Fundraising email to friends and family
At the state representative level, candidates are expected to raise most of the campaign funds from their own personal networks.
This is not the level of millions of small dollar donations from people who care about the campaign. It’s calling your old college friends and badgering them into donating $200. In fact, before I started, a local elected official told me to make an EYK list (Everyone You Know) and assign a dollar amount to each one of how much I could get out of them.
That is, to put it mildly, a terrible system.
It favors those who are wealthy (because their network has a higher average donation), politically connected (because their network is used to donating), and incumbents (because they can call on past donors).
But it also raises questions about whether a candidate is telling the public one thing but their donor base something else. What’s the real message?
There are ways to make campaign financing less reliant on candidate’s personal networks, and I intend to support legislation for that if elected. But for now, this is the system I have to work with, so I sent out an email to everyone I knew asking for donations.
In the interest of transparency - and so you don’t think I have a secret real message - here is that email. I’m going to make it a point to publish any fundraising emails I send so you can be sure that I say what I mean and mean what I say.
Subject: I’m on the ballot and I could use your help
Hi everyone,
I’ll keep this brief at the beginning, with much more detail below.
As you may know, I’m running for State Representative in Massachusetts, and I’ve officially qualified for the ballot.
There are two things you could do right now that would really help:
1. Donate to the campaign.
We’re running an extremely lean campaign, so every dollar will go towards mailers, digital ads, yard signs and other ways to spread the message to the district. The link is here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/chris-oates
2. Tell 10 people about the campaign.
You can forward this email, share the donation link, or send a note in a group chat. In a race targeting $23,000 in funding and 4,000 votes, that kind of multiplication adds up quickly. If you prefer, we can also set up an event or Zoom call that can spread the word and raise some funds that way.
Now, the full story.
In January, my State Representative, Christine Barber, launched a campaign for the State Senate after a longtime senator announced she was stepping down. After a lot of thought, and after talking it through with Sarita, I decided to run for the open seat.
The reason was simple. I am frustrated by how slowly Massachusetts solves problems. I would spent my days researching or writing about policies for work, then pick up Kai, check the news, and see little to no action on those issues from Beacon Hill.
We have serious challenges with housing, childcare, public transit, energy costs, and more. But there is a bigger problem underneath them. Our politics rewards vague promises rather than concrete plans. Massachusetts has the least competitive state legislative elections in the country. Candidates can say yes to everything during the campaign, win the election, and disappoint people when the promises do not become reality in government, and then run for re-election unopposed.
I want to run a different kind of campaign. But I didn’t want to ask for your money and time until I could be sure of two things.
First, I wanted to do the work to get on the ballot and hone the message. There are a lot of ideas in my head, but I wanted to be sure that I could get that into a digestible format for a campaign. I’m told this is the problem for every first-time candidate who comes from a policy background.
After more than 1,000 doors knocked and having collected the required signatures through hundreds of conversations, I feel like that’s done. I’ve got 30-second answers down and more in-depth coverage is on my website for people to read further about.
Second, I wanted to be sure that there was a realistic path to victory. I don’t have the name recognition or fundraising of the other candidates, so I knew it would be a uphill battle. But I wanted to make sure uphill wasn’t impossible.
After three months, I believe there is. It’s a three-way race and I am the candidate with the most experience with state-level government - and certainly the one with the most experience in analyzing the many different issues that a representative has to deal with.
More than that, there is a hunger for politics that’s honest about what can and cannot be done, transparent about the trade-offs required, and prioritizes results over slogans. It seems that lots of other people are as fed up as I am with politicians who either fail to address the problem or aren’t serious about finding the right solution.
Now the task is to get that message to as many voters as possible.
The likely voter universe for our race is 8,000 people, so the win number is around 4,000 votes. Every conversation, every mailer, every door, every sign, and every person who hears about the campaign can matter before September 1.
We are running this campaign very lean. I have not hired any consultants. I designed the yard signs and palm cards myself. I’m leading the policy memos, social media and our big flagship project (more on that in a couple weeks) with a team of interns. Field work will be entirely by volunteers.
The money we raise will go to the things we cannot do ourselves.
A districtwide mailer costs roughly $6,000 per 10,000 pieces, which is the core likely voter universe we need to reach. Around $18,000 would allow us to send three mailers, or two mailers to an expanded electorate. Digital ads will likely cost around $3,000, and another $2,000–$3,000 will go toward events, yard signs, flyers, and other campaign basics.
So we are trying to raise $23,000 beyond what we already have. That would let us communicate seriously with voters through the end of the campaign.
Every contribution helps. But just as important, you can help us build awareness.
If you know 10 people who care about Massachusetts, about making government in blue states work better (since what happens in one can serve as an example to the others), or about building a politics that is more honest and serious, please send this to them. Ask them to chip in $10, $50, $100, or sign up to knock on some doors. Or just to read about the campaign and tell their neighbors.
We have a rare combination of an open seat and a moment in our politics where people are tired of the status quo. It’s a chance to make a better Massachusetts, so now I’m asking to do what you can.
Thank you so much and I’m always happy to talk more about the campaign and what I’m seeing.
Chris
Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/chris-oates
Share the campaign here: chrisoates.org
