consider giving $201 today. Why? Well, you said you wanted to send a message, right? If you give $201 the FEC will officially list your name as a Brat/grassroots supporter. Let’s send a second big message today to the Washington DC elites, consultants, and pundits that the grassroots financially will support their own candidate.
But it isn’t just about sending a message. Brat really needs your financial support. Liberal national media and Democrats will start the character assassination within days. Brat will need the funds to get their message out through mail, TV, internet and radio.
2) Be a volunteer. Let’s continue to build the grassroots ground game. People are still shocked at what happened last night, but this organic grassroots operation has been growing for four years. We must continue the momentum. People respond when normal, everyday, hard-working neighbors knock on their door and share their concerns with a positive solution. You have the potential to have incredible influence in your neighborhood church, school and elsewhere. Start believing that you have something to say that can really make a difference.
Leave us a shout out in the comment section of this post and let us know if you are committing to this challenge today. And those of you across Virginia and the country…we need your help too. Are you all in?
30 comments
urjanet.zendesk.com
What can you do next for Dave Brat? – The Bull Elephant
mintpics.zendesk.com
What can you do next for Dave Brat? – The Bull Elephant
Jamie, thanks for all your good work. I’m recommending to folks locally that they donate direct to the campaigns of those they support. This is harder to do in practice than it seems, however.
For people that are out-of-state, something simple can be a very tricky thing; not all the local candidate-names are familiar! One good thing that freedomworks/SCF/etc help with is putting the names of good candidates in lights. That is why McDaniel in MS and Shannon in Oklahoma received millions of dollars, for instance. Of course, that attention also pastes a big target on their foreheads, for the estab-folks to see. Brat won with local direct tea support, the best kind. McDaniel lost by a heartbeat; Shannon by a considerable margin. However, the money really *does* matter, especially when you get past the primary (activist-oriented) and get to November (*much* more media-controlled).
In combination, this presents tea-loving folks with a conundrum. If a wealthy person wants to donate to the tea candidates, they have to know the names. Somebody with love of freedom like Thiel in CA and Huffines in TX and Guzzardi in PA can donate to a *lot* of campaigns. But there is no central location for them to get the information they need: that the principled candidate is Brat in VA#7. Wealthy or not, there is always a limit; the list of names would have to be graded/ranked, giving some indication of how much bang for the buck each candidate offers.
Even for people with not much money to give, having a list like that is very useful, but sorted geographically, so that tea-supporters know where to donate their shoe-leather! Because we are a grassroots phenomenon, it seems difficult to accomplish any kind of centralized list like this… but hey, wikipedia does it (founded by ayn-types) so perhaps we can as well. The big groups like SCF, run by DeMint … and now also by Cuccinelli if I understand properly … put the focus on a handful of races nationally, the ones where we have the “best” chances mathematically. I’m starting to think that’s the wrong strategy: instead of putting millions into McDaniel and Shannon, maybe it would have been wiser to put thousands into county-level-precinct races, and tens of thousands into state-legislature races, and hundreds of thousands into House races. To do that, we need to start organizing a list of names, methinks.
Of course, in 2016 my hope is that we’ll have the money to do both! 🙂 I’d like to see plenty of liberty-loving senators with *more* money than the estab candidate in 2016, rather than always fighting to come from behind. I’d also like to see tea-donations at the precinct-captain-level, which is essential for the budget-votes and for the slate-stopping and for presidential-delegates.
As far as 2014 goes, my specific request is this: please post a list of folks that are worth supporting (with cash and/or shoe-leather depending on the donor), in your known-and-trusted personal opinion. A grassroots ranking of local races. Assign candidates a letter-grade that tells us how they are on each of economics/bigGovt issues, liberty/Constitution issues, social issues (abortion/marriage/immigration), and international issues (2ndAmend/4thAmend/military/vets). Don’t neglect the dems, either — they won’t be getting A+ across the board, certanily, but some of them are supporters of the 4th Amendment for instance, and some are more wild about tax-and-spend than others. For that matter, don’t neglect candidates who lost their 2014 primaries: there will be more races in the future, and many of the same folks will run again.
