User:Polwritesom/sandbox

Sister District Project is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 that targets candidates in swing districts to help establish or sustain Democratic control of state legislatures.

SDP organizes people in strongly held Democratic districts to volunteer and send resources to districts in other states -- sister districts -- to end partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression.

As of May 2019, SDP had cumulatively raised more than $1.1 million for 50 candidates and organized more than 40,000 volunteers nationwide. The group backed 14 candidates in 2017, 24 candidates in 2018, and 11 in the first wave of 2019. SDP-backed candidate and former Army captain Pam Iovino won a Pennsylvania state senate seat in an April special election.

SDP’s overall success rate — candidates supported who won — is 66%. In 2018, 92% of SDP candidates received more votes than the Democrat running in the last election cycle.

According to its website, SDP supports races to: 1) flip a chamber blue, 2) keep a chamber in Democratic control, or (3) make inroads in a state identified as extensively gerrymandered before the 2020 Census.

SDP candidates are pro-choice, favor gun control, want to combat climate change, and support other progressive causes. SDP targets candidates who are first-time candidates, under age 40, or traditionally underrepresented, such as women, people of color, and people identifying as LGBTQ.

In 2017, SDP supported journalist Danica Roem, the first transgendered person to win a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. According to a summary report, SDP supported 32 races, documented 38,235 volunteer hours, and raised $763,443 in 2018. Public defender Rita Bosworth conceived of SDP and co-founded the group in San Francisco with lawyer Gaby Goldstein, Lyzz Schwegler, and Lala Wu after the 2016 Presidential election. SDP volunteers are organized into state or regional teams. California (15) and Illinois (7) have the most teams per state. SDP established Sister District Action Network, a 501(c) 4 group, to pursue civic engagement efforts, such as voter registration drives, not tied to specific elections.

SDP has partnerships on the national and local levels with multiple progressive organizations including MoveOn, Swing Left, Flippable, EMILY’s List, and Emerge.