Lang
1/5/25
Despite Democratic setbacks in recent state elections, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart received a strong vote of confidence from the Democratic State Central Committee at its meeting Saturday morning as she was overwhelmingly elected to a second term as the organization’s chair.
In a statement, Hart admits that the 2024 election did not go as she had planned, but she claims the Iowa Democratic party is stronger than it was two years ago, thanks to her leadership. She added that she believes the foundation has been laid for the Democrats to start winning Iowa elections once again.
Before Saturday’s vote, Hart shared what she called her “Forward: Victory 2026 plan”, which she says outlines a path to future Democratic victories. The plan was endorsed by Iowa Auditor Rob Sand, Iowa Democratic House Leader Jennifer Konfrst, and Iowa Democratic Senate Leader and Iowa City representative Janice Weiner.
A text of the plan can be found below:
Dear SCC members, Leaders, and fellow Democrats,
The 2023-2024 election cycle for IDP combined two ideas that are hard to hold at
the same time. First, I am proud of the work our team has done to rebuild IDP as an
institution. When I was elected, IDP had laid off all but 2.5 staffers. We did not have
full-time Finance, Communications, or Data staff. We were $100k in debt. Over the last
two years, despite challenges including a hostile DNC, a complete turnover in staff, and
a cancer diagnosis, we have stabilized IDP and built a team that can execute an
off-year plan starting in January 2025.
However, it clearly was not enough and we have a great deal more work to do.
Two years ago, I wrote to you: “…serving as IDP Chair has never been an ambition of
mine, but I care deeply about the success of Iowa Democrats. As a teacher, a farmer, a
state senator, LG and congressional candidate, I have seen time and time again how
the policies our leaders implement affect every day Iowans. My focus is squarely on
helping our party begin winning elections again.” It is cold comfort that Iowa swung
to the right less than the rest of the country (6 points nationally vs. 5 in Iowa) or that
Christina Bohannan had one of strongest overperformances in the country. We need to
win.
In March, I told you my intention was to continue to serve as IDP Chair if you will
have me. That is still true. In 2023, I wrote: “I want to be clear about where I intend to
take our party and what I want our staff focusing on. I do not want to offer vague
wishy-washy promises to earn your support and then have hard feelings when we
misunderstood our promises to one another.” Obviously we did not get to everything we
wanted to do in Mandate for Change and some of it was adjusted to fit circumstances,
but I hope you feel I have honestly tried to carry out the promises I made to you and
maintained true to the principles of that document.
With that in my mind, I am sharing a sequel to the “Mandate for Change”
document I shared in 2023. I am calling it “Forward: Victory 2026.” Getting more
Democrats elected up and down the ballot is my North Star and it will be how I measure
success in the 2026 cycle.
While I want to be clear on my principles and direction, this is a working
document and I look forward to your thoughts and feedback. There is also a good deal
of work to do to flesh out many ideas. I look forward to working with you to make it a
reality and finally make November 2026 a good Election Night.
Thank you for all you do,
Rita Hart
Forward: Victory 2026 Principles
1) The mission of the Iowa Democratic Party is to re-elect Democratic
officeholders and elect Democratic candidates to office.
2) In the last two years, IDP has stabilized as an institution with a stronger
balance sheet and a built-out team. Now, we must turn that progress and
stability into electoral results.
3) Roughly a dozen party officers and staff on Fleur Drive do not have enough
hours in the day to support all the needs of a statewide organization. Every
staffer must also be an organizer to help us have “more people doing more
things” (covered more in “Staff structure” section)
4) When we add new positions or new responsibilities to IDP, we must have
an answer for the question: “How will it be funded?”
5) IDP has modernized its fundraising operation. The next steps are to
continue to grow our small-dollar donor base and induce more national
investment. (covered more in “Staff Structure” section)
6) IDP must be part of the conversation of what it means to fix the “brand” of
Iowa Democrats. This will be an ecosystem-wide conversation including
elected officials, candidates, and partner organizations. (covered more in
“Programming” section)
7) All county parties – rural, urban, suburban – should have access to tools,
training, and guidance on organizing work in their communities. (covered
more in “Programming” section)
8) The two “off-year” responsibilities of an organizing program are A) building
capacity for the on-year through accessible community activities (i.e. not
necessarily direct voter contact) and B) Building relationships with
presidential, but not midterm Democratic voters. Capacity building is a
priority before voter contact if resources are limited. (covered more in the
“Programming” section)
9) It is inevitable that the 2028 primary nominating process will be a topic of
discussion in Iowa politics and among Iowa Democrats. The role of IDP is
to lead a “family conversation” about the choices in front of us and
potential trade-offs involved in each choice. Iowa Democrats will be in a
stronger position if we are unified on the path forward. (covered in detail in
“Programming” section)
“Forward: Victory 2026” Programming
The most important accomplishment of the last two years for IDP as an institution is that
our finances have stabilized and we have retired our outstanding debt. That means
more of this document is focused on the public-facing parts of politics and campaigns –
messaging, organizing, data. This is all only possible if we continue to grow our
revenue streams. We must continue to have a consistent call time operation, further
grow our small dollar and recurring donor program, and use congressional races and
the Senate race to encourage EARLY national investment we did not see in 2024.
