Democrats Work

The Democratic brand is in trouble. In too many communities, Democrats are invisible or dismissed as out of touch. There's no shortage of debate about how Democrats can build their brand in a more favorable light. But we won’t win back voters with better messaging alone. It'll be rebuilt by showing up and doing something real for people where they live.

That's what Democrats Work is.

About Contest Every Race

Contest Every Race is a national Democratic candidate recruitment and county organizing initiative with a network of nearly 400 county-level teams across 40 states. Through our grants program, we support local Democratic parties with funding and infrastructure to do the work of showing up in their communities — not just during elections, but year-round.

Last year, more than 300 of our teams ran community service actions in their counties. The results were strong, but diffuse, with each team choosing its own project. This year, we're concentrating all participating teams on one coordinated action for maximum impact.

The Program: Mass Medical Debt Relief

For pennies on the dollar, medical debt can be purchased in bulk and forgiven outright.

Democrats Work mobilizes our county teams to raise matching funds in their communities, pool those dollars to buy debt portfolios, and wipe them clean by partnering with a nonpartisan debt relief organization to execute the debt relief.

Then, someone in their county opens a letter, finds out the debt that's been hanging over them is gone, and gets connected to a Democrats Work microsite where they learn who made it happen: their local Democratic Party.

This isn't messaging. It's action. And it’s the kind people remember.

Why Medical Debt? Why Now?

Over 100 million Americans carry medical debt. It's the leading cause of bankruptcy in the country. It cuts across geography and party. And it hits hardest in exactly the communities where Democrats need to show up most, and where Republican healthcare failures are most felt.

By concentrating all participating teams on one issue, executed at the same time, Democrats Work creates a wave of local stories right as voters start paying attention to the midterms. Every local story feeds a national one. Every recipient who learns their local Democrats wiped out their debt is a data point in a larger argument: Democrats delivered. Republicans didn't.

The Strategy

The debt relief is the centerpiece, but it's not the whole program. Democrats Work is designed as a persuasion campaign, leveraging the debt relief to make a broader argument about the cost of healthcare, contrast Democratic and GOP health care policies, and to rehabilitate the Democratic brand in the places it's weakest.

The program includes coordinated paid and earned media, direct voter outreach, and post-program research to measure the impact on voter attitudes.

Make It Happen

Democrats Work is supported by partners including ActBlue and Vote Save America. Your contribution helps local Democratic teams purchase and relieve medical debt in communities across the country — and powers the persuasion campaign behind it.

To partner with us on this project or for general questions, contact: demswork@contesteveryrace.com

Every dollar you contribute can retire roughly $100 in medical debt. 

To help us make debt disappear before the midterms, click here.