In addition to being my wife’s birthday, it’s the end of the first quarter and the time when political campaigns file their quarterly fundraising reports with the FEC. The clock is ticking so I will start at the end:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dylanmckennaforcongress

When I make my fundraising calls, of which I have made about 1,500, it’s important that I make a specific ask (I know, I hate using that word as a noun but that’s what they call it) based on factors like past donations, estimated net worth, etc. For some calls the ask is $200, for some it’s $3,500.

That’s obviously impossible here, so my ask is that you assess your desire to see Trump constrained and MAGA sidelined and give in proportion to that desire. Many of you have already donated and I am so grateful for your generosity. But, in addition to “ask” as a noun, another word has been forced into my vocabulary and that’s “resolicit”, which is part of what’s happening here. I wouldn't be asking if I didn't believe that this is incredibly important. My representative is Victoria Spartz, a particularly unpopular and servile Trumpist who simply refuses to perform her constitutional duties. She has surrendered the power of her office to Trump. I want to reclaim that power for the voters of my district.

So, back to the beginning. The Q1 deadline is important for two reasons. First, it takes a lot of money to do this. Primary campaigns are still mostly run in mailboxes, and it costs about $20k per mailer to reach each of the ~30,000 expected primary voters in my district. As of this moment, 98% of the money I’ve raised is unspent. That changes this week when my first mail piece goes out. I will do between six and eight of these mailers, depending on how much I can raise. Each phase boosts my chance of winning.

The second reason is that the Q1 number is the first public statement of a candidate’s viability. The bigger the number, the more seriously outside groups like the DCCC and various PACs take you. My media consultant is a former Director of the DCCC, which means we can make some noise if we have something to make noise about.

It’s been ten weeks since I decided to do this, and it feels like it’s been ten hours. Time is flying. I’ve been putting about 40 hours a week into the campaign, in addition to my day job. I don’t bring that up for sympathy, but to let you know how seriously I am taking this whole thing. It's been a ton of work, but it's been very gratifying. I've enjoyed it a lot.

I’ll leave it there for now. If you have any questions about the campaign and how we intend to compete, you can reach me at dylan@mckenna4congress.com.

Go Irish

Dylan