Tuesday’s election delivered an overwhelming and historic victory for Elizabeth Velasco in the Democratic primary for House District 57. It also served to validate the visionary and important work we’ve been doing in the central-mountain region for the last 18 months. As of this morning, Elizabeth had secured 64% of the vote, compared to almost 36% for Cole Burger. She earned the support of Democrats in all three counties that make up the district by the same margin. That remarkable victory is even more impressive when you consider she is the first Latina nominee for either major political party in this region. If Elizabeth wins the general election in November, she will be the first elected Latina from the Western Slope to serve in the State Legislature. That is progress. And that is what we were founded to do. Elizabeth’s victory serves as a model for how the Latino community can not only turn out to vote, but build issues-based coalitions across ethnic/racial lines to elect qualified leaders who will represent the entire community. Voces Unidas Action Fund endorsed Elizabeth early in the race as our top strategic priority in the June primary election and executed an intensive, unprecedented campaign across the district’s three counties to help secure her victory. Since the start of the campaign, the Action Fund has invested more than $120,000 in base-building work, training future candidates and directly engaging Latino and all other progressive voters in House District 57. This includes raising more than $80,000 for Voces Unidas Victory Fund, an independent expenditure committee, to support local races, especially House District 57. In Elizabeth's race, the Victory Fund reached close to 25,000 voters in various forms, including the following:
Several mail pieces, mailed to 14,905 voters across 12,814 households
23,899 text messages sent and received with almost 10,000 voters
Almost 90,000 phone calls and 29,986 conversations with 16,856 voters
656,802 digital impressions directed at 25,000 voters
Thanks to donors to the Action Fund, the first $50 of all eligible donations went to Voces Unidas Small Donor Committee, which made a direct financial contribution to Elizabeth’s campaign.
This multi-layered setup -- from the Action Fund, to our Small Donor Committee, to the Victory Fund -- is critical toward our ability to achieve our policy goals and deliver on our mission to build and grow our community's political power in the central-mountain region.
We know Elizabeth will be a strong candidate in the General Election, in a now left-leaning district. The Action Fund looks forward to continuing to support her and all of our endorsed champions as we work toward more winning elections in November
Thank you for voting in this election, for donating to Voces Unidas and for your continued support of our work.
Alex Sánchez is President and CEO of Voces Unidas Action Fund.
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