During my first term, we identified three “lanes” that the IDP automatically is responsible
for because of its place in the ecosystem:
1) Turning out Democratic voters
2) Holding Republicans accountable through earned media and organic content
3) Provide the best data & tools to our county parties, volunteers, candidates
This section will lay out a skeleton of principles and ideas for fulfilling these
responsibilities as well as recognizing the challenges in each area. Further work will be
needed by staff and SCC committees to flesh out each area and establish digestible
goals and timelines.
Turning Out Democratic Voters – Organizing
Our county parties and volunteers have experienced quite a shock the last couple of
cycles – a dramatically reduced organizing footprint from IDP. Historically, the IDP
coordinated campaign has been funded with support from national organizations.
Off-year organizers working to administer the Iowa Caucus have usually been paid for
using the VAN payments from presidential campaigns.
Without national investment, it is very difficult to have a paid year-round organizing
program. The large-scale coordinated campaign was funded by transfers from national
committees and presidential candidates, not the IDP operational budget. A program of
one Organizing Director and eight field organizers (two per congressional district)
will cost roughly $1 million for the cycle. Unlike other departments, organizing
requires hiring multiple staffers. An Organizing Director or an organizer for all 99
counties will not be able to pro-actively organize. Only one staffer would be able to hold
very similar training to what our Data, Party Affairs, and Comms teams are already able
to do, but not spend time on the phone or meeting with volunteers and activists because
there would be just too much work to do.
To be very clear, this does not mean we should throw up our hands and give up on
year-round on-the-ground organizing! We definitely should not.
First, the upcoming DNC Chair election is a very clear opportunity to explain Iowa’s
needs to potential Chair candidates and move on from the strained relationship of the
past four years. Iowa is home to multiple winnable congressional districts, a governor’s
race, and a Senate race in 2026. We have a strong case to make for early investment –
and we want the assurance of candidates they will move towards a funding process that
rewards the strength of arguments – not about settling political scores.
Second, necessity is the mother of invention. We are fortunate in Iowa that the legacy of
the caucuses is a well-trained cadre of volunteers and activists. Unfortunately, we are
still recovering from the pandemic in getting many of those folks active. Helping county
parties – rural, urban, and suburban – build capacity, regardless of how many paid
organizing staff are hired, must be the focus of 2025 organizing work.
2025 Organizing Objectives
1) Capacity building
A dozen staff on Fleur cannot run an organization in all 99 counties. A Chair and
a Vice Chair can’t do everything a local party needs to do. The first goal for all
organizing in 2025 should be more people doing more things – rural, urban,
suburban – everywhere. IDP will provide guidance and training on holding
accessible community events (events to get folks in the door, not direct voter
contact) and VAN training to help county parties build lists of potential invitees.
County parties should build events that fit their own communities (what makes
sense in Iowa City might not make sense in Red Oak or Osceola), but there are
likely to be opportunities to organize around issues opposing the Reynolds’ and
Trump agenda, highlighting how one-party rule is eroding the government
services and community values Iowans were raised with, and what Democrats
will offer as solutions. We must build points of entry across the state for younger
voters, folks that have not consistently been involved with county parties, and
those that are more interested in issues than party affiliation.
Additionally, we will have candidates for statewide races and Congress
announcing their runs in 2025. Where possible, IDP should encourage
cross-county cooperation for events and candidates to travel together to highlight
the strength of our potential ticket. Of course this is dependent on the candidates’
schedules.
The goal of all these events will be foot traffic and attendance. We are trying to
grow the pool of potentially involved Democrats.
2) Direct Voter Contact: Drop-off Democrats
Counties with the ability to focus on work beyond growing their capacity have
very clear work to do: talking to Democrats that voted in 2016, 2020, or 2024, but
did not vote in 2018 or 2022. Democrats should collect information on important
issues and voting method.
