I am one of many Democrats who has called Black voters the backbone of our party.
But how can we keep calling them our backbone while treating Southern states with the highest Black populations like political lost causes? After this year’s elections, Democrats need to ask themselves that question.
In my beloved South Carolina, Black voters helped Annie Andrews decisively win a U.S. Senate seat. They were mostly responsible for Scott Colom, a Black man, narrowly winning a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi. In Louisiana, Black voters got Black farmer Jamie Davis so close to winning that he nearly pulled off an upset in the U.S. Senate race. And despite being dramatically outspent, my friend Jermaine Johnson came within 5 points of becoming South Carolina’s first Black governor.
I chaired the Democratic National Committee. I’ve made tough budget decisions. But I’ve also learned something: Time is often a lot more valuable than money.
Now imagine what might have happened if we’d invested earlier.
Before somebody starts yelling that money doesn’t grow on trees, I know. I chaired the Democratic National Committee. I’ve made tough budget decisions. But I’ve also learned something: Time is often a lot more valuable than money.
I launched my Senate campaign against Lindsey Graham in February 2019. We eventually raised more than $130 million and earned nearly 1.1 million votes out of 2.4 million cast — the most votes any Democratic candidate has ever received in South Carolina. But it wasn’t until September 2020 that meaningful support arrived from the Democrats’ national Senate campaign apparatus.
That was 19 months when we could have been organizing communities, recruiting volunteers and building infrastructure. You can raise money in October. You can’t buy back February. And if you want to understand why Southern Democrats are frustrated, follow the money. This cycle, Senate Majority PAC and its affiliates spent $150 million in Ohio, $67 million each in Iowa and Michigan and $65 million in Maine. Meanwhile, Mississippi received $2.2 million and South Carolina got $750,000.
Granted, those investments helped Democrats win. I’m not arguing otherwise. But look at what Andrews and Colom pulled off with only a fraction of the support the swing states received. Surely a portion of those hundreds of millions of dollars could have been invested earlier to expand the map.
We’ve seen what serious Southern investment can accomplish with wins from Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in Georgia and Sen.-elect Roy Cooper’s well-resourced operation in North Carolina. But we cannot keep treating those successes as exceptions. I used to tell people at the DNC that we’re not just Democrats on Election Day. We have to show our values every day of every year. Well, it’s time for the Democratic committees to wake up and realize that Democrats do not just live in swing states. We’re in every part of the country. In fact, we should redefine what it really means to be a swing state. We cannot flip seats unless we seriously compete for every election. And just because we lose one cycle doesn’t mean we should write off the seat or let the next cycle’s candidate start from scratch. We have to play the long game.
The bottom line is that Florida needs more voter registration and education efforts and, as a big and diverse state, the state party needs more outside support and resources.
Democrats must increase our investments in Florida. In years past, Florida was considered the consummate battleground swing state, and this year it showed signs of returning to its roots. Democrats flipped 17 state house races from red to blue, held onto four of the congressional seats gerrymandered by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Senate candidate Angie Nixon and gubernatorial candidate David Jolly came within 3 points of major upsets in their respective races. The bottom line is that Florida needs more voter registration and education efforts and, as a big and diverse state, the state party needs more outside support and resources.
Here’s something else worth considering: instead of two-year terms, let’s try four-year terms for the chairs of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Governors Association. And why not consider former senators and governors for those positions, alongside current officeholders? Building a party takes longer than an election cycle. We need leaders developing candidates and infrastructure for the next four years, not just the next four months.
Look at the DNC. Under Tom Perez, during my chairmanship and now under Ken Martin, we have invested in state parties, including across the South. Ken and I created the Red State Fund during my tenure, and he deserves credit for continuing that work and making historic investments in state parties.
But the DNC can’t do it alone. The DSCC, DGA, major donors, super PACs and allied organizations have to step up. Some already have. Florida philanthropist Steve Pajcic and his family committed millions to supporting Democratic Senate candidates in overlooked states, including South Carolina and Mississippi. I applaud that. But imagine if more donors had made those commitments a year or two earlier.
I’ve tried to do my part. Through my Dirt Road Democrats PAC, personal contributions and other efforts, I’ve directed more than $300,000 toward supporting South Carolina Democrats this cycle. I’ve also helped recruit candidates, prepare them for debates and strengthen their campaigns. If we believe in rebuilding the South, we have to put some skin in the game.
So where does the money come from?
Maybe we spend a little less flooding expensive TV markets with ads in the final weeks of an election. Maybe we dedicate more to permanent field operations, voter registration and recruiting candidates before they’re household names. And maybe we stop measuring every investment by whether somebody wins that November.
I helped lead an effort this year to recruit a Democratic candidate for every legislative, congressional and statewide race in South Carolina. We didn’t do that because we thought everybody would win, but because we had to start somewhere. Republicans didn’t build their Southern dominance overnight. They organized, recruited, invested and kept showing up. For decades.
Democrats must stop treating investment in the South like charity. Millions of Black voters, young people, rural families and working folks deserve to have their votes taken seriously. They shouldn’t have to live in Georgia or North Carolina to matter.
Since leaving the DNC, I’ve made it my mission to reverse the Southern Strategy associated with another South Carolinian, Lee Atwater, and rebuild Democratic strength across the South. I’ve spent enough time on the losing side of elections to know success won’t be easy. But I’ve never believed our winning in South Carolina or the South was a lost cause. And I’m certainly not starting now.
The lesson of 2026 isn’t simply that Democrats should spend more money in the South. It’s that we need to show up earlier, stay longer and stop giving up before the fight even begins. Because you can’t win a place you’ve already decided isn’t worth fighting for.
The post It’s obvious Democrats should invest more in the South. Here’s how we do it. appeared first on MS NOW.
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