80% Win Rate
From the desk of Bibek, Senior Digital Strategist
On Tuesday, primary voters across Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee sent 278 NDTC-trained candidates to general elections. Out of 337 learners on the ballot, that’s an 80%+ win rate and the winners are different from the party’s old guard. Incumbents aside, the average age of Democratic nominees has dropped from 57 to 48. Our bench is growing bigger and getting younger. Good. We need all the forces we can muster especially in light of recent events.
Last week, SCOTUS gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Just this afternoon Republicans took full advantage in Tennessee. However this week, new polling shows a wide majority of voters still believe the VRA is needed and Republicans may be about to find out why.
People are angry. But that energy doesn’t convert itself into change. It takes people willing to go do it. We turn those people into winning candidates. Come join us.
💻UPCOMING LIVE TRAININGS
How to Build Your Email Fundraising List
05.11
10 am PT
Using Digital Advertising on Your Political Campaign
05.13
10 am PT
Explore upcoming events + trainings coming up this month.
NDTC Learner Spotlight
Solena Sayer won her primary in March and is headed to the general election for Union County Justice of the Peace District 06 in El Dorado, Arkansas. She has lived in Union County for more than 25 years. It’s where she raised her children and built her life as a soldier, nurse, and teacher. She’s running because she wants the same thing for every family there: a community that is healthy, honest, and moving forward.
SUBSTACK
Meet the Trainer: Salim Shariff on Running Everywhere, Staying Data-Driven, and Why More People Need to Be Asked
Salim Shariff has run for office, trained candidates across the country, and has the receipts. I sat down with him to talk digital strategy and why campaigns keep copying the wrong playbook. Here’s a sneak peek:
NDTC: What are the biggest digital mistakes you see campaigns make?
Salim: Two big ones. First: chasing the playbook of a candidate you can’t possibly emulate. After Obama, everyone wanted that magic. After AOC, after Bernie, after Beto — campaigns keep trying to ride the wave of whoever just broke through. Right now it’s Zohran. And look, I’m not trying to dismiss what he did — the investment in vertical video, the fluency with younger audiences, that work matters. But most candidates are not as talented as Zohran Mamdani. What you can borrow is his laser focus on a core message. Affordability. Real, specific, consistent. Every candidate can do that. Bopping around your city doing TikTok-style videos when that’s not authentic to who you are — that’s the mistake.
ICYMI
Project Management for Campaigns
Strong project management won’t win an election by itself — but poor project management can absolutely lose one. This course teaches you how to plan backward from fixed deadlines, assign clear roles so nothing falls through the cracks, track progress without drowning in meetings, and adapt when things go wrong.
What’s On Our Newsfeeds
Why this story matters:
Five Republicans voted against Trump’s redistricting agenda and were primaried into oblivion. Put up your dukes, Dems. Every seat the purge shakes loose is a seat we need to be ready to contest.
Why this story matters:
So this is what FBI director Kash Patel is busy with: raiding the Virginia Democrat who led the state’s redistricting push. He must have resented that the lawmaker is actually doing her job, unlike him.
Why this story matters:
Is anyone else sick of reading about this guy? Gov. DeSantis (FL-R) signed a map that would flip Florida’s delegation from 20-8 to a potential 24-4 Republican advantage and got sued before the ink dried. The fight isn’t over.
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