Our metric for this work needs to be outputs, not inputs: actual
conversations. Too often, Democrats have focused on inputs: doors knocked,
phone calls made, relationships mapped. We should instead be talking about the
numbers of IDs for ballot preference, most important issue, and voting method.
We will review voter file data from 2024 and share it with the SCC to review best
practices, but we should not dogmatically iterate on the 2012 Obama campaign
model in 2025 (reverse engineering goals based on assumptions about attempts
per shift). Parties and campaigns must have the opportunity to innovate – if it is
resulting in conversations.
3) What role for persuasion?
Ambitious county parties can absolutely add a “persuasion” universe to direct
voter contact. The IDP data team will create a model target universe for all
county parties that want it. Again, we will track actual conversations as a metric.
The universe will focus on independents/Ds and Rs with middling support scores
and a strong midterm turnout history.
Calendar
There are certain things that county parties and IDP must do because they are
expected (or, in some cases required by state law): hold caucuses, take part in parades
and festivals, have an annual dinner, etc. A former IDP staffer once described our job as
“figuring out how to turn these things you have to do into organizing opportunities to win
elections.” That is how we will approach 2025. There are four clear periods we can use
to organize the year:
● January – March odd year caucus and county re-orgs
● April/May Org/institution building (training of new leadership and helping
build county-level leadership capacity, sharing of best practices, explaining
plans and getting buy-in)
● June – August parade, festival season and district workshops (hopefully
candidate recruitment)
● August – November (municipal/school board election capacity building and
DVC)
In each of these phases, IDP will provide templates, data assistance, and
training. The goal of each period should be to come out with more engaged Democrats
than at the beginning.
Staff supports even without organizing staff
In 2017, Dan Sena, the ED of the DCCC who led the party to flipping 40 seats in
the House described the DCCC’s responsibility as “arming the rebels.” With IDP now
fully staffed, we are entering the off-year with the capacity to provide training and
guidance to all county parties that want it. In 2023, we were not even able to resume
regular county party calls until July. This year, regardless of the outcome of Officers
elections, a County Chair call is scheduled for January 11.
I further elaborate on our training plans in the third section on programming:
“providing the best data and tools to our county parties.”
We also must continue to develop on the ideas behind the Ambassador Program.
At its core, the program is about providing additional communication to county parties
and getting “more people doing more things.” Understandably, county chairs and district
committees were concerned about Ambassadors usurping their roles in the structure.
My initial proposed reform is to have Ambassadors focus on counties that need
the most help building infrastructure and getting connected to resources at the State
Party – counties that struggled to knock doors or send postcards this cycle.
We also must fold the Ambassador role more seamlessly into the SCC structure.
The first round of new “ambassadors” in 2025 will be volunteers from our SCC. We will
tap into the relationships that our district officers have with the county parties to
enhance the programmatic work going on. The object of the ambassador’s work should
be supporting the county party on specific projects and programs.
Finally, we will create a separate category of ambassador for specific types of
training. Instead of being responsible for a geographic area, we will have ambassadors
for VAN training and building neighbor-to-neighbor programs (assuming people are
willing to serve in this capacity).
Building additional funding sources for county parties
All of this work takes resources – time, technology, people. As IDP spent 2023 getting
back on its feet, Iowa saw the rise of new sources of funding and support in the
infrastructure. Groups like Contest Every Race1
, the Central States Council of
Carpenters PAC, and Lift Iowa PAC provided monetary support to our county parties
and candidates. IDP should support these efforts in two ways: 1) Providing county
parties more knowledge of available grants and resources and 2) Bringing potential
funders together for county party projects and ensuring they fit within broader
ecosystem objectives.
Holding Republicans Accountable through earned media & organic content – Comms
Any conversation about communications inevitably becomes a conversation about
messaging. It is fair to say that Iowa Democrats have a deep and pervasive brand
issue. It is also fair to say that we have a message delivery problem – our
message needs to reach the voters who we are trying to persuade! Beyond that, I
want to be careful about pretending to have all the solutions. There are always tactical
and operational improvements to make – but Democrats likely need to dig much deeper
than that. IDP will work with Auditor Sand, HTF/SMF, and our partners to undertake a
thorough review of Iowans’ perceptions of “Iowa Democrats.”
The Iowa Democratic Party is not a Politburo. We cannot impose solutions on the party.
