Arena trains campaign staff and supports political candidates, working to expand the pipeline of skilled Democratic campaign operatives, organizers and leaders. Its primary focus is on state-level, down-ballot contests, where under-resourced campaigns often struggle to compete effectively and where Arena’s outside assistance can have a major impact. 

Why This Work is Important

• Progressives need to invest in leadership and capacity. The success of political campaigns depends heavily on the quality of candidates and staff. But running for office entails navigating complicated areas like voting data, digital media, fundraising, polling and more. Without proper training, especially for newcomers to politics, winnable races can easily be lost. Building up a skilled corps of campaign operatives and leaders is a key to increasing Democrats’ electoral power.

• Down-ballot races are increasingly important. State governments have always had enormous influence over people’s lives, with wide power in areas such as education, criminal justice and economic development. But Supreme Court rulings in recent years have devolved ever more power to the states, including over reproductive rights and the rules governing elections. Given these rising stakes, Democrats need to invest more heavily in winning state-level races.

Why Donors Should Consider Arena

• Arena is a proven leader in the training space. Since its founding, Arena has quickly become a leader in upskilling campaign operatives and candidates, a long-neglected area of progressive infrastructure. Its programs have graduated more than 5,000 people and dozens of the candidates it’s supported have won office. Beyond its training, Arena works to help its alumni build careers in politics; it hosts a career center with some 12,000 active members. 

• Arena builds partnerships and carefully targets resources for maximum impact. Arena partners with other groups focused on down-ballot races like Run for Something and Swing Left, bringing the critical training piece to growing efforts to win elections in long-neglected arenas. It focuses its efforts on competitive elections where the stakes are highest, such as the potential to flip a legislative chamber. In the 2020 cycle, the group sent more than 130 staffers to support key races in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas to help win 27 races. 

• The group offers publicly available resources in addition to training. Arena has a deep library of worksheets and guides within its “Toolbox” to help campaign staff and candidates. Resources include explainers on effective messaging and how to maintain a campaign budget, which are valuable skills for first-time or relatively new campaign leadership.

• Donors can achieve more impact by giving for state races. Democrats have a tendency to obsess over big-ticket national races like the presidency and marquee Senate contests. But donor contributions are more likely to make a difference in state-level races, which are far less expensive and often decided by much closer margins. Arena offers an appealing option for donors focused on this crucial arena of power. 

Conclusion

Since 2016, there’s been an ongoing influx of people into Democratic politics and progressive organizing. Through its ambitious training programs and other resources, Arena works to equip these newcomers with the skills they need to be effective while also offering support to more established operatives and candidates. Supporting Arena’s work is an effective way for donors to help Democrats perform better in down-ballot elections and build a deep bench of progressive campaign operatives and politicians.