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Welcome to the last TLDR of 2024! And what a year it has been.  

After training over 112,000 activists, organizers, candidates, and Democrats of all stripes since 2018, we have developed a practice of listening deeply at the grassroots level — which is the bedrock of building long-term, lasting, generation power — so we could tackle some of the big themes emerging since Election Day.

Here’s a big takeaway coming out of the debrief: Democrats need to once again build a movement, not a moment.

To build the next generation of Democratic leadership, we need to support the grassroots much more and more visibly, with better and more consistent resources, especially through off-cycle lulls. Combined together, structural and strategic deficits in campaign support and collaboration take on greater importance – and negative outcomes – in red and battleground states where Democrats at the national level have entirely ceded ground in some cases. This leaves the grassroots that much weaker in mounting a strategic defense for 2026, much less 2028.

Meanwhile, the GOP has done exactly that for well over a decade. It took 40 years, deep organizing, and some extensive soul searching for the GOP in 2012 – including creating intentional pipelines and organizational structure leading into 2016 – to get to a victory, three SCOTUS appointments in the first Trump Administration, and a diverse coalition in 2024 that traditionally voted Democrat.

Democrats have no such widespread vision or infrastructure. NDTC is one of the few organizations looking at a long game. And that is not nearly enough. It is finally time to apply what NDTC has been advocating: Democrats must think past the “cycle to cycle” focus and think more in terms of five and ten year plans – system wide. None of this is impossible for 2026 and 2028.

We’ll be offline until the end of the year. Rest is reparative and we wish you a relaxing New Year away from your phones, the news cycle, and whatever else makes a shock of adrenaline go up your spine.

We’ll be back at it again starting January 2nd.

Our Learners are Making a HUGE Impact!

Arienne Childrey (OH HD-84) successfully stayed on the 2024 ballot after the Ohio Board of Elections tried to disqualify her for not including her deadname — the name a trans person was assigned at birth but that does not align with their gender identity — on petition paperwork. She ran a strong campaign in a traditionally red, rural district focusing on bipartisan solutions for issues like housing reform and access to healthcare.

While she didn’t win her 2024 race, she’s not giving up. You can find her on the campaign trail focusing on what’s ahead in 2026.

Follow her website: https://www.ari4ohio.com/

And on social media: @ari4ohio.bsky.social

Help us build power and take back democracy in 2025

Are you looking to support more candidates fighting the good fight? Did you know that in 2025 there will be 100K+ seats up for grabs across the country? Yes, even in an off-cycle year! And they will include two gubernatorial races (Virginia and New Jersey), mayorship of several major cities (including Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, San Antonio, and New York City), and tens of thousands of local school board races.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that we have to play the long game, from the grassroots bottom up and the middle out. It’s not impossible. And you can play an important role! Help NDTC  build long term power and expand the Democratic map this next election cycle by committing to a small, recurring donation. Thank you!

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