Inevitably, our brand is defined by our elected leaders and candidates far more than
1
I am aware IDP has had issues with Contest Every Race’s recruitment program in the past. This
proposal is only focused on working in conjunction with CER on their rural organizing program
anything comes out of the IDP office on Fleur Drive in Des Moines. However, IDP can
ensure that county parties, candidates, and partners have a strong understanding
of what the current brand of Iowa Democrats is through training and content
dissemination. IDP can also use its convening power to encourage hard conversations
with partners and stakeholders about where we go from here and to be honest about
actions that move the ball forward and those that hold us back.
The primary job of IDP is to hold Republicans’ accountable (often thought of as the
“attack dog” role). There are three areas we just build programs to fulfill this
responsibility:
1) Content Generation
Two years ago, I wrote: “A statement from the IDP Chair saying Kim Reynolds is
bad is unsurprising and unlikely to make news. The stories of people Iowans relate to
and how they are affected by Republican policies can make a much bigger impact if
voters read their stories and can relate to them.. It also generally requires looking
outside traditional Democratic circles.” We began to build the kernel of our storyteller
program this year – specifically having success talking with women about their
experience with reproductive health care – but we need to do more. We need to tell
stories that underscore the issues that are real and important to Iowans’ lives and are
very specific in nature.
IDP has to build the capacity to do more than respond to incoming press
requests. We have built that infrastructure over the last two years. The next two steps
are 1) growing our stable of storytellers and surrogates and 2) creatively
deploying our communications assets beyond just traditional media. We cannot
simply fight the Republicans in the pages of the Des Moines Register. That means
understanding how voters are receiving their news via social media, streaming services,
podcasts, etc.
Additionally, an idea that has existed for a long time is for the IDP to create a
“Speaker’s Bureau.” We need to create a surrogate operation. Again, the kernels of this
operation were developed in the 2023-2024 cycle – closer coordination between IDP
and elected officials, a county party calendar that is regularly updated, etc. The next
step is working with candidates, elected officials, and potential surrogates to centralize
requests and build trust with local parties that requests will be handled in a timely
manner.
In that vein, IDP also needs to engage more closely with our local elected
officials. The IDP Constitution reads “the elected representative of the Democratic
County Elected Officials Organization, and the elected representative of the Association
of Democratic County Executives shall be extended an invitation and may attend all
meetings regular or special of the State Central Committee in ex-officio, nonvoting
status.” Currently, neither such organization exists. Rebuilding such organizations in
2025 will ensure IDP is hearing from more on-the-ground voices, increase opportunities
for cross-party cooperation, and create another pool of leaders that can be deployed as
surrogates.
2) Training & Message Dissemination
The SCC Communications Subcommittee under the direction of its chair Sarah
Eastman and IDP Communications Director Paige Godden did a fantastic job building
the IDP County Party hub in 2024. Now, we have to increase adoption and provide
additional resources and training.
Growing our comms capacity will need to continue to be a priority. We should be
communicating to county parties – rural, urban, and suburban – about messaging
and comms as much as we do organizing because comms fuels the organizing
work. We need uniformity of internal and external messages across platforms – our
email list, the Amplify list newsletter, press conferences, messaging templates, etc. This
is a very difficult world in the constant news cycle we live in, but critical to our success.
The mechanics are also now in place for IDP to serve as a “hub” and leader
within the infrastructure. IDP Comms staff meet weekly with partners and allies. We
must take that interaction from meeting to true coordination. Democrats and aligned
groups must tell a singular story about Republican misrule and neglect.
3) Press relations
Press requests will continue to pour in And reporters will continue to ask for IDP
reactions to breaking news. In 2026, we will still have an older electorate more reliant
on traditional forms of media. We absolutely have to build a program that meets all
voters where they are – for some voters that means the evening newscast.
While the messaging work will always get the lions’ share of attention, not all IDP
communications work is external. Day in, day out, there is a lot of “internal”
communication that must be handled. We have labelled this work “constituent services.”
Constituent services
The IDP can count on a demand for common constituent services: Iowans calling the
office wanting to know where they can get yard signs; A county party leader needing
some information about compliance but not quite sure who to reach out; new voters
walking in wondering how they can register to vote. These are all regular occurrences at
IDP. Unfortunately, too often the work of engaging with these folks has been triaged due
to the demands of a statewide organization.
We need to transform this work into an opportunity. Congressional office constituent
service operations offer a useful model for how IDP should handle incoming
requests. VAN and NGP already exist for database management – emails, phone calls,
etc should all be logged. Conversations should be used as opportunities to get Iowans
more involved with the Party and the specific programs we are running. This process
has already begun at the office with the development of constituent response templates
for staff, but need to be developed further.
