Annapolis, MD—Ten weeks from election day, Maryland Democrats have more than 30 paid organizers on the ground—twice as many as the total organizers hired by the 2014 coordinated campaign—with plans to hire at least 30 additional organizers after Labor Day.
Funding this unprecedented investment in grassroots organizing, the Maryland Democratic Party today announced that it has $1.6 million cash on hand. For the filing period between June 11 and August 21, the party raised $770,000 between its federal and state accounts. This is the party’s largest ever reported cash on hand in August. At this same point in 2014, the party had $1.1 million cash on hand; the party had $1.3 million in 2010 and less than $900,000 in 2006.
“While Larry Hogan and Maryland Republicans struggle to communicate a vision for the future, Democrats have the resources, the organization, and the message we need to drive record turnout in the November,” said Maryland Democratic Party chair Kathleen Matthews. “Democrats are confident that we will be able to turn out the votes we need to defeat Hogan, expand our supermajority in the legislature, and flip down-ballot seats red to blue.”
This commitment will capitalize on Democratic intensity in 2018. More than 30 percent of voters in the June 2018 Democratic primary voted in 2016, but did not vote in 2014. The party is projecting a 20 percent increase in the general election as a result of an energized Democratic base. The party had already started an active voter contact operation in all 24 jurisdictions ahead of the June primary and has a volunteer list of over 6,000 active Democrats across all 24 jurisdictions. The party’s coordinated campaign has already made 50,000 voter contacts statewide, opened 13 offices across the state, and will be announcing office opening events in the coming days.