Olivia Knight

This is SO IMPORTANT. People act like politics is a game of winning and losing, but it’s a game of margins. We HAVE to celebrate margin gains. I would not do what I am doing otherwise.

I live in PA and I also live in the 36th state Senate district (which just flipped blue in a special election this week). I am very happy for that! But also exhausted from the constant political ads, particularly after a grueling fall season during which we just couldn’t escape them.

But I see a big problem coming out of Citizens United, which is that BOTH political parties are relying on funding from rich donors. And that money comes with strings. So those strings get prioritized, at the expense of voters’ needs. That’s why people are tuning out. They’re sick of it all.

Precisely! I often feel that Dems are trained to convince voters how to think and what to support (and to be fair, Republicans do the same thing). It makes more sense, to me, to pay attention to what voters need. Especially now. It’s not that hard to figure out in a time of great wealth inequality..

I do somewhat agree with you. The key word is “authentic.” It’s not a bad thing to listen to voters, but we have to stop pretending to listen to voters while following a script because it “works.” We have to authentically listen. Throw the scripts away.

The most effective way to do this is to keep slowly plodding along, doing our committee work and reaching out to voters even when we don’t need their votes for something. At the end of the day, they don’t serve our campaign or our Party. We serve them. 11/11

This kind of outreach is unsexy, and it’s boring. It’s also grueling because there isn’t wider support for it. But it is the next step in our work. To keep James Malone in the PA State Senate, we will have to overcome registration math that isn’t on our side. 10/11

The bad news is that the deeply red, rural precincts are just not prioritized by wider campaigns, and we’ve struggled to make inroads there. But when I look at those red maps, I don’t think all is lost. I think “we really need to do outreach there. Those people are feeling disconnected.” 9/11

These were smaller numbers, but the margin was so razor thin that everything added up. So why did some parts of my district swing so far? It is heavily dependent on the work we’ve done in each precinct, not just during this campaign, but over the last few years. 8/11

Interestingly, James Malone didn’t need to win my district, but he needed to see progress from it. And that’s what he got. Compared to Kamala Harris last fall, 5 of my 10 precincts saw over a 6 point gain for James Malone. One precinct saw nearly a 10 point gain for Malone. 7/11

In this district, you have to run not because you plan to win, but because you plan to make progress. This concept is elusive in the campaign model of politics. In a system that screams “when we fight, we win” why would anyone invest in a place that Republicans regularly win with more than 60%? 6/11

Why? Because people don’t want to run for office when they have a very small chance of winning, and the Democratic Party doesn’t like to support candidates in those circumstances either. Remember how I said I live in a deep red district? I was not joking. Democrats are heavily outnumbered here. 5/11

For some context, this is a municipal year. So far there are just 3 Democrats running in my school district: 1 for borough council and 2 (out of 4 possible seats) for school board. There are other offices, including Mayor, Township Supervisor, etc., for which no Democrats are running. 4/11

In other words, there was no campaign to speak of, because there was no candidate who stepped up. The harsh reality is that in my small corner of PA, Democratic candidates are not stepping up at the same rate as Republicans. 3/11

Right now, in the Democratic Party, the focus is on campaigns. It’s very sexy to work on a campaign, especially a winning one! But here’s a fun fact: the last time this State Senate seat was up in 2022, the Republican candidate, Ryan Aument, ran unopposed. 2/11

I’m a Dem leader in a very red part of the PA State Senate District 36, which flipped blue last night! I want to discuss some lessons we can take from this amazing victory. 1/11

We just have to remind people why it’s good to leave the house, why celebrating community can also be “self care,” and why meeting friends and neighbors is a good thing. We need to bring back social cohesion. 9/9

It was only after I moved back home, and really when I got involved in local politics, that I started to feel like people respected me, and that I had a purpose. It turns out that we can make local politics, and community in general, part of the solution to the loneliness epidemic. 8/9

This keeps people lonely and angry, and paralyzed. I get it. I spent four years like this myself, in a state where I didn’t know many people, engrossed in social media because I saw it as my only connection with the outside world. 7/9

It is not the direct fault of social media that people are staying home, but two things are happening: 1) people are stuck in their social media worlds and aren’t interacting in person, and 2) messages get shared on social media that further promote political divides and isolation in general. 6/9

It takes extreme persistence from a few people for folks to perceive an activity as worthwhile. No one wants to take the risk of joining a new group, or an old group that is falling apart. And with higher participation barriers, many are opting out entirely and staying home. 5/9

As a local leader in Dem politics, these behaviors have directly affected my ability to make progress. Political activity depends on active engagement from community members. Without that participation, volunteerism is impossible. 4/9

Social anxiety is blamed for last second flaking. It is seen as acceptable to never commit, or to not respond to social invitations, or to cancel commitments because something better came along. Ghosting friends, partners, and potential dates is normal. All in the name of “self care.” 3/9

We keep hearing about the loneliness epidemic. The U.S. Surgeon General himself released a statement about it in May 2023. It’s not a secret that people are isolated. And yet, I see post after post on my Instagram celebrating the benefits of alone time, and saying no, and cancelling plans. 2/9

I’ve noticed the glorification of extreme introversion on social media for quite awhile now, and it has been exacerbated by Covid. Here’s why I think this glorification is contributing to our current political moment. 1/9

Read the pinned thread on my account. I shared some data and an accompanying explanation directly from my district that gets down to the precinct level. It might interest you.

John. I really respect you (you even came to my church last year and I attended your workshop!) but this is not the take. I've seen you leaning into this on other platforms and I am disappointed. I was on the frontlines in PA and saw the Harris campaign for myself. Real talk: they were ineffective.

Good thread!! I especially like the part about House GOP playing themselves a bad hand that forces the need for Dem support, and then throwing temper tantrums about it.

So upsetting. In AOC’s own words, “we live to fight another day.”

The infighting and opposition to change is indeed exhausting and demoralizing. I maintain hope that we will find places to have productive discussions about this and change the tide. I just joined bluesky last week and am already finding the environment conducive to these conversations.