A staff member is now answering the phone in person and staffing the front desk on a
daily basis. This is a great improvement, but is not always possible depending on the
business of the cycle. The goal is to recruit volunteers to handle some of these
responsibilities, but building that capacity takes time. Devoting specific staff capacity
and tracking traffic will better inform how we can serve the 600,000 Democrats in Iowa.
Provide the best data & tools to our county parties, volunteers, candidates – Data
Following the first County Party survey, IDP embarked on a cycle-long effort to
help county parties spend their money more efficiently. This included recommended
language for GOTV mailers and recommendations on prioritizing spending. Lynsey Hart
and Bob Ward held regular training sessions for the Reach app and VAN. We need to
continue to build on this work. We have focused training on the skills volunteers and
county parties need to win elections. We need to spread these skills further and do a
better job of ensuring folks know they are available.
Training programs focused on organizing skills
Volunteers to build neighbor-to-neighbor programs, using VAN and recruiting volunteers
already exist to run these trainings and build supporting documentation for volunteers
and county parties. Those efforts need to be built into an organized curriculum with
training available throughout every month. Training will begin in January for VAN and
the odd-year caucuses. The Data and Party Affairs teams will work with their SCC
committees to develop curriculum for the whole year. The focus will be specifically on
the skills needed to grow local parties and have conversations with voters.
VAN pricing
The cost of VAN access for campaigns has long been a source of frustration. Money for
VAN does not go to the IDP operating budget – it funds the coordinated campaign.
However, the 2026 cycle appears likely to have a large coordinated campaign and it is
an appropriate time to discuss how buy-ins are structured. IDP will meet with HTF and
SMF leadership during Q1 and work on a plan to reduce the topline costs of VAN
while ensuring a consistent flow of federal hard dollars into the campaign.
Recommended vendors
In 2024, the Data team built a list of approved vendors for texting programs for county
parties. This work should be expanded to include vendors for regular needs of county
parties and made available on the county party hub.
Party Affairs Institutional Knowledge
Between our sister state parties, the IDP archives, our county parties, and our SCC
members, we do not need to reinvent the wheel for training materials for the work of
running local parties. However, it will be a substantial task collating and organizing what
already exists. A volunteer team is already in place working with the Party Affairs
Director to build out this library.
DNC/2028 plan – family conversation
An open presidential primary will take place in 2028. Conversations about the calendar
are already occurring in the DNC Chair race.
In March, I promised my focus for the remainder of 2024 would be on the Election and
in 2025, we would begin a “family conversation” about the 2028 process. Right now,
we do not know anything about how the DNC and RBC will handle the calendar
process. I am not firmly committed to any single course of action on the calendar
because Iowa Democrats are divided on how to proceed. Any time the calendar
comes up, I will hear many different well-intentioned opinions. Rather than focus on one
specific outcome, I want to hear from Democrats on the principles that Iowa Democrats
believe should guide our decision-making.
Following county reorganizations, we will have a series of meetings across the state to
discuss the appropriate priorities for our 2028 nominating process. People should have
a chance to rank the following principles and provide additional comments. To be clear,
this is a conversation about values, not an endless string of people at a microphone
pitching their own solutions to the calendar:
● Timing: First, early, not a priority (When the Caucuses are held)
● Inclusion/voting pool: (Who is able to participate)
● Cost ($$$, time, etc) (How do we actually implement a process and what
resources are we willing to expend?)
● DNC and state law compliance (Why are we holding the caucus?)
● Voting process (How do we tabulate presidential preference?)
My focus as your Chair will continue to be winning elections again. I want Iowa
Democrats to have a conversation about how our presidential nominating process
should or should not fit into that goal.
Governance and Staff Structure
Chair, Executive Board, and Operations Committee
January provides an opportunity to reset the leadership structure. I want to thank
our phenomenal Executive Board – Vice Chair Gregory Christensen, Treasurer Sam
Groark, and Secretary Paula Martinez. We met regularly and I intend to continue to do
that.
In 2023, the SCC created a Steering Committee for IDP composed of statewide elected
officials, the House Leader, the Senate Leader, and five members of the SCC. I believe
those involved found it to be a useful forum – for raising issues, hearing from staff, and
understanding the work actually happening at IDP. It also served as a smaller,
representative group of the SCC (the Board of Directors) to provide more timely
feedback to the Chair. In order to be as effective as I can be as your Chair, a similar
operational structure needs to exist.
