I’m writing this because I think that it is important to compete and do well not just in the Federal level races, but in the State level races as well. To that end, I would search for resources that would allow me to easily donate to a list of candidates running for State House or State Senate in swing seats that have a good chance of turning blue in November. Unfortunately, it’s tough to find posts that list out specific candidates and chances of seats flipping for these races, and even if I do find an article, I would have to find each individual candidate’s page or ActBlue listing and donate one at a time.
That was becoming very tedious.
I saw a lot of resources out there that allow a person to split a donation between many Federal House swing districts, and I thought there should be something like that for each state as well. Since I couldn’t find any, I decided to make them myself. Here’s my crack at the state of:
Ohio!
Ohio State Senate:
There are 33 seats in the Ohio State Senate, and the Democrats have 9 seats right now, the Republicans have the remaining 24 seats. In order to win back the Ohio state senate, the Democrats need to pick up 8 seats. Because only half the seats are up in November, getting that many is unlikely. But if we can pick up 3-4 this cycle, the republicans won’t be able to override any vetos, and will put us within striking distance to gaining the Senate in the next cycle.
This link will allow you to split your donation between the seats most likely to flip in November.
Ohio State House:
There are 99 seats in the Ohio State House, and the Democrats hold 33. To win back the house, the Democrats will need to pick up 17 seats. There are 17 seats that voted for Trump by less than 10 points, or that were won by Obama in 2012. While 17 seems like a lot, remember that people thought that flipping 17 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates was a long shot, and we only lost that by a coin flip.
This link allows you to split your donation between the 15 of these 17 that have ActBlue pages.
EVEN $5 TO ONE OF THESE CANDIDATES HELPS! I understand not being able to donate to every candidate, but every bit counts.
How do I determine which seats are swing seats? Right now, my method is to see if the seat voted for Obama in 2012, or voted for Trump in 2016 by less than 10 points. I know it’s not a perfect method, especially considering the drastic swings we’ve seen in special elections recently, but I do not have a lot of local knowledge of these races, so I’m just going by the numbers. If you think there’s a race I’m missing and should be added to the list, please comment below. ( Note: some candidates did not have ActBlue pages set up, so they could not be added).
Here’s a link to the Pennsylvania State Legislature swing seats that I compiled previously: Pennsylvania Swing Seats
Here’s a link to the Texas State Legislature swing seats that I compiled previously: Texas Swing Seats
Here’s a link to the Michigan State Legislature swing seats that I compiled previously: Michigan Swing Seats
If this is well received, I will continue doing this for other states. Thank you for donating, and if you know of any good places to share these links, please do so!