If local liberty-leaders, trusted locally *and* known more widely, will perform these sorts of rating-services for local races, I think we’ll get to a point where the “central” list of names and rankings takes care of itself: simply aggregate and normalize the various grassroots-level rankings. Specifically, although I had heard the name Radtke during the 2012 senate race, it was too hard to figure out all the races *in time* to get the support where it needed to go. 2014 was better, for the “major” contests: the tea-candidates in the senate races were well-known, long in advance. This was a dual-edged sword: because there were only a handful of those “major” contests, the estab folks were able to bring fiat-cash of quantitative-easing-provenance to bear. In 2016, what I’d like to see is an avalanche of Dave Brat candidates, backed by local activists who demand better, and get results. The estab money might beat back ten high-profile candidates… but not at the same time they are facing one hundred Dave Brats in previously-assumed-“safe” seats! And thousands more at the county level.
Sorry about the long post. Hope it was worth slogging through. Best of luck with the Brat Pack this summer, looking forward to seeing his vote in the speaker-of-the-house elections in 2015.
git.livemoun.pp.ua
What can you do next for Dave Brat? – The Bull Elephant
I’m ALL IN for November. We’ve got to keep this ball rolling!
SHOCK & AWE, BABY!
RINSE & REPEAT!
WHO’s NEXT?
My shoes have enough leather to get through November:-) I am all in for this campaign and may we be able to recreate it 434 more times all across the nation.
Of course I’m in….not finished yet. Wining in November is the goal.
As one of those real grassroots worker (and not AstroTurf, Nancy Pelosi) I TOTALLY agree with the two things that are needed, donations and people willing to actually get involved and do something. We don’t need people who just want to come around and hang out and talk about how bad things are. We need the workers, that means making phone calls, working in the office and going out door knocking and putting up signs. Not sitting at home yelling at the news media, that does nothing and just posting on the social media is not enough. Get involved and be willing to try and do things that you have not done before, be willing to go outside of your comfort zone and take back your country!
I’m trying to make a donation, but the web site is crashing. I hope that means so many people are trying to donate at one time that it’s struggling to keep up. I’ll keep trying – it’s important!
Donated and Phone Banked prior to the primary – will be doing more of both before November.
All in – the Richmond City GOP is committed to give their full support and grassroots boots on the ground to help.
This Hoosier Patriot applauds all the Patriots in the 7th District of Virginia. Thank You!! WAY TO GO!!
My wife and I will be reaching out to the campaign team in Spotsylvania.
I’m in. John and I worked the Shenandoah precinct door knocking and knob hanging. Dave won the precinct by 100 votes.
I know you and John are raring to go.
Need you ask……ALL IN!
love that there is an Eric Cantor Ad at the top of this page. Awesome.
Cause money talks, here just as much as anywhere. Don’t be fooled…most everyone can be bought. Those that deny it are full of it.
My price is tuna.
Donated this afternoon.
$201 coming his way!
I can’t afford a donation but I do want to buy a yard sign. . . gotta get on that. Problem is his HQ is in Glen Allen and I’m in Chesterfield. . . But I’ll figure it out!
We have office in Chesterfield. 10825 Midlothian Tpk. 2nd floor.
Cool! Saturday hours?
Jamie, is it legal to give cash anonymously? If so, what is the limit?
Is there a way to give to Brat, that will make sure no money winds up going to liberal big spending Republicans? In other words, He has to spend it on his own campaign. No “union dues ” to the Bush bailout bunch. No money to HB 2313 Norment or HB 2313 Howell.
Where is campaign HQ? What are the hours?
Thanks
You are legally allowed to give up to $50 in anonymous cash. You can give up to $200 and not have your name publicly disclosed on an FEC report
Thanks
Also any money given directly to the campaign will be used for the campaign.
Great post Jamie! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that Dave Brat was able to defeat Eric Cantor. I have volunteered and interned with other Republican party candicates and would love the opportunity to help Dave Brat get the election in November! I look forward to hearing from you, God bless and keep up the good work!