A look behind the curtain

And, what we know about initial returns

Today’s Substack offers a glimpse into the world of campaigning and what all goes down in a competitive U.S. Senate race like ours. 

First, TV ads. If you’re in California, hopefully you’ve seen them! We’ve run multiple ads this cycle, with different ads running in different media markets. Our most recent ad hits back against the attack ads being run against us, correcting the record and telling voters these ads have been deemed false by independent fact checkers. 

These ads can be produced incredibly quickly to respond to baseless attacks like the ones we’ve unfortunately seen from dark money super PACs throughout this campaign. TV ads—both through traditional cable, and through streaming services like Hulu—are a key way to reach voters. California has several of the country’s most expensive media markets, including #2 Los Angeles, making our TV spend decisions especially consequential.

Digital ads like this one are another critical way we reach voters, and they’re some of the most cost-effective. $15 can get our ad in front of 500 voters, so we’re running digital ads across all sorts of platforms, in both English and Spanish.

And finally, in person events are another way we reach voters. Here are a few photos from recent trips to Long Beach and the East Bay!

Six days out, we’re doing everything we can to fight back against lying ads and communicate with undecided voters. In California, it’s not just Election Day, it’s election month, as all voters are mailed ballots weeks in advance.

Unfortunately, early ballot returns are painting a worrying picture. As the San Francisco Chronicle just reported, “while there are roughly equal numbers of voters older than 65 and younger than 35 in California, so far 57% of the ballots turned in have been from seniors and only 2% from younger voters.”

We know from polling that I do particularly well with younger voters, while my opponents perform well with older voters. So this trend is worrying.

But all hope is not lost. The bottom line is that polling from the last three months boils down to this: this race will be incredibly close. We have to do everything we can between now and Election Day.

If you’d like to help us out in these last six days, here’s how:

1. Californians – Vote by March 5th! Find all the info you need at https://katieporter.com/vote/

2. Remind at least 5 friends to vote.

3. Donate. I know it’s easy to wonder if your $5 or $50 makes a difference, but we are literally only this far because of grassroots donations. 99% of our contributions are of $100 or less: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kpsubstackq124&refcode=0228

Thanks so much for following along,

Katie Porter