Campaign for a National Majority
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CNM was founded by young professionals determined to help the Democratic Party dominate American politics.

In 2000, we noticed a surprising imbalance: George Bush had ten viable vice presidential candidates who could help carry a state in the presidential election. Al Gore had only a handful. This discrepancy persisted in the 2004 election. Among the top Democratic candidates for president, only one was a governor.

We want to help Democrats take back the Governors' Mansions. Most successful gubernatorial candidates have served in other executive offices in their states: as Lieutenant-Governors, Attorneys-General, Treasurers, Secretaries of State, statewide commissioners, and mayors. Given the long-term significance of these races, it seemed strange that the Democratic Party should pay so little attention to them. CNM picks and supports promising candidates for these offices early in their careers so that they will one day be prepared to run for higher office.

In 2004, CNM endorsed two candidates for state legislatures as a means of testing our model -- David Leibowitz of Texas and Jeff Danielson of Iowa. Both won in tough races, and both took away seats from Republicans.

In the 2005 cycle, an "off-year" for state executive elections, CNM picked some of the toughest races in the country to help qualified and promising Democrats carry their message to voters across America. We looked at nearly 500 mayoral races in addition to constitutional elections in New Jersey and Virginia and endorsed seven candidates -- six for mayor and one for Attorney General. Four of the seven candidates we endorsed prevailed. Each of the three candidates who lost garnered at least 48% of the vote, with Creigh Deeds losing the Attorney General's race in Virgnia by one hundredth of a percent. CNM will continue to focus on close races like these, where support from Democrats across the country can make the critical difference

The current 2006 cycle is the first in which CNM will endorse a full slate of statewide executive candidates. CNM researched more than 170 races across 37 states this cycle. With the help of 33 volunteer researchers and a full-time summer Truman Scholar fellow, our team spent nearly 1200 hours carefully researching and vetting more than 400 candidates. We are proud of our 2006 endorsees, each of whom will serve as outstanding leaders in their respective states as they help to build a Democratic national majority.