Arkansas Democrats cite direct voter contact, funding from national party as keys to small gains

Democratic Party of Arkansas leaders partly attribute their few successes in this month’s elections, specifically in the state House of Representatives, to a cash infusion from the national party.

The state party applied for and received a $59,500 State Party Innovation Fund (SPIF) grant from the Democratic National Committee “to hire staff who would coordinate volunteers and organize direct voter contact in targeted areas,” the party wrote in response to a list of questions from the Advocate. The party also was able to pay off some debt thanks to DNC funding and regular donors, leaving more room to invest in electioneering.

“Three years ago, it was grim,” party chairman Grant Tennille said Friday. “We were broke, and we rebuilt the thing piece by piece by piece. We saw this time some of the impact of all of that hard work. We spent more than [we did] in 2022 to support our candidates, we defended three seats that [Republicans] were absolutely positive they were going to take from us, and we won one.”

The DNC’s SPIF program is aimed specifically at state-level organizing efforts to get Democrats elected to state and federal offices. The Democratic Party of Arkansas received the funds Sept. 25, according to its third-quarter report to the Secretary of State’s office.


https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/11/25/arkansas-democrats-cite-direct-voter-contact-funding-from-national-party-as-keys-to-small-gains/