“How do we win the balance of power?”
Swing Left focuses its work through this singular lens. Yasmin Radjy, Executive Director of Swing Left, joins Jen to talk people-focused voter mobilization strategies ahead of the midterms. Radjy discusses what Swing Left is doing to help win some of the most competitive races in the country. She also explains the organization’s focus on channeling volunteer time and resources to win a majority.
Explaining the launch of the Big Swing Challenge, Radjy underscores that knocking on doors and listening to individual voters’ perspectives is the key to effective outreach.
Yasmin Radjy is the Exectuve Director of Swing Left. She previously served as Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the Biden-Harris administration.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of The Contrarian. I’m delighted to have back Yasmin Radjy. She is the head of Swing Left. Welcome back, Yasmin, great to see you!
Yasmin Radjy
Jen, it is so great to see you! Happy GOTV season!
Jen Rubin
There we go. Tell us, what is Swing Left?
Yasmin Radjy
Swing Left is an organization that was founded in 2017 on the eve of Donald Trump’s first inauguration, and we have a very simple mission, which is to help volunteers and donors from all around the country channel their time and their money to the most competitive races and the highest impact actions to win majorities. There’s all sorts of organizations that help people on their civic journey, but our singular lens is how do we win the balance of power? And ever since we were founded in 2017, our grassroots community has raised $140 million directly to the most competitive democratic races. And we’ve also done 50 million voter contacts, and so I think just a testament to the scale of our million members, and growing that really want to win above all else.
Jen Rubin
Now, what I love is how strategic you are. You guys look at House races, you look at Senate races, and then you look at state races, and you break those down into must flip, or must hold, reach, and then reach races. What is happening on the House side? Give us the big picture, and then I want to talk about a recent visit you did to a very important district. But give us the big picture. What’s going on in the House landscape?
Yasmin Radjy
Great things are going on in the house landscape. We… I think the last time we talked, we had about half the number of targets that we do now for the house. We have 57 house targets. We might even add a few more. And the reason for that, as you well know, is… you know, the wind is blowing in our favor. What we are seeing from this administration, and what we are seeing from all of the House candidates on the Republican side that are just deferring to whatever Donald Trump says. is so vastly out of touch with where voters are that we’re seeing a more competitive House landscape than we’ve seen in years and years. And so, as you described, the must-hold and must-flip districts We moved a lot of really tough-reach districts into that must-flip category as a sign of just how much things are shifting in our favor. And then the retraces that we’ve added on. I mean, these are… we’ve got some house districts in Texas, we’ve got, you know, in some really, really red areas that we think we’ve got a shot in, and part of our orientation as we decide, you know, how are we updating these races, how do we look at the numbers. is also, where are the places where we can win if we do all the right work, if the winds continue blowing in the right direction, and… Where are the places where even if we don’t win, we need to be invested now? Because those House races now, if we don’t start investing in building up our grassroots capacity in Texas House races and so on and so forth. We’re just not going to be able to be competitive for the long haul, and so some of our work is the now, and some of it is the… it will still… the flowers may not bloom for a few more years, but we’ve got to try now.
Jen Rubin
I want to get into some of the specifics, but I want to ask a broader question about red districts. What are the issues that people are telling your volunteers are moving them in Democrats’ direction?
Yasmin Radjy
You know, what’s so interesting is, in the purplish districts all the way to the reddest districts, with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, all across the spectrum, the number one thing that we hear from folks over and over is a deep worry that the system is broken, a feeling that both parties suck, and that there’s not a lot of hope for change. We hear that even from people who say they’re 10 out of 10 voting for Democrats, right? We hear that just as much from people who say they voted for Trump and they’re having buyer’s remorse. And those folks, you know, sometimes in the beginning of our conversations with them, they’re kind of confused why we want their perspective. They’ll be like, are you sure you’re at the right house? I voted for Trump. And what we’re finding is, it’s not just that the system is broken, it is that they blame Trump for the deep pains that they are going through. High gas prices, we are not bringing up that Donald Trump is to blame. They are saying, you know, just this past weekend in Temecula, in California’s 48th congressional district, there was a voter who said, he had, he was a Latino voter in his, I think it was in his mid-30s. And he said he was a 92.9 on our Democratic score, but he voted for Trump in 2024, and he said he voted for him because he wanted an America First President. That’s what motivated him. He said, Donald Trump is not an America’s first president. He has supported a war with Iran and all kinds of international conflicts, and my gas prices are through the roof, right? He is bringing that up, and he said he regrets his choice. And what we’re finding is, it’s not like all of a sudden he is now, you know, flying the Democratic flag from his house. He has, you know, he’s a tough-on-border guy, he’s not, you know, super… he’s very open to voting for a Democrat, but he needs some help with the sort of, like, journey of, is that something that’s right for him? And so what we’re finding is. real openness to the kinds of persuasion conversations that are gonna move voters like him, but we’re also finding that that takes time, right? That takes energy, and the more that we do that, the more opportunity there is, even with really, really red voters, and really, really red districts.
