Fueling Local Democracy: The 2025-26 Grants Program Is Here

There's no doubt that this has been a tough year for our country, our friends and neighbors, and ourselves. The news is relentless, social media often toxic, and the debate among allies about how to fight back against MAGA extremism can feel endless.

Yet, amidst this bleakness, our path to a more perfect union remains well lit. Community organizers in blue, purple, and red counties are stepping up every day, doing essential work to protect democracy, build progressive power, and support Democratic candidates.

At Contest Every Race, our mission is clear: we're here to empower these dedicated local teams.

We received over 1,200 applications from local organizing teams to be part of Contest Every Race — by far the most we’ve ever received before and representing every state and over one-third of all counties in the country.

Why Contest Every Race Supports Local Organizers

Contest Every Race operates from a playbook that’s not too different from our parent organization, Movement Labs. We identify gaps in the Democratic playbook, experiment, and if something works, we grow it efficiently and effectively.

In our case, we realized that in thousands of rural communities across the country, local Democrats are left under-resourced, without the money, training, or candidates to fight for their values. This allows Republicans to rule these communities unchecked.

So, in 2021, we launched our first local party grants cohort. By providing those working closest to the ground with the support they need, we boosted their visibility, membership, and capacity, often transforming inactive committees into the beating heart of local Democratic organizing.

To be clear, this program isn’t about swooping in at the last minute to try to push Democratic candidates across the finish line. Instead, it fuels year-round grassroots organizing through grants, monthly exercises, and trainings. This creates an environment where local Democrats lead the charge in the fight against MAGA extremism.

Our work in the early part of this decade helped lay a solid foundation of success that set the stage for 2024 — our most impactful year yet.

Our 2024 Grants Program by the Numbers

In 2024, we granted $1.2 million to 350 local organizing teams — many of which work in battleground states or those dominated by MAGA extremists. These teams do incredible work in trying circumstances — circumstances that often include explicit threats of violence — to organize their communities, find candidates to run in their local elections, and get out the Democratic vote.

We think the $1.2 million was well spent. Because, in return, these teams drove measurable impact:

• 13 million hyper-local texts sent through 2,500 unique texting campaigns. 
• 1.4 million rural doors knocked, resulting in conversations with over 1 million voters.
• Recruited and filled over 67,000 volunteer shifts, which helped register 25,000 new voters.
• An estimated 12,000 net Democratic votes (results of several RCTs are still pending.) 

In many cases, our grantee teams were one of the handful of counties in their state in 2024 whose vote share shifted toward Democrats.

• In Georgia, the Democratic Committees of Spalding County and Barrow County were two of the handful of counties whose vote share shifted towards Democrats.
• In Michigan, the Manistee County Democratic Party was one of six counties in the state that achieved more votes for the Democratic candidates for President and U.S. Senate compared to 2020. 
• In Wisconsin, Ozaukee County shifted 1.6% more Democratic than in 2020 — one of the few battleground counties to move blue.

In a year where the national electoral results weren’t what we wanted, these local victories inspire and build momentum. 

Rebuilding the Local Democratic Brand

In many of the areas our local organizing teams work, being a Democrat isn’t easy. As a county chair in our program stated last year to the New York Times, “It’s a big commitment to put a ‘D’ behind your name, risk your reputation, risk losing your job, knowing that you’re going to get 35 percent of the vote.”

So, beyond knocking on doors and talking to their neighbors, rebuilding the Democratic brand in these communities is an essential step on the path toward winning elections. In many cases, that means providing resources for the community without any expectation of receiving votes in return.

Take the Hunt County Democrats in Texas, for instance. Last year, they held their annual coat drive and Christmas Party. After collecting 32 coats their first year and 100 in 2023, they received over 200 coat donations in 2024. 

And, in Georgia, the Oglethorpe County Democrats noticed the flag at their local library was tattered and torn. So they requested a new flag from Senator Jon Ossoff’s office and received one that previously flew over the U.S. Capitol. They then held a ceremony to raise the flag and bring their community together.

These actions may seem small, but they paint a better picture of their party, making it easier for rural organizers and candidates to put up yard signs and identify as Democrats in their communities.

Our 2025-26 Grants Program is Bigger Than Ever

With the demonstrated success and an electoral environment that’s proven favorable to Democrats — even in red states like Mississippi and South Carolina or battleground ones like Wisconsin — our 2025-2026 grants program is proving to be bigger than ever before.

This response shows the energy rural Democrats have as we wade through a year marked by harsh acts of MAGA extremism. It also represents the hard work of our organizers and regional political desks, who went above and beyond to answer questions, host webinars, and serve as go-to resources for these local teams.

In the end, we also accepted more teams into our program than ever before. Nearly 400 teams from 39 states will receive:

• Quarterly grants of up to $600
• Monthly action plans like hosting events, recruiting volunteers, or engaging candidates
• Free texting
• Access to training and organizers

This is no time to take our foot off the pedal. The momentum we've built through Contest Every Race is necessary to rebuild Democratic capacity in rural communities, and by supporting those closest to the ground, we can help them hold the line against MAGA extremists. 

How You Can Fuel Local Democracy

To do all this work takes two things: effort and money. 

The former you can support by reaching out to your local Democratic organization. Simply toss your county’s name, state, and “Democrats” into Google to find your local party or committee. Reaching out to them to volunteer gives them additional capacity and momentum to turn the tide in your community.

For the latter, by supporting Contest Every Race with a recurring donation, you can help us grow and sustain our program not just through this election season and next, but through the rest of Trump’s term. 

To set up your recurring donation, click here.

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