WinPower Strategies

Barring any massive changes in results, we had something happen at WinPower Strategies that has never happened before. All 17 WinPower clients in the general election will be an elected officials in 2026! We will admit that President Trump's incredible mismanagement of the federal government gave our candidates a big tailwind this year. A huge shoutout to Jess Pisane for excellent treasury work and keeping all the trains running. We also want to thank Tama Chakrabouty, Alex Wenman, Viktoria Cambas, Felix Koontz and Alex Vandeberg for their great work on our staff this year!

Thank you for your service, Senator and thank you for working with WinPower!

Darneille to retire from Washington State Senate - Sen. Jeannie Darneille   OLYMPIA – After over two decades of service in the Washington State Legislature, Sen. Jeannie Darneille (D-Tacoma) announced her retirement today after giving notice to Gov. Jay Inslee of her resignation. Her resignation will be effective this fall on a date to be determined. Darneille departs ...

We are really proud to with with Dontae Payne for Olympia City Council. He is endorsed by Governor Jay Inslee, Lt. Gov Denny Heck, Congresswomen Marilyn Strickland and the entire Olympia City Council.

He is going to hit the ground running and will be what the Olympia city council needs.

Keep crushing it Dontae!

Tonight, 12,000 people will be without homes in King County. For at least a decade, our homeless population has risen. For at least a decade, the city of Seattle has failed at reducing homelessness in Seattle. City Councilmembers like Bruce Harrell and Lorena Gonzalez did not rise to the challenge. They did not show leadership. Now they are asking for a promotion.

Seattle has a choice. A choice to go in a different direction. Colleen Echohawk is a builder. She builds affordable housing. You can see the new Chief Seattle project at 2nd and Yesler. You can see the project in S**o called Eagle Village. She has moved whole encampments off our streets and into shelter. She has a 22 point plan to end homelessness in her first 14 months in office. You can read that plan at https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/emergencyhousing.

Last year, we saw police cover up their badges. We saw police teargas peaceful protestors. We saw officers abandon the East Precinct. In Seattle, black residents get arrested at six times the rate of white residents. Six times. This is what happens when police officers know they can't be held accountable. It's what happens when a city approves a contract with a "Police Officer's Bill of Rights". Lorena Gonzalez and Bruce Harrell approved that contract. Colleen was the only candidate in this race who fought the 2017 police contract. She has the strongest plan to reform and reset Seattle's police department. You can read it at: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/police-reform.

She has the strongest policy proposals on every issue facing the city including:

Housing: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/housing-justice
Climate: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/climate-justice
Transportation: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/transportation
Arts and Culture: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/arts-culture
Broadband: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/broadband
Gun Violence: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/gun-violence
Food Sovereignty: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/food-sovereignty
Education: https://www.echohawkforseattle.com/education

Seattle desperately needs a fresh start. That's why we are excited and honored to be working with Colleen Echohawk for Seattle Mayor.

We continue to feature our clients this week who are fighting in this upcoming August primary. This one hits close to home as we work to elect two more progressive voices on the SeaTac City Council. Join us in supporting Iris Guzman for SeaTac City Council and Jake Simpson for SeaTac City Council!

We are highlighting some of the candidates we are working with in this primary election.

Our spotlight today is Danny Herrera who is running for Yakima City Council.

Danny Herrera is a lifelong resident of Yakima City Council District 2. Growing up he attended Adams Elementary School, Washington Middle School and A.C. Davis High School. He enrolled at the University of Washington where he earned his Bachelors of Arts in 2013 and his Masters in Teaching in Elementary Education K-8 in 2014. He taught 3rd grade at McKinley Elementary for 4 years.

He spends his time volunteering with several organizations including La Casa Hogar, Henry Beauchamp Community Center, and the YMCA.

Currently, he is serving on the Board of Directors for the Dispute Resolution Center of Yakima and Kittitas County. Also, he is part of the committee planning Central Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s fundraising event, Taco Fest 2021.

He is eager to serve the residents of southeast Yakima and the entire Yakima community with integrity and strong leadership.

We want to highlight some of our candidates who are fighting hard in this 2021 Primary Election.

Soleil Lewis is running for the first time for the Des Moines City Council. She is a proud graduate of local schools and the first in her family to earn a college degree (BA in Political Science, University of Washington). She taught kindergarten in the Bellevue Public School District and was the office manager at Highline Public Schools. Soleil currently teaches ESL to students in South King County and volunteers with the Vancouver and Seattle King County NAACPs to promote diversity and inclusion in education across Washington. You can learn more about Soleil at: https://www.soleillewis.com/

We are so thankful for the campaign workers, the candidates and volunteers who worked through one of the most difficult campaign years we have ever seen.

This year stood in marked contrast to 2018 where Democratic field efforts propelled so many new candidates to victory. In some ways, Democrats had hit a high ceiling for success in a 60 percent Democratic state with 58 seats in the House and 28 seats in the Senate. The room to grow was limited and stifled by the lack of traditional door to door organizing in swing districts. This was compounded by the disadvantage created by the redistricted map for legislative districts after 2010.

