Flippable
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| Flippable | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | New York City |
| Type: | 527 group |
| Affiliation: | Democratic |
| Year founded: | 2017 |
| Website: | Official website |
Flippable is a national 527 group that aims to change the partisan balance in state legislatures from Republican to Democratic. The organization was founded in January 2017 by former 2016 presidential campaign staffers for Hillary Clinton (D) in Ohio.
Mission
As of October 2017, the Flippable website listed the following statement of purpose for the organization:[1]
| “ | We identify the most flippable seats. Then we pool and direct resources to help Democrats win.[2] | ” |
Background
Flippable was founded after the 2016 presidential election by six staffers for Hillary Clinton's campaign. After Donald Trump (R) defeated Clinton, the staffers began discussing local and state races that they believed should have been won by Democrats. Catherine Vaughan, one of Flippable's co-founders, told Mashable in December 2016, "We started really brainstorming how could we turn this into a tool or a platform on November 9th. We're trying to really capture the energy and the tension and the national fervor around this issue right now."[3]
In October 2017, Vaughan further explained the rationale for the organization's founding on Flippable's website. She wrote:[4]
| “ | A critical battle loomed on the horizon. In dozens of states across the country, Republicans controlled the all-important redistricting process, which allowed them to unfairly keep themselves in power at the state and national levels. The next round of redistricting would start in 2020 — so we had 3 years to change the game. How would we do it? By electing more Democrats to state governments. Our plan was to analyze data to identify winnable, strategic state elections. Then we’d drum up support for inspiring Democratic candidates.[2] | ” |
Work
Flippability score
Flippable aims to identify the state legislative districts that have the highest probability of changing from Republican to Democratic. According to Wired, the organization developed a model based on election data from the previous 30 years. The article described the process:[5]
| “ | The Flippable team trained the model on 30 years of state legislative results and six years of presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate races. It weighted recent races more heavily than older races and accounted for the advantage that long-time incumbents tend to have. It also factored in long-term momentum in which certain districts have gradually become more blue over time. The model then spat out a so-called 'flippability' score for each district to determine which races are likely to be the tightest.[2] | ” |
In 2017, Flippable used these scores to identify the top five district races and then encouraged grassroots donors to give to a PAC in Virginia that would support the five Democratic candidates.
Collaboration with similar groups
Flippable also collaborates with other Democratic organizations focused on down-ballot races, such as the Sister District Project, Code Blue, and Resurgent Left. According to Mother Jones, the groups "are more collaborative than competitive. They link to each other’s websites on their home pages, share resources, and talk regularly to coordinate their activities."[6]
Political activity
2017 elections
Flippable supported the following candidates in state legislative elections in 2017:[7][8][9][10]
Delaware
Stephanie Hansen (D), Delaware State Senate District 10
Florida
Virginia
- Jennifer Foy (D), Virginia House of Delegates
- Danica Roem (D), Virginia House of Delegates
- Elizabeth Guzman (D), Virginia House of Delegates
- David Reid (D), Virginia House of Delegates
- Kathy Tran (D), Virginia House of Delegates
Washington
- Manka Dhingra (D), District 45 of the Washington State Senate
Legal status
Flippable is a 527 group. 527 group refers to the IRS section 527 designated nonprofit organization such as a political party, committee, association, or fund operating primarily for the purpose of influencing the election or selection of candidates to political office. Many political action committees and super PAC groups are designated 527 groups.[11] 527 groups can engage in campaign politics with no campaign limits, specifically supporting or attacking candidates, and must disclose donors. A 527 group may not, however, coordinate its activities with any campaign.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Flippable'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Flippable, "Our Plan," accessed October 24, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Mashable, "These former Clinton staffers are looking to disrupt local politics with their new startup," December 5, 2016
- ↑ Flippable, "Reimagining Flippable, Reimagining Democracy," October 3, 2017
- ↑ Wired, "Anger Isn’t Enough, So The #Resistance Is Weaponizing Data," April 18, 2017
- ↑ Mother Jones, "The Secret Slack Group Plotting to Turn Your State Government Blue," February 13, 2017
- ↑ Vice, "The new grassroots," March 4, 2017
- ↑ Flippable, "Florida," archived October 25, 2017
- ↑ Flippable, "Virginia," archived October 25, 2017
- ↑ Flippable, "Washington," archived October 25, 2017
- ↑ Internal Revenue Service, "Exemption Requirements - Political Organizations," accessed January 12, 2015
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