ICYMI: A new report by The Washington Post’s Dan Merica on Monday highlights The States Project’s efforts to shine a spotlight on the power of state legislatures while the federal government is in turmoil due to President Trump’s chaotic leadership.
Topline: “The States Project, a Democratic-aligned organization that has spent $150 million…since 2017, say disarray at the federal level and Democrats disillusioned by the 2024 election could help downballot races in 2026.”
Reframing Efforts: “This is a moment where we are seeing Democrats at the national level feeling pretty despondent and directionless coming off of 2024 and Republicans causing chaos at the federal level,” said Mandara Meyers, Executive Director of the States Project. “So what we are offering to donors is, the work in state legislatures matters…part of the challenge is getting people to focus on state legislative races in years when there are other things on the top of the ballot taking more attention and more focus.”
Want to learn more? Read an excerpt of the story below (or the full text here). For additional media inquiries, please contact press@statesproject.org.
Analysis by Dan Merica, Matthew Choi and Jacob Bogage
“The States Project’s argument highlights how Democrats will seek to use a lack of coherent action in Washington to invigorate Democrats and spur donations at the state level.
The group’s success matters to Democrats. The States Project was a significant spender in downballot races in 2024, pouring $70 million…with a particular focus on the House in Pennsylvania and Michigan and both the Senate and the House in Arizona. Meyers declined to detail how much it planned to spend in 2026 but said the group hopes to increase its spending this cycle.
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The States Project is still determining which states it intends to target with its considerable resources, but Meyers said the group is looking at Michigan, where Democrats lost the state House in 2024; Pennsylvania, where Democrats are protecting a one-vote margin in the House; Arizona, where Republicans control both chambers; North Carolina, where the party is working to deny Republicans a supermajority in the General Assembly; and Wisconsin, where Democrats believe they have a shot at a majority in both chambers. That group overlaps with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee’s target list, which includes Alaska and Minnesota.
Meyers and the group say they have the data needed to streamline campaigns that are tiny compared with their federal counterparts, through efforts like running broadcast ads in key markets, offering ad testing to ensure messages are resonating with voters and helping draw attention at a time when much of the political news environment is focused on federal politics.That could be particularly necessary in 2026, when the map of competitive state legislative races overlaps significantly with states that will hold key gubernatorial and congressional contests.
‘Part of the challenge is getting people to focus on state legislative races in years when there are other things on the top of the ballot taking more attention and more focus,’ Meyers said. ‘That is a big part of our work.'”
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About The States Project
The States Project connects the importance of state legislatures to every aspect of our lives and brings together communities to help build a healthy, sustainable, and prosperous future for all. Our electoral work focuses on winning governing majorities in the states by making state legislative campaigns more effective and better funded. We do it because we believe that state legislatures are the strongest force for change in this country.
