How to make a difference in the 2024 election

My best advice on where to give, what to talk about, and why

In figuring out how to cover the 2024 elections, I’ve been thinking about what kind of election coverage is not only useful to people, but also distinctive and on-brand for Slow Boring. And one thing that occurs to me is that even though lots of outlets will run takes about how Donald Trump is bad, relatively few of them are interested in explicitly telling people what they should do about it. That’s just not how they see their role in American politics. But you should remember that Trump winning is great for the media, and there’s a big difference between obsessively consuming anti-Trump content and engaging in efficacious anti-Trump action.

That said, notwithstanding my love for the Le Tigre song “Get Off The Internet,” I think it’s actually true that two of the best things you can do to defeat the MAGA movement do, in fact, happen online: giving money intelligently and posting mindfully.

I’m of course not against finding a way to volunteer for political campaigns, especially if you live in a swing state or a place with a contested Senate race or near a frontline House district. But I do think there is a romance to political volunteerism that is not borne out by the facts. There’s a reason commercial enterprises don’t typically market their products by having strangers knock on doors, telling people about the Verizon 5G network. Advertising campaigns and free communication in the media are much more efficient ways to get a message across. There can be lots of benefits to volunteering, including that you may build your own sense of agency or be able to recruit friends to do it with you and create longer-term social capital. I definitely don’t discourage it.

But if you’re really worried, give money. If you’re interested in maximizing your efficacy, give money. If you want to dedicate time and not just money to good causes, then consider getting a part-time job and giving that money.

Something that I think isn’t widely understood is that hard money contributions to political candidates are a lot more valuable, dollar-for-dollar, than Super PAC contributions. Part of this is because the coordination rules, though full of holes, are genuinely not meaningless, and it’s a lot easier for the campaign proper to use resources effectively. The biggest reason, though, is that campaigns receive (by law) preferential rates from television stations. So $1 million of small contributions genuinely buys more ads than $1 million from an outside group. And last but not least, as a donor to a campaign, you can communicate with the candidate you are supporting and urge them to emphasize electability and winning. A lot of candidates believe that hard-core progressive messages are needed to keep the money flowing, and the best way to change that is to send money and speak your mind.

But give money to who? One obvious choice is Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. If you want to beat Trump, then supporting Trump’s opponent is a very good idea.

That said, money is more valuable down-ballot, and I also don’t think you need me to tell you that Trump is running against Biden. After consulting with the smartest people I know in the business, my recommendation is to prioritize eight House seats, a couple of state supreme court elections, and the best funder of abortion ballot campaigns. More details below.

Eight House races to watch

Democrats currently hold the White House and the Senate, but by the numbers, the best odds of preventing a GOP trifecta in 2025 is to win the House in 2024.

In that field, the eight most important candidates are:

• Jared Golden, the incumbent running for re-election in ME-2, which used to be a solidly Democratic district but has now voted for Trump twice and will certainly stay red at a presidential level this cycle.

• Yadira Caraveo, the incumbent running for re-election in CO-8. This was a very narrow race last time around, and the large Hispanic population means it’s at high risk of going red.

• Don Davis, an incumbent running for re-election in what’s basically a brand new district in North Carolina, drawn after the GOP took control of the state Supreme Court and undertook an egregious gerrymander. This new district is winnable, but it’s not easy.

• Gabe Vasquez, who flipped NM-2 very narrowly in 2022. He is facing a rematch against the Republican he narrowly beat two years ago. Republicans are hoping that higher general election turnout plus pro-Trump trends with Hispanic voters will carry them to victory.

• Adam Gray lost narrowly in CA-13 in 2022 and is taking another run at knocking off a Republican incumbent. This was a Biden+10 district, but it’s another heavily Hispanic area where Democrats are facing headwinds, and since it’s California, the top of the ticket won’t be investing here.

• Curtis Hertel Jr. is running in MI-7 to replace Elissa Slotkin, who has vacated the seat to run for Senate. He’s a former state senator, a former legislative affairs director for Gretchen Whitmer, and clearly a strong candidate for this district.

• Nearby in MI-8, Kristen McDonald Rivet is clearly the best choice to replace retiring Rep. Dan Kildee. She is endorsed by the UAW and by the New Democrats, and if she wins her primary, she should be able to win the race. But there’s a real chance of Rivet losing the primary, which would be bad.

• Similarly, in OR-5, I think it would be preferrable for Janelle Bynum to win the primary. This seat used to be held by moderate Democrat Kurt Schrader, who lost a primary to Jamie McCleod-Skinner, who in turn lost the general election to Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who currently holds the seat. Bynum beat Chavez-DeRemer in two previous state legislative races, but to get the nomination, she first has to beat McCleod-Skinner.

There are, of course, other House races that matter, but these are eight campaigns where your money could really make a difference. Gray and Davis can accept contributions of up to $3,300 in hard money. The others have not formally wrapped up primary season (even if only two of them are in actual contested primaries) and can accept up to $6,600.

