A Huge Deadline

By now, you’ve likely gotten a barrage of texts and emails — from myself included — about the upcoming “FEC end-of-quarter deadline.” I get it. I know it can start to feel like just another reason to ask for money. So I wanted to take a moment to explain what this deadline means, and why it’s different.

Every three months, campaigns are legally required to publicly disclose their fundraising totals. The report is available to everyone: journalists, supporters and opponents. It’s