Two New Mexico political groups are using opposite tactics to reach a common goal—elect Democrats. While the West Side Democrats in Albuquerque focuses on personal activism, Blue CD2 New Mexico uses data and remote messaging techniques to reach new voters. Both groups say their specific methods are helping win elections.
The West Side group is led by Dorothy Wilkinson. She spent 28 years teaching in Gallup before retiring to Albuquerque, where she had planned to take it easy. “But 2016 happened,” she said. Her return to activism was a natural extension of her involvement in collective bargaining in Gallup.
The West Side includes the chunk of Bernalillo County west of the Rio Grande and is one of Albuquerque’s fastest growing areas with a 2020 population of 132,500. The West Side falls under Congressional District 1, but due to recent redistricting, a rectangle-sized portion of the area is now in CD 2.
Wilkinson said the group regained its momentum after the pandemic, thanks to volunteers who made phone calls inviting people to meetings. Traditional methods like phone banking and door-to-door canvassing in the run-up to the 2022 midterms paid off. In what Wilkinson called “people working for people,” volunteers logged thousands of hours by Election Day.
“While our goal is to get Democrats elected, we also want to create a space where like-minded Democrats can work together,” she said, citing how their efforts in 2023 helped win a West Side seat on the school board. “We worked with the (Albuquerque) Teachers Federation to keep Moms for Liberty out of the district,” she said, referring to a group known for book bans. In the final tally, their candidate Ronaldo Tome-Warito defeated the long-time incumbent by 200 votes.
In 2021 Rochelle Williams, founder and co-chair of Blue CD2, was back in her Tularosa hometown after retiring from a business career in Albuquerque. However, she soon grew frustrated with the Republican hold in area politics. After reading ViAnn Beadle’s analysis of voter registration and turnout in the district, she thought, why can’t we use these numbers to turn the district blue? “It was my aha moment,” she said. She and Beadle, chair of Indivisible Las Cruces, invited people to a Zoom meeting to gauge interest in taking on the challenge. By the third meeting, the group voted to organize. From then on, she said, “We were running flat out, hair on fire.”
District 2 is huge, taking up nearly half the state, from Zuni Pueblo on the north to the Mexican border on the south. With a couple of exceptions, Republicans have consistently held the district’s congressional seat.
Williams said because they used data to drive their decisions, the group tended to attract volunteers with backgrounds in research and data collection. Blue CD2’s decision to operate remotely followed the successful practices of national organizations such as Field Team 6 and Sisters United Alliance.
Using specific data and in-depth marketing research, Blue CD2’s messaging team created snappy content (including a blue donkey in aviator glasses) for postcards, billboards, social media, and ads. In 2022, their 300-member post card team wrote 20,000 postcards to young, mostly Hispanic, low-turnout voters reminding them to vote. Their efforts helped bring in 6,783 new voters. “Gabe (Vasquez) won by 1,346 votes,” she said. Congressman Vasquez is up for re-election in 2024.
Number crunching also extends to fund-raising. Now a registered federal PAC, the group has sponsored successful Zoom fundraisers like the popular “Virtual House Party” and Zoom meetings featuring “celebrity” panelists, such as political columnist Simon Rosenberg and Reed Galen of the Lincoln Project. By November 2024, Williams said they want to bring in 12,000 new voters—and they intend to raise $250,000 to do it.
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Two New Mexico political groups are using opposite tactics to reach a common goal—elect Democrats. While the West Side Democrats in Albuquerque focuses on personal activism, Blue CD2 New Mexico uses data and remote messaging techniques to reach new voters. Both groups say their specific methods are helping win elections.
The West Side group is led by Dorothy Wilkinson. She spent 28 years teaching in Gallup before retiring to Albuquerque, where she had planned to take it easy. “But 2016 happened,” she said. Her return to activism was a natural extension of her involvement in collective bargaining in Gallup.
The West Side includes the chunk of Bernalillo County west of the Rio Grande and is one of Albuquerque’s fastest growing areas with a 2020 population of 132,500. The West Side falls under Congressional District 1, but due to recent redistricting, a rectangle-sized portion of the area is now in CD 2.
Wilkinson said the group regained its momentum after the pandemic, thanks to volunteers who made phone calls inviting people to meetings. Traditional methods like phone banking and door-to-door canvassing in the run-up to the 2022 midterms paid off. In what Wilkinson called “people working for people,” volunteers logged thousands of hours by Election Day.
“While our goal is to get Democrats elected, we also want to create a space where like-minded Democrats can work together,” she said, citing how their efforts in 2023 helped win a West Side seat on the school board. “We worked with the (Albuquerque) Teachers Federation to keep Moms for Liberty out of the district,” she said, referring to a group known for book bans. In the final tally, their candidate Ronaldo Tome-Warito defeated the long-time incumbent by 200 votes.
In 2021 Rochelle Williams, founder and co-chair of Blue CD2, was back in her Tularosa hometown after retiring from a business career in Albuquerque. However, she soon grew frustrated with the Republican hold in area politics. After reading ViAnn Beadle’s analysis of voter registration and turnout in the district, she thought, why can’t we use these numbers to turn the district blue? “It was my aha moment,” she said. She and Beadle, chair of Indivisible Las Cruces, invited people to a Zoom meeting to gauge interest in taking on the challenge. By the third meeting, the group voted to organize. From then on, she said, “We were running flat out, hair on fire.”
District 2 is huge, taking up nearly half the state, from Zuni Pueblo on the north to the Mexican border on the south. With a couple of exceptions, Republicans have consistently held the district’s congressional seat.
Williams said because they used data to drive their decisions, the group tended to attract volunteers with backgrounds in research and data collection. Blue CD2’s decision to operate remotely followed the successful practices of national organizations such as Field Team 6 and Sisters United Alliance.
Using specific data and in-depth marketing research, Blue CD2’s messaging team created snappy content (including a blue donkey in aviator glasses) for postcards, billboards, social media, and ads. In 2022, their 300-member post card team wrote 20,000 postcards to young, mostly Hispanic, low-turnout voters reminding them to vote. Their efforts helped bring in 6,783 new voters. “Gabe (Vasquez) won by 1,346 votes,” she said. Congressman Vasquez is up for re-election in 2024.
Number crunching also extends to fund-raising. Now a registered federal PAC, the group has sponsored successful Zoom fundraisers like the popular “Virtual House Party” and Zoom meetings featuring “celebrity” panelists, such as political columnist Simon Rosenberg and Reed Galen of the Lincoln Project. By November 2024, Williams said they want to bring in 12,000 new voters—and they intend to raise $250,000 to do it.