this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2024
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There are a few ways.
Start in highly walkable areas, where meeting voters is better than spending on TV ads.
Go for seats that aren't typically contested so the national money isn't showing up.
Run for city or council seats first so your name brand builds
Open community service organizations that are co-branded with your party so people know they're voting for the organizers of the soup kitchen.
There are ways of doing it. Just throwing your hands in the air isn't going to get it done.
Functionally non-existent in the suburbs and exurbs.
These seats are uncontested because they're the safest, either due to gerrymandering or natural partisan disposition. In cases like this, you are far better off challenging an incumbent in a primary (as AOC did in NY-14) than the general. But to challenge a candidate in a primary, you need to be a member of the party.
Plenty of candidates go this route. But, again, you run into the incumbency racket. Municipal offices in urban districts (you know, the places with highly walkable areas?) have residencies in the hundreds-of-thousands.
That said, if you look at where Green/Libertarian candidates are most successful, this is it. The non-partisan nature of the districts, combined with the large number of no-name candidates who aim for the position, can produce the occasional opportunity for a Green pickup. It's not a bad idea on face, but still difficult under the best of circumstances.
Once again, a thing that requires large quantities of money. This is the crux of any "Why don't you just start more grassroots-like with your organization?" critique. You need money. And if you've got money, you'll just align with one of the two big parties that explicitly cater to the wealthy.
In terra nullis conditions, sure. But when all the turf is stacked out, you're swimming against the tide.
START in urban areas.
And safe just means the other party doesn't have enough support. It says nothing about third party sentiment.
And yeah they have a lot of people, nobody said it was going to be easy. But it's a different path than dropping into a Congress race with a personal 5 million dollar buy in.
And community service orgs also don't start with million dollar budgets.
You keep assuming you must put the cart before the horse. Of course everything looks impossible to you.