Starting in January, I intend for the E-Board and Operations Committee to hold
one joint meeting per month. Like the Steering Committee, these meetings will be
open to SCC members. Meetings will consist of budget updates, staff reports, and
discussions of goals and programs members want to see action on.
Reinvigorating the committee structure is critical to the future of the IDP. The SCC
should be a “working board.” I discussed this at length with members of the SCC when
they were elected and was thrilled that they too embraced that vision. I want to thank
Data & Technology, Comms, and Fundraising & Compliance for beginning their work.
We have more work to do to get Operations and Party Building going. Simply put, the
work of the election got in the way of institution building. In the new year, we’ll reopen
membership of all committees for SCC members who declined to join as we begin
planning off-year projects.
Desking model
The biggest structural change that was not in the original “Mandate for Change” was the
introduction of a “desking” system. IDP has always informally had consultants, but we
have changed how we think about their role relative to staff.
Organizations like the DCCC, DLCC, DSCC, and DGA all have regional “desks” for
every department on a campaign. Alongside the Regional Political Director, who works
with Campaign Manager, there are Regional Finance Directors, Regional Field
Directors, and Regional Data Directors. These positions are incredibly valuable to
targeted campaigns. The desks have all been in the job of the campaign’s staffer,
bring a perspective and ideas from across the country, and generally have some
knowledge of the region they are working in (we have prioritized folks with Iowa
experience to help us).
IDP does have a Regional Political Director at the DNC and ASDC. It does not have the
rest of the structure. We have been able to recreate it somewhat by bringing on outside
help for each of our Departments – Data (STAC Labs), Finance (Lara Henderson),
Communications (Erin Moynihan), and Compliance (Political CFOs). Obviously, there is
a cost associated with it, but I think all our department heads see value in the support
and, in one department, we are renegotiating our contract where we think we can get
more value. The desks also provide another potential source of institutional knowledge –
as they can continue while staffers might not move on to other positions.
Senior Leadership
Chair Hart divided the traditional Executive Director role into two positions – one that
focuses on the electoral work of the Party – (Campaigns Director) the other that focuses
on the internal work (Party Affairs Director). Obviously, these roles cross over and must
work closely together both with the chair and each other.
Once again, a new term provides an opportunity for a reset. IDP has stabilized – now it
has to stabilize practices and norms. While the Campaigns Director focuses on
rebuilding IDP as the hub of the Democratic ecosystem, the Party Affairs Director will
work internally to ensure IDP’s longterm stability. They will manage IDP’s budget
process and cashflow in conjunction with the Chair, the Treasurer, and the Operations
Committee.
Campaigns Director (currently: Senior Advisor Zachary Meunier)
The Campaigns Director will focus on IDP’s support roles for campaigns. That means
working with the Comms, Organizing, and Data Departments to build a successful
off-year program. It includes serving as a point-of-contact for organizations like the
DCCC, DGA, and DSCC. In state, the Campaigns Director will work with elected
officials and partner organizations like ABI.
In 2025, the Campaigns Director will assist with statewide and congressional campaign
recruitment, lead the effort with the Chair to form county and municipal elected official
organizations, and build a municipal and school board elections program with partners.
Party Affairs Director (currently: Lynsey Hart)
Loss of institutional knowledge when staffers depart is a fact of life for any organization,
but over the past decade, A LOT of institutional knowledge has been lost and policies
have not been in place to bridge those losses. It is the job of the Party Affairs Director to
build systems so IDP operates like an organization that will exist beyond the next cycle –
because it will.
The Party Affairs Director will be the point-of-contact for internal party work – the SCC,
the ASDC, the DNC. The PAD will work to create internal systems of accountability and
make work more efficient. Finally, the PAD will work in concert with the Campaigns
Director to ensure our organizing efforts and County Parties are having their needs met.
Finance
Two years ago, I wrote: “There is a saying among political staff: “Never starve the profit
center.” While always being frugal with donor dollars, the Chair, senior leadership, and
(Finance Director) should not hesitate to add additional finance capacity if the
opportunity to net more money with more staff is there.” This continues to be true. We
have spent more money on fundraising the last two years, but moving to a model
that focused on net profit instead of cost has allowed for our fundraising
success. This is the department with the most outside consultants, but those
consultants are paid for a product and performance. If our email or mail programs show
signs of losing profitability, we will make changes to return to profitability.