Jen Rubin
So let’s talk about the 48th. That’s a Republican-held seat, so that would be a pickup. Tell me about the visit you had, what you’re hearing on the ground.
Yasmin Radjy
Yeah, so this is, I think a great example of 2025 feels It was, like, years and years ago by this point, but in 2025, I think we all remember that California was the leader in our fight, our defensive fight, on redistricting. And so, you know, our… the Democratic coalition there made sure that we had the opportunity to redraw lines in a way that could lead to some pickup opportunities. California’s 48th District is one of those new seats, so this was technically the seat that the horrific, sort of ghoulish Republican Daryl Issa, who swing left had been targeting for years and years and never was able to defeat. he got so freaked out by the new lines, and by just how tough this seat is gonna be for him to win, that he retired. He’s, now he’s enjoying his, the early retirement. And what we have in the Democratic side is an amazing candidate named Marnie von Wilbert, and the district, in its new configuration, would have been won by Kamala Harris by 2 points. And previously, it would have been, you know, as a Republican district that didn’t support Kamala. So structurally, we’ve got everything going for us. Candidate-wise, we have an amazing, you know, former prosecutor, first LGBTQ woman on the San Diego City Council. She helped flip that, really, really, competitive city council seat. Got the candidate, but the question is, are we gonna take that all for granted, and let the winds blow as they blow, and maybe they’ll blow in our favor or not, or are we gonna do the work? And I think what we found this weekend, going out with, you know, several dozen volunteers, and also the actor Adam Brody, came out with us as well. And we knocked on doors, it was about 100 degrees, I have rarely sweated so much during a canvas, and Adam Brody knocked for 3 hours with us and all the volunteers, and what we found afterwards was, you know, we had some really tough conversations with a lot of Republican voters, a lot of undecided voters, but the commitment of volunteers to not take for granted, even, you know, a district that’s been structurally moved in our favor, to not take anything for granted because of how much is on the line, and spending those 3 hours on yet another Saturday… Because they’re going out over and over and over. We were in Temecula, California. That to me is what’s giving me so much hope, is volunteers don’t need to be told how much is on the line, they’re just saying, what’s the most impactful thing I can do, and where do I sign up?
Jen Rubin
I’m going to switch to the Senate races. You have some reaches on there that are really pretty impressive, including Mississippi. Tell us about Mississippi.
Yasmin Radjy
You know, I think my two favorite reach races of the cycle are Mississippi and Kansas, and, you know, I mean, I think the truth is. Mississippi is a state where, as you well know, you know, this is a state where it’s not that there aren’t Democrats there, it’s that we have a highly disenfranchised, primarily African-American voting population that we need to not just say. Hey guys, there’s an election coming up, we need to make the case. for what is on the line, how is turning out and voting for, you know, the Democrat Scott Colombe. What is that going to do materially to improve your lives? And I think Mississippi is a perfect example of something that we see all across the country, which is we categorize, it’s a… it’s a sort of… we categorize voters in what we call narrative clusters. And one of those narrative clusters is. people who are so disillusioned with the system, and who’ve not seen the system work for so long, that it’s not about Democrat versus Republican, it is, we’ve got to make a pretty clear case for why voting at all is worth it. And I think Mississippi is a perfect example of that, and it’s not just You know, disillusioned voters, that we need to convince to vote. There are also… Republicans are struggling right now, including in Mississippi, and Mississippi ranks top in the country for so many variables around economic hardship, around lack of job opportunities, around schooling, and, you know, I think we’re just in a moment where it feels like our national tectonic plates are shifting, and it’s just not clear in which direction. And in a plan… a place like Mississippi, the math will… if we do the work of persuading voters, turning out voters, and also, fundamentally, working on building trust. So if we don’t win this race, which we think we can, but if we don’t, if we come short. We shouldn’t just have what we built be, you know, a house of sand that disappears. We’ve got to start being competitive in places like Mississippi, and we can, the math maths, but that means having real conversations with people where we’re not just saying, hey, you need to vote for the Democrat, but saying. How do you feel about the direction of our country? What are the pressures on you and your family? And really listen, and follow up, and help people. And again, that goes far beyond Mississippi, but it is why I feel really hopeful about the electoral possibilities if we start going deeper, and if we focus on, again, the fundamentals of rebuilding trust before we ask people for their vote.
