Turning State Legislatures Blue. Democratic Perspective co-hosts Steve Williamson and Klaus von Stutterheim welcome Natalie Burdick co-chair for the Sister District Project in San Francisco. She begins by explaining that Sister District was started by five women, mostly as a therapy session after the 2016 election results. According to Burdick, “They began by asking themselves why, if Democrats are the majority in the nation, they don’t have the majority of representation? Democrats didn’t have the White House, the Senate, the House or even the majority of state legislatures. So they set out to correct that.”
From that humble beginning, Sister District became a national organization within 3 years. A website was put up, they emailed all of their friends and, as a result, the organization now numbers more than 45,000 volunteers. “Our model is all about focusing on down-ballot offices such as state legislatures. We realized most problems started at the state legislative level,” says Burdick.
She points to Virginia as an example of the group’s efforts, which Democrats were able to turn blue in 2019.
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