Finance Director (currently: Kevin Sobkoviak)
The Finance Director runs the Finance Department and is ultimately responsible for
reaching fundraising goals. The Finance Director works with Senior Leadership to
develop the party’s fundraising plan that meets budget needs and works with the Chair
to execute it.
The Finance Director is a management position that hires and manages the Finance
staff and coaches and holds staff accountable.
The position also has execution responsibilities. The FD works directly with the Chair to
run the Regional Events program. The FD also runs the high-dollar donor maintenance
process – ensuring major investors can see their money is well-spent. Finally, the FD will
be responsible for the money element of the Liberty & Justice Dinner.
Call Time Manager (currently: Amy Smith)
Under the guidance of the FD, the Call Time Manager runs the donor research process
and staffs the Chair’s call time on a daily basis. The Call Time Manager is also
responsible for small- and mid-tier donor maintenance (ensuring thank you notes go
out, pledge chase letters, etc). Finally, as the staffer that spends the most time with the
Chair, the Call Time Manager has scheduling responsibilities for the Chair.
Consulting roles:
E-mail program
The IDP has tried a hybrid approach for running its email in the 2023-2024 cycle
– a junior staffing writing copy with an email consultant desking the effort. I now
believe the junior staff capacity is better spent on other projects (see Political and
Communications Assistant role). The “Small Dollar Director” envisioned by the
Mandate for Change would need significant desk support and end up costing
more than moving the program outside. Email performance will be regularly
tracked, the firm’s weekly meeting with the staff will be maintained. While IDP
made substantial steps forward in 2024 in building an online small-dollar donor
base, all digital fundraising spend will continue to be subject to cuts if it ever
ceases to be profitable.
The email program is an important messaging tool for our strongest supporters.
We will refocus our efforts on this plan and continue to work to build a donor base
that understands what IDP can, and cannot, do.
Direct mail program
IDP’s direct mail program became much more aggressive in 2024. 2025 is the
opportunity to grow it significantly. For whatever reason, direct mail fundraising is
particularly successful with Iowa donors. Our message will be similar to the email
messaging – the 2025-2026 plan, the path to victory, and a focus on what the
party can actually accomplish.
Communications
Unfortunately, IDP only briefly had a “fully staffed” Communications Department focused
on Iowa electoral work this cycle. The Communications Director and Platforms Director
roles are both critical just for dealing with the basic work of the party. It is adding the
Assistant role that will allow this department to flourish and “push” out a message, as
opposed to just responding. That position is now filled with a committed Iowan and the
position has been reformed to focus purely on comms work.
Communications Director (currently Paige Godden)
The Comms Director is responsible for the communications spoke of IDP’s role – holding
Republicans accountable in earned media and organic content. There are three parts of
this responsibility 1) managing the department, Comms SCC committee, and other
volunteers, 2) fulfilling traditional press secretary roles: serving as an
on-the-record-voice, writing and sending press releases, developing relationships with
major reporters. 3) serving as the point-of-contact for Comms work across the
infrastructure – elected staff, caucuses, DCCC, DGA, DSCC, etc.
The Comms Department has an Assistant role to assist with the logistics of these tasks.
The Director will lead in synthesizing and producing information that should reach
across the infrastructure – from partners to candidates to county parties.
Platforms Director (currently Sabrina Smith)
This position is focused entirely on the communications and persuasion side of digital,
not fundraising. There are two parts of the role: content generation and digital
organizing.
This position is the hub of the “content generation” work described in the programming
section. Content generation includes managing IDP’s platforms (including undertaking a
rebuild of the IDP website) and building relationships with potential surrogates and
storytellers. Doing this work well is incredibly time intensive.
As a digital organizer, this position will work with the Comms club to build relationships
with online influencers and recruit and manage a team of digital volunteers to amplify
content. The team should develop metrics that measure whether metrics get outside of
political “bubbles” and to voters in target audiences.
Political & Communications Assistant (currently Christian Jauron)
This position has undergone change over the course of the cycle. When it was
determined the Small Dollar Director role was impractical, writing email copy, with the
oversight of our email firm, became a key (and time consuming) part of this role.
The first role of this position is leading the constituent services operation. As I
mentioned, we should use the Legislative Correspondent role in a congressional office
as the model. Over time, this likely includes managing volunteers. Right now, it means
being in charge of the email response templates, creating a process for logging and
managing incoming constituent requests, and connecting incoming requests with the
appropriate department.