Jen Rubin
And we at the Contrarian know a lot about Kansas. I have spoken with Adam Hamilton. A Methodist preacher, phenomenal candidate. He is tied or ahead in some polls in Kansas, folks. In our remaining time, I want to switch gears to your state races. When you go down the list, and there are a whole bunch of them, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Nevada, North Carolina, some of these you are looking to break up. a trifecta that the Republicans have. In others, you’re trying to gain a trifecta. Why are these state races so important?
Yasmin Radjy
For so many reasons, and I can’t emphasize enough, first and foremost, so many of the things that voters bring up as the pressures on them and their family are decisions that are made by, excuse me, by state lawmakers, right? And so, there is not just a protective layer of when we have democratic power in a state, what we can do to materially impact people’s lives, but also the defensive layer of this, of if you’ve got Trump, and God forbid. he has a Republican House and a Republican Senate, as we currently have, right? In a Republican state, there is no filter for the damage to impact people’s lives, whereas there can be some imperfect, but some protective layers at the state level. So that’s one really, really important piece of it, which is, ultimately, politics is about making sure that people’s lives are better, and states are, you know, ground zero for that. The second piece of that, and I think this is really important with an eye towards 2028, is we all know, and I know, you know, you talk a lot with your listeners about this. Trump is not gonna mess around when it comes to power in 2028, right? I think he knows he’s gonna lose the midterms, you know, God willing, he doesn’t start doing some weird, funny business. But I think all bets are off when it comes to 2028, and whether it’s election interference, particularly if there’s close elections, and we need to make sure that we have… you know, positions of power who are going to ensure there are free and fair elections. That’s why, you know, years ago, you and I talked about the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the first time as a, we need to have, you know, a fair court there, because Wisconsin is always going to be such an important battleground state. But it is also, if you have a Republican MAGA governor. with a Republican supermajority in a state, I mean, if they’ll… election comes down to really state, God help all of us, right? Like, these are not… these are not free and independent thinkers in the Republican Party. So I think from a democracy, electoral integrity standpoint. Even for folks who are investing, you know, whatever grassroots dollars they have in federal races, we’re encouraging all of them to also support the key levers of power at the state level, and we make that easy. We’ve got a fund. Our Media Impact Fund on our website, if folks go to swingleft.org, and there, they, in their one donation, they can give to not just the most competitive federal races, but to the most important state races with that lens of the national balance of power, and they can read more about all of that, of course, at swingleft.org slash states.
Jen Rubin
So, if you want to give money, or more importantly, if you want to go out and knock on a neighbor’s door, you want to convince people, you want to make sure people are voting, what do you do?
Yasmin Radjy
Folks can go to swingleft.org, we have, just today, we launched something called the Big Swing Challenge, so if anybody has not volunteered before, or they like accountability, I feel like I need accountability for being able to convince myself to go to the gym and whatever, whatever else it might be, folks can sign up for that, and we will bring them on the journey of now through, what are we at, 43 days before the election? And, you know, I think the most important thing that I want to make sure that your listeners know, for anyone who’s not a, you know, not a seasoned volunteer, is sometimes taking that first step of signing up can actually be really overwhelming. It took me 3… 3 years to convince my dad to do a canvas. It took 3 years of, you know, kind of walking through what that might look like, and what that might feel like, and the logistics. It’s a courageous step, and I think what volunteers often don’t recognize in themselves is that they have everything that it takes. We are here to guide them, answer any questions that they might have, help to mitigate any anxieties, but it’s a moment where all of us need to do everything that we can, and citizens around the country already have What it takes, and we’re just here to make sure that they take their actions in the most impactful way, in the most impactful races.
Jen Rubin
And by the way, folks, it’s fun. I had never seen more joyous, energetic volunteers. Your folks have these smiles on their faces continually. They’re out with their friends, they’re out in their communities. It’s done with joy, folks, and that is important as well. Absolutely. Yasmin, thank you for everything you’re doing for our democracy. Thanks for joining us once again, and remember, folks, if you want to help out, Swing Left, they’re a great organization. Thanks so much, we’ll look forward to talking to you again soon.
Yasmin Radjy
Thank you so much, Jen, and thanks to all your listeners for everything that they do.
