Latest poll out of South Dakota is showing what everyone else is showing—a three-way tossup. In this case, it’s Mike Rounds (R) 37, Rick Weiland (D) 33, Larry Pressler (I) 23. Republicans last week were pretending to be unconcerned about the race, then they dropped $1M into the race. So yeah, very concerned.
And they should be. We win this race, the GOP’s path to 51 in the Senate takes a serious hit. And the fact we can engage with a true prairie populist progressive like Weiland means we can jump in without making any compromises. This is a race we can all feel proud to engage.
This race will be decided by hundreds of votes, and like North Dakota last cycle, it will likely come down to voter turnout in the Native-American community. That’s why we’ve been raising money for a GOTV effort in the reservations, hoping to raise $50,000 toward its $200,000 budget. Well, it’s only been a few days, but we’ve already pretty much met our original goal: 3,954 of you (as I write this) have given $49,798. Who will be the person to get us to $50K? And how about we shoot for $75K?
Overall, between Rez GOTV and Rick Weiland, 5,110 of you guys have given $126,230 toward our South Dakota efforts. And that’s in what, four days?
No need to let up now. There’s a lot of outside money flooding into South Dakota airwaves these last few weeks, millions of dollars in attack ads that will muddy the water and aggravate people. Our job is to give Rick Weiland extra funds that he can use to work his message and to fund GOTV efforts in the reservations that I’m betting will provide the margin of victory.
Feels good, doesn’t it? So no need to let up. There are still lots of you who haven’t gotten around to donating to any campaign yet. If you don’t have any targets, this one is a pretty good one. So give as little as $3 to make a big difference. With thousands of us giving, it adds up.
This election will be won by the most engaged side. Let’s make sure that’s us.