The second role is logistics support. While the Comms Director will take the lead on
synthesizing and generating messaging to disseminate across the infrastructure, this
position will be in charge of making sure it actually gets to people who can use it. It will
set up training and actually recruit people to attend. It is not just creating a website, but
measuring traffic and working to increase participation.
Organizing/Field
Securing funding for on-the-ground organizing is the next hiring priority. To be clear,
IDP organizing staff, focusing on electoral organizing, have never been on the IDP
operating budget. Organizers have either been hired through the coordinated
campaign with dedicated dollars from national funders or been tasked with
administering the Iowa Caucuses. We will doggedly work to change that this cycle and
have an organizing staff focused on having conversations with voters and increasing
our volunteer capacity across the state.
As mentioned above, a program of one Organizing Director and eight field organizers
(two per congressional district) will cost roughly $1 million for the cycle. Unlike other
departments, organizing requires hiring multiple staffers.
Data
Operations Director (currently Bob Ward)
I have tried to keep these job descriptions as impersonal as possible, but IDP’s data
structure is unique because of personnel. Bob Ward took on responsibilities for
managing VAN when he was hired in 2023. He has done an excellent job of 1) project
managing problems and 2) providing excellent customer service to users who have
needed it.
Bob will continue to be responsible for “customer service” and VAN training in 2025.
Additionally, Bob will work with the Data and Technology committee to continue to grow
our overall capacity. We need more activists who can comfortably use VAN.
This is a unique structure. We will reassess in early 2026 as we get a better sense of
what the coordinated campaign will look like.
Deputy Data Director (currently Julia Lundstrum)
In this structure, Julia will handle most of the technical aspects of managing VAN – some
of which are normally reserved for a Data Director. Julia is a trained data scientist and
her expertise has been instrumental in the caucus-to-convention process, paid media
for the coordinated campaign, and improving our data hygiene and infrastructure. This
position will be flexible according to IDP needs.
Ops/Compliance
Operations Director (currently Bob Ward)
This is the second half of Bob’s role. This position works with the compliance consultant
and oversees the compliance assistant to handle the logistics of managing the budget
and HR. That includes coordinating the bill pay, payroll, and budget reconciliation
process, ensuring all compliance reports are completed on time, and working with
vendors on general office needs. This has moved IDP into alignment with most other
state parties across the country and will lower compliance costs overall.
Operations and Compliance Assistant (currently Zach Finley)
The Ops and Compliance Assistant handles the day-in, day-out logistics of the IDP’s
operations and compliance. The Operations Director and compliance consultant
institute effective systems to ensure task completion. On a day-in, day-out basis, the
position is something of a utility infielder, but the Assistant is held accountable for
ensuring tasks are completed on a timely basis.
Additionally, the position may provide some support to the Party Affairs Department on
an as-needed basis for one-off projects such as State Convention, special nominating
conventions, or odd-year caucuses.
Conclusion
We have much to accomplish in 2025-2026. The election results were definitely a gut
punch. However, thanks to the work of the SCC, volunteers, county parties, and our
team, we now have an institutional foundation to build upon. IDP has had seven chairs
since Jeff Kaufmann was elected Chair of RPI. 2026 has the potential to be a
transformative year for both Iowa and IDP. Let’s move forward together.
2025 Operational Calendar
January
3 – new Congress
4 – IDP Officer elections
13 – legislative session starts
18-20 – Day of Action
20 – Inauguration Day
Operations Committee Meeting
February
17 – First day for Odd-Year Caucuses
Operations Committee meeting
March
31 – Last day for Odd-Year Caucuses
County re-org meetings
Q1 SCC meeting
Operations Committee meeting
April
30 – End of first 100 days of Trump 2.0
Beginning Regional HoFs
Target: District meetings that include briefings on 25-26 plans and “family conversation”
about values to inform 2028 DNC strategy
Operations Committee meeting
May
2 – leg sine die
Regional HoFs continue
Operations Committee Meeting
Beginning of summer festival/parade/county fair season
June
Q2 SCC meeting
Regional HoFs continue
Operations Committee meeting
July
Regional HoFs continue
Operations Committee Meeting
August
State Fair
District workshops
Regional HoFs continue
Operations Committee Meeting
Filing deadline for municipal and school board election
September
Q3 SCC meeting
Regional HoFs end
Operations Committee meeting
October
City primary elections
Operations Committee meeting
November
4 Municipal and school board elections
Liberty & Justice Dinner
Operations Committee Meeting
December
City primary run-off
Q4 SCC meeting
Operations Committee Meeting