Even though in many ways (other than beating Donald Trump!), this was a status quo election in Congress and in our State Legislature, we are proud of the victories we had and the work we did to expand the map for Democrats.

Re-Electing Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal

This looked dicey after the primary with Reykdal down a few points behind his challenger. We worked with Chris to develop a statewide digital and call strategy. We want to thank Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal for working with us on great digital and cable spot in Seattle.

Our first U.S. Senate race!

We were proud to work with U.S. Senate candidate Paulette Jordan in Idaho. Paulette Jordan is a member of the Coeur'd'Alene tribe. Disappointingly, she was the only woman of color running for the U.S. Senate in 2020. We went to her hometown in De Smet, Idaho, shot an ad there and at her Uncle's farm. Idaho has a long way to go before it starts electing Democrats but Paulette ran a great campaign taking it to a forty year incumbent who needed the heat of a strong challenger campaign.

Increasing Diversity

We are proud of our history of success increasing diversity at all levels of the ballot in Washington State. We were excited to see State Representative Davina Duerr elected for the first time to the State House. We were also honored to work with Sharonda Amamilo in her successful campaign for Thurston County Superior Court and to help elect Hillary Madsen, the youngest member of the King County Superior Court. One of the more exciting new organizations this year was started by WinPower client Senator Mona Das. Opportunity PAC did an incredible job lifting up the voices of the African-American women candidates this year. WinPower jumped in during the primary with direct mail to help April Berg and Jamila Taylor have strong primary victories and helping propel them to electoral victory in the fall.

In the tough loss category, we thought CASA Program Specialist and long-time Democratic Activist Tanisha Harris ran an amazing campaign for State House in East Vancouver but fell just short in this status quo campaign year.

Helping FUSE WA Flip The Pierce County Council Blue

We are always up for a FUSE project. They are always on the cutting edge pushing the envelope to bring in new dollars to progressive candidates and going the extra mile to get progressives elected. This time, we worked with them on an independent Digital advertising and direct mail campaign to help push Jani Hitchen over the top in her race for Pierce County Council. This gives Democrats the majority on the Pierce County Council for the first time in a very long time.

Protecting Democratic Incumbents

WinPower worked hard to protect long time incumbents at all levels of the ballot. We are proud of the re-elections of U.S. Representative Adam Smith, Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, Senators Kevin Van De Wege, Mark Mullet, Lisa Wellman and Derek Stanford; State House members Monica Stonier, Mike Chapman, Steve Bergquist, Steve Tharinger, Bill Ramos, Lisa Callan and Mia Gregerson. Two tough losses here with the defeat of long time incumbents Zack Hudgins and Dean Takko.

Expanding the Map

WinPower prides itself in taking some of the toughest races in the state in rural and exurban parts of the district. Like so many others, we were frustrated to see so many Democratic donors and interest groups focused on races that between Democrats instead of putting those resources into electing more progressive Democrats around our state. We will always be ready to take challengers that are taking the hard step of taking on Republican incumbents in rural and exurban areas of the state to increase the quality of Representation throughout the whole state of Washington. These campaigns this year include Jamie Smith, Donna Sinclair, Darcy Huffman, Daniel Smith, Tom McGarry, Adrianne Moore and Sarah Rumbaugh.

A quick shout out to our friends over at Argo Strategies who did amazing work in Pierce County this year electing T'wina Nobles, Ryan Mello and Jani Hitchen. They also did a great job electing one of our favorite new legislators elected this year, Liz Berry. She is a tour de force and will be an amazing asset in the House Democratic Caucus.

We hope that all the campaigners who worked so hard in 2020 get a much needed break, that we get through this pandemic quickly (with the help of a new President), and people can enjoy the holidays safely.

We will be ready and excited to go to work again for progressive Democratic campaigns in 2021. Be safe.

Campaigning in the time of COVID... We are so thankful for the campaign workers, the candidates and volunteers who worked through one of the most difficult campaign years we have ever seen. This year stood in marked contrast to 2018 where Democratic field efforts propelled so many new candidates to victory. In some ways, Democrats had...

We are so proud to be working with a fantastic candidate, Paulette for Senate 2020. She is running to become Idaho's first female Senator and the country's first Native American woman in the U.S. Senate. Check out her website and make a donation: https://pauletteforsenate.com/

Paulette Jordan for Idaho: Good Shot Paulette is running a historic campaign to be the first Native American woman in the U.S. Senate. Join our movement today at pauletteforsenate.com!

Democrats are struggling in rural parts of Washington, and that is exactly why 35th LD candidate Friends of Darcy Huffman stepped up to run for office. Darcy will carry the needs of working families and seniors to Olympia and be a fierce advocate for solutions to tough problems. Her primary results show that message can resonate with voters in the 35th LD. We're honored to help craft Darcy's path to victory in November!
https://www.darcyhuffman.com/