Send Your Money Where it Matters

WeeklySenator.org is the first platform to allow sustaining donors the freedom to choose. Each week you will be presented with a candidate on Monday morning. You have until Thursday at 6pm to decide if you’d prefer to redirect your donation. If no action is taken, the donation will automatically be sent to the featured candidate.

If the candidate does not meet your requirements, you’ll have the option to redirect your donation to an alternative list of nonprofits: PIVOT, Color of Change, Planned Parenthood, Texas Blue Action Democrats and P.A.I.N.

Why and How?

The Problems: Democracy is in Trouble

1. Today, we are painfully aware that every Senate seat counts but it’s difficult for even the most dedicated Democratic donors to follow all 33 Senate races in any given election cycle. It’s even harder to know when and how to provide support.

2. Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama both proved that pooling small-dollar donations has a momentous impact on political campaigns. Unfortunately, few have been able to use this approach for Senate races because candidates lack the national profile needed to activate wide-ranging support.

3. A handful of powerful special-interest groups make sizable financial contributions to influence elections by which they are able to dictate self-serving legislation in exchange for their donations.

The Solution: 3 Easy Steps

1. Join WeeklySenator.org and pledge to donate at least $2 per week towards Senate races ($104 per year).

2. Review the candidates, one week at a time.

3. Approve your donation or reallocate to a nonprofit of your choice.

Who Do We Support?

During this crucial election cycle, WeeklySenator.org will showcase incumbent Democratic senators who are up for re-election as well as introduce top progressive candidates who are poised to win their state’s primaries and go on to take Republican seats (for examples of who we support please visit our archive). Once a state has completed their primary, Weeklysenator.org will add the winner to our rotation (if we haven’t already been featuring them). At that point and up until election day, our weekly schedule of candidates will include a mixture of primary winners as well as the incumbents who are most in danger of losing their seats. At the start of our cycle, we will feature every race and as we move toward the final phase gearing up to election day (November 8th, 2022) our rotation will include only the candidates with the best chances of winning.

Road to the 2022 Midterms

It’s clear that the new threshold for power is 60 votes. Even when Democrats control the House, Senate, and the White House, the filibuster can prevent the passage of progressive legislation. True success in the upcoming midterm elections looks like this: Democrats maintain all 14 of their seats which are up for re-election while adding ten more seats in the Senate. What may seem like a longshot could actually be possible because the numbers are in our favor: 20 Republican seats are vulnerable, five of them because senators are retiring. By starting early and staying focused we can end McConnell’s stifling abuse of the filibuster.

Business Model

When signing up, WeeklySenator.org members pledge to give a weekly donation of at least $2 per week ($104 per year). A 10% surcharge will be added to each donation. 5% of this charge will help fund WeeklySenator.org’s operational expenses. (An option for an additional tip allows you to help us guarantee that our work is sustainable.)

The other 5% of the surcharge plus $0.30 is allocated to Democracy Engine, LLC, for their services which include contribution processing (including credit card fees), distribution of donations to candidates and nonprofits, and providing candidates with the data they need for their campaign finance filings. (This data will not include email addresses or phone numbers.)

Who Are We?

WeeklySenator.org is brought to you by Downtown for Democracy (D4D), a political action committee founded by creative professionals including: artists, writers, editors, graphic designers, musicians, gallery owners, and publicists. Our mission is to transform cultural influence into political power. D4D was created in 2003 to fight against the re-election of George W. Bush and returned with the installation of Donald Trump. D4D fights for access to abortion, healthcare for all, protecting voter rights, an equitable economy, and ending systemic racism.

Founder/Executive Director

Michael Bullock is a New York-based writer, publisher, and organizer who was raised in Massachusetts. In 2003 he co-founded Downtown for Democracy. For the last 20 years Bullock has been an international fixture in the world of independent publishing, building new communities around genre-defining editorial projects including index magazine, BUTT, Fantastic Man, The Gentlewoman, Gagosian Quarterly, PIN–UP, and apartamento.

Editor

Dale Peck is a New York-based writer, editor, and educator who was raised in Kansas. He is the author of 14 books in a variety of genres, including fiction, criticism, and memoir. His writing has been published in more than 50 newspapers and magazines, including The Atlantic, Bookforum, Harper’s, and The New York Times. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Evergreen Review. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two O. Henry Awards, a Pushcart Prize, and a Lambda Literary Award. Peck is also a member of Downtown for Democracy’s board of advisors.

Legal

Federal Election Committee Compliance

All subscribers to WeeklySenator.org must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. Each weekly donation is a contribution by the donor to the candidate and counts against the donor’s $2,800 per election limit to each Senator. Donations to candidates through WeeklySenator.org are not tax deductible.

Privacy

WeeklySenator.org will never give out your personal information (phone number or email address) to a candidate or any third party.