On a Tuesday evening, two weeks before the August 11 Democratic primary in Connecticut, more than 100 people piled into New Haven’s Coogan Pavilion for a debate among the three candidates running for state representative. Seniors, students, and young couples filled the local community center’s folding chairs, so I stood at the back with dozens of other attendees. 

I had been working for months as Eli Sabin’s campaign manager—and was the only university undergraduate managing a primary campaign in the state. I knew the race was getting some local attention, but I was surprised by the size of the audience and the energy of the supporters for all three candidates. 

The 26-year-old Eli was challenging Pat Dillon, the incumbent in Connecticut’s State House District 92, which covers the southwest side of New Haven. Dillon has been in office for 42 years, and if reelected would have been the longest-serving lawmaker in the state. The city’s Democratic Party, many state and local unions, and several members of the New Haven Board of Alders (the local city council) backed Dillon. The only elected officials who endorsed Eli were New Haven’s mayor, Justin Elicker, and Board of Education member Edward Joyner. The third candidate in the race, Justin Farmer, had the support of the Connecticut chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). 

Eli ran as a strong progressive. Through his years of work on the Board of Alders and at CT Voices for Children, he had built a reputation as an advocate for families. He championed New Haven’s “Downtown for All” affordable housing legislation, fought to increase penalties on absentee landlords, and spearheaded measures to empower tenant unions.  

In the end, our campaign won 44.6% of the vote, to Dillon’s 35.5% and Farmer’s 19.9%. In one precinct in the district, more than 50% of registered Democrats came out to vote, and overall, District 92’s 36% turnout far surpassed the citywide number of 22%.

From the packed debate to the high Election Day turnout to the hundreds of campaign yard signs that dotted neighborhood lawns, this race saw extraordinary engagement for an August primary election. Yes, it was a small, local election in a liberal district. Nonetheless, both the level of interest in the campaign and the result offered lessons for fellow candidates this November.  What should Democrats take away from the campaign? 

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First, local elections can turn on a candidate’s individual outreach. Eli started knocking on doors eight months before the primary. He door-knocked almost every day for hours, racking up 6,000 doors and having conversations with more than 1,600 voters. Over the summer, our cadre of more than 200 volunteers joined him. By Election Day, folks started to get a little sick of us. Our on-the-ground outreach helped persuade and turn out our voters. Maybe just as importantly, our relentless engagement helped demonstrate the energy and urgency Eli promised to bring to the job.

Second, mainstream progressive Democrats need to organize like insurgents. They can’t rely on an institutional model that’s grown ossified and stagnant. In other parts of the country, including Florida, DSA candidates are out-organizing liberal and centrist Democrats. In our race, the Connecticut DSA showed up for Justin Farmer with volunteers to knock on doors and staff his campaign. DSA’s effort contributed to Farmer earning an impressive 20% of the vote despite few endorsements. At least 200 people volunteered to canvass and phone bank for our campaign, “a team of veteran Democrats and young volunteers,” (in the words of the local news site, which called the high school and college students involved in the campaign “Sabinistas.”) That organizing made the difference. 

Third, Democrats can address voters’ cynicism by listening to them. That sounds like a cliché. But I can’t count how many times someone said a version of, “I’ve never had someone ask what I care about,” while I was canvassing. Many campaigns skip these potentially hard conversations and go straight to their own messaging and asking for donations and votes.

Fourth, policy positions matter if they address voters’ priorities. We took what we heard, and put together three detailed policy platforms addressing the cost of living, transportation, and the abuses of the Trump administration. We held a roundtable on the cost of living at a local pizza place. We hosted a policy walk along New Haven’s Fountain Street, an accident-prone road controlled by the state. We held a press conference with local advocates arguing for funding legal representation for immigrants targeted by ICE’s cruelty. These specific proposals responded directly to the issues we heard from voters when we knocked on doors.

Fifth, Democrats can win without zingers or negativity. When our candidate was attacked, we didn’t attack back. We stayed focused on fleshing out policy plans and talking positively to neighbors. That hopeful, forward-looking approach met what voters were looking for.