State Supreme Court races

State Supreme Court seats are bulwarks of democracy, both because of their influence over gerrymandering and because of the possible role they would play in election theft scenarios. There are a bunch of races this year, but the three I want to put on your radar are happening outside of the main presidential battlegrounds, so the odds are relatively high that they end up being under-resourced.

Two of the races are in Montana, where the Supreme Court is formally non-partisan but it’s broadly understood which parties the candidates align with. Montana is, obviously, a bright red state in presidential politics. But the local state Democratic Party has had recent success in statewide races, and they are not out of the game yet. In fact, right now, the court has four Dem-aligned judges to three GOP-aligned ones. But two of the Democrats are retiring, so preserving that majority is going to be tough. Jerry Lynch and Katherine Bidegaray can both accept up to $790 for the general, and Lynch can accept an additional $790 for the primary. This is a relatively low limit, and the best way, by far, to fund these races is to have a large number of small donors chipping in.

North Carolina is a much less red state where the Supreme Court recently flipped to a GOP majority with dire consequences. Had that not happened, House Democrats wouldn’t be running headlong into a severe gerrymander. This is also a state that has an incumbent Democratic governor and a good chance of electing a Democratic successor. But with a heavily gerrymandered GOP legislative majority backed up by a MAGA court, it’s hard for them to govern.

Allison Riggs cannot single-handedly flip the court, but a win from her would be a valuable first step in a multi-year campaign to win a majority and democratize the state.

Fund abortion ballot measures

As you’ve probably heard, abortion rights ballot initiatives have performed really well since the Dobbs decision came down.

That is great news, and it’s also great news that measures to protect abortion rights will be on the ballot this fall in Arizona, Florida, and likely Montana, as well. One concern I do have, though, is past victories may make people unduly complacent about this. Those prior victories were the result of hard work and a good amount of spending. They also took the opposition by surprise to an extent, and anti-abortion forces made some tactical stumbles. One has to assume those groups will have learned some lessons from past cycles and come with a more optimized message this fall. They are also just aware of the landscape and prepared to raise and spend a bunch of money.

Meanwhile, to the best of my knowledge, no new major donors have entered this space on the pro-choice side. Which means your money can be very helpful. I strongly recommend giving to The Fairness Project, which supports ballot measure campaigns from the qualification stage to Election Day. No contribution limit here, so if you happen to be a billionaire (or have a billionaire friend) who wants to write an extremely large check, this is your chance.

These initiatives are important on their own merits and also an important tool for keeping one of Democrats’ best issue in the news, and trying to pin down Trump and other Republicans on their support for abortion bans.

Posting and praxis

This part is not vetted by my experts, but I also think you should strongly consider getting a Biden-Harris lawn sign, bumper sticker, t-shirt, or other symbolic expression of your support. My sense is that there is a large-ish cohort of non-conservative people under forty who will, in fact, probably vote for Biden but who operate in a social circle where saying anything positive about him is cringe. Anything anyone can do to create social license for people who do not like Trump, do not want abortion to be banned, do not want to see sweeping Medicaid cuts, and do not think a 10 percent tax on all imports will fight inflation to actually say this to their peers is useful.

Joe Biden, really? You support him?

Yes, I do, because I don’t like Trump, don’t want abortion to be banned, do not want to see sweeping Medicaid cuts, and do not think a 10 percent tax on all imports will fight inflation.

This also gets into the crucial question of talking about politics on the internet, something that every American can do. Direct communication with your friends and acquaintances is much more likely to be efficacious than talking to strangers. One really obvious thing you can do to help is share this information about recommended donations. Of course, I am self-interested and always want people to share Slow Boring articles. But it’s also just true. Equipping people who are terrified of Trump with actionable information is valuable. Reminding people who are terrified of Trump that they should try to do something useful is valuable.

But also recall that salience matters. Biden’s best issues are abortion rights and prescription drug pricing (especially the insulin thing) and, more broadly, health care. Anything you can do personally to click on and share articles about these subjects encourages journalists to write more of them. Anything you can do to specifically tell journalists you would like to read more about abortion rights, prescription drugs, and, more broadly, health care is helpful. If you are arguing about the election — whether with leftists or MAGAs or RFK freaks or anyone else — try to drag the conversation back to your personal interest in the stakes related to abortion rights, prescription drugs, and, more broadly, health care. Think about who in your life might take one of these 10 drugs and make sure they know about it. If you know any senior citizens, make sure they know about the free vaccines they are now eligible for.

Do what you can

The point of all this, in line with last month’s piece about doomscrolling, is that just because the upcoming election is very important doesn’t mean that you should spend a lot of time feeling stressed about it.

What you should do is try to take action. Of course, any one person’s actions are a relatively small influence on the course of events. But a large share of the population doesn’t vote at all. Most people don’t talk to other people about politics. Most people don’t contribute at all to campaigns. Most people who do talk about politics have no idea what they’re talking about. Equipped with a decent amount of relevant information, you really can exert a lot more influence than the average person, and if you can use some of that influence to encourage other people to act that only multiplies the effect. Give money to the pivotal races. Drag political conversations you come across back to the best terrain for Democrats. Tell other people to do the same. It matters.