Ohioans are voting

What early voting means for our campaign, and why the weeks leading up to our May primary are so important

Early voting has started in the Ohio primary.

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re someone who stays up to date on politics and campaigns. So I wanted to give you an inside look at what the next few weeks mean for our campaign here in Ohio.

As you probably know, once voting starts – even in a primary – everything changes. The plans we’ve been reviewing on paper? We start to implement them in the field. The TV ads we’ve been fundraising for? They start hitting the airwaves. The volunteers we’ve been recruiting? They start calling voters.

Our campaign is entering a new phase and executing at a bigger scale than ever before.

Here’s what I want you to understand about our May primary and the early voting leading up to it. It’s a dry run for November and a chance to put the final touches on our program before the general election kicks off in earnest.

We’re asking ourselves: Where do we need to spend money now – not next month, not next week, but right now – to make sure we’re talking to the people who will decide this race?

That’s the phase we’re in.

And I’ll be honest with you: It’s the most important one.

We’re figuring out where our ground game is strongest and where we might have some gaps. We’re learning about our vulnerabilities so we can fix them before November.

This is the best moment to test our operation and make sure we’re ready to carry Ohio to victory in the fall.

You probably saw that a new poll came out showing me trailing Jon Husted by just one point. That’s well within the margin of error, and it confirms something we already knew: This battleground race is going to be close. Very close.

At the same time, the Republican establishment is formalizing their spending plans. They’ve already committed $79 million to stop us right as my opponent’s attack ads are starting to hit the airwaves. They know how important Ohio is this year, and they’re not taking any chances.

So we can’t either.

When I say our campaign needs to make critical investments right now, I mean it.

What we’re learning during these next critical weeks – about our voter outreach, our messaging, our infrastructure – will shape everything that comes next. And that will determine what our campaign can accomplish when November finally comes around. That’s what this stage of the campaign looks like.

We need to do all this stress testing and investing and building now because there’s just too much on the line to leave this up to chance.

Because it matters.

I believe with my whole heart that Ohio needs a senator who understands that when workers are struggling with health care costs, groceries, rent, and gas, the answer isn’t to just “earn more,” as Jon Husted says.

The answer is to fight back against a rigged system so everyone – not just the wealthy – has a fair shot.

That’s the fight we’re in. And now that early voting has started, it’s a fight happening in real time.

This movement can truly only succeed if thousands and thousands of people band together to stand against the other side’s billionaire donors and corporate special interest backers.

Because in a state like Ohio, we have to work twice as hard to cover the same amount of ground.

If you want to help us build the campaign it’ll take to flip this seat, I’d be grateful to have you on board, whether that means chipping in, sharing this with someone who should be paying attention, or just staying informed as this campaign progresses.

Thanks for reading. And if you’re in Ohio, don’t forget to vote!

In solidarity,
Sherrod