MEMO: After Winning Even More Tough Races, Democratic Governors Are The Best Path Forward and Last Line of Defense

TO: Interested Parties

FROM: DGA Executive Director Meghan Meehan-Draper

DATE: December 3, 2024

SUBJECT: After Winning Even More Tough Races, Democratic Governors Are The Best Path Forward and Last Line of Defense

While this year’s presidential election results did not yield the outcome many of us had hoped for, the Democratic Governors Association entered this cycle with an overarching goal of holding every state with a Democratic governorship — and that’s exactly what we did.

Our victories include Josh Stein’s 15-point landslide in North Carolina — where he earned the largest percentage (54.8%) of the vote since 2004 and won more overall votes than Donald Trump — and Bob Ferguson’s 11-point win in Washington — the biggest margin in Washington state for an open seat since 1996. Throughout this cycle, national Republicans signaled high hopes of flipping both of those states. We are also proud of Matt Meyer’s 12-point win in Delaware.

The DGA’s success this year builds on our cycle-after-cycle momentum, shattering fundraising records, making major strategic investments, and winning tough races — in the process building the bench of the Democratic Party for years to come. Right now, our country’s 23 Democratic governors represent more than half of the U.S. population, including in five of the seven biggest presidential battlegrounds (AZ, MI, NC, PA and WI) as well as deep red states like Kansas and Kentucky.

Democratic governors win by earning the trust of voters — often across party lines — because they block out the day-to-day noise in Washington, DC, keep a relentless focus on getting real, tangible results for Americans, and stand up for our fundamental freedoms and values.

Despite Republicans already creating chaos as they prepare to take control of the White House and Congress, Americans can look to Democratic governors to remain focused on making life better for working families and to stand firm against GOP extremism.

Read on to see how Democratic governors continue to find success in tough races and why the DGA is prepared to capitalize on the current moment.

Protecting Democratic Governorships in 2024’s Challenging Political Environment: 

After re-electing Gov. Beshear by five points in Kentucky in 2023 and defying odds by winning 12/13 incumbent races in 2022, the DGA had no incumbents up for reelection in 2024. Consequently, we made it our priority to protect every Democratic-held governorship, a goal we achieved with double-digit wins in North Carolina, Washington and Delaware.

North Carolina: Before Josh Stein’s landslide victory that helped break theGOP’s legislative supermajority and carry down ballot statewide candidates to victory, North Carolina was widely viewed as this year’s marquee governor’s race matchup and a “true tossup,” with some polls showing Mark Robinson in the lead as recently as five months before Election Day.

Robinson had won statewide in 2020, enjoyed early support from North Carolina’s Republican leadership, dominated the GOP primary despite millions of dollars worth of attack ads spent against him, and earned praise from Donald Trump, whom he appeared alongside at numerous campaign events.

Stein’s “impressive campaign” was consistently focused on making life better for North Carolina families. He entered the general election with a plan to lower taxes and cut costs for the middle class and consistently showed up for “Real Time with Stein” events in rural parts of the state that too often feel ignored by both parties.

Prior to national Republicans pulling their support from Robinson in the final weeks of the campaign, the RGA spent $20 million attacking Stein.  Despite this, as the Washington Post reports, “voters really liked Stein” — and he only got more popular as the year went on.

Washington: Republicans were “salivating at the chance” of flipping Washington this year. Former GOP member of congress and sheriff Dave Reichert entered the race with a successful electoral history and public polls showing him with a lead.

Recent history also suggested this race should be close: in 2012, the last time Washington had an open race for governor, Governor Jay Inslee only won by 3%.Bob Ferguson won by nearly 4 times that margin by focusing on his plans to lower costs, fix homelessness, and create more opportunity for workers without college degrees – all backed up by his strong record of keeping Washington families safe as attorney general.

2024 Wins Build on DGA Fundraising and Investments: 

Our wins this year protect our progress in the states and reaffirm the DGA’s winning playbook going back nearly a decade. In addition to supporting high-quality candidates who are focused on the biggest issues impacting people’s everyday lives, DGA’s ongoing, record-breaking fundraising allows us to communicate effectively about the stakes and contrast in each election.

In July, the DGA announced it had raised over $60 million, more than twice as much as the DGA raised by that time in 2020, the last comparable year.

That momentum has only grown as we continue to far outpace goals and precedent for our end-of-year fundraising total.

In fact, the DGA raised three times more from major donors across the country compared to 2020 and 60% of our grassroots digital donors were first-time supporters.

That allowed us to make the investments needed to win.

• In North Carolina, the DGA invested over $15 million this year, including early funds that helped allow the Stein campaign to define Mark Robinson early by holding him accountable for his extreme plans to ban abortion in all cases.
• In Washington, the DGA invested early with more than $1 million in the Washington Democratic Party, while Evergreen Values – a group backed by the DGA – invested $7 million to successfully define Reichert as too extreme on abortion rights. In October, Cook Political Report wrote that the “DGA’s relentless barrage of advertisements” and investments were the “biggest factor” in keeping Reichert from breaking through.

In addition to aggressive and strategic investments in paid communications, the DGA has built an experienced staff of campaign operatives that offers winning guidance and services to campaigns every step of the way.

The DGA helps our Democratic nominees hire talented staff, build tailored fundraising and digital programs and navigate both short-term and long-term messaging challenges – including an in-house research team to hold Republicans accountable. We’ve also built in-house creative teams that create compelling content that helps campaigns achieve their goals and reach voters where they are.

Overall, the fundraising that allowed the DGA to grow into a Democratic campaign powerhouse is the result of strong partnerships and deep engagement from Democratic governors, the growing national recognition that Democratic governors are leading on the top issues, and confidence in the DGA’s strategy and expertise that consistently delivers wins when it matters most.

Separately, as part of its nationwide program to promote policies that make life better for working families, America Works USA invested $15 million in North Carolina. Those efforts touted Stein’s record of battling the fentanyl crisis and clearing the rapekit backlog.

Democratic Governors Offer a Clear Path Forward: 

At a time when the Democratic party is looking for the path back to victory, Democratic governors continue to win by earning the trust of voters by meeting them where they are on their biggest everyday challenges.

Who your governor is has never mattered more – and with Republicans in control of the federal government, there will be even higher stakes and more resources necessary for the 38 gubernatorial elections in 2025 and 2026, including the hard work already underway to flip Virginia and hold New Jersey in 2025.

Using the lessons of the last eight years, the DGA is uniquely prepared to meet this moment. During Trump’s first year in the White House in 2017, Democratic governors only held 15 states. In the following three years, the DGA flipped nine states from red to blue, tripling the number of women Democratic governors and electing some of our party’s biggest stars.This time around, our country is fortunate to have even more Democratic governors and the DGA is ready to defend them and grow their ranks in the years to come.

Read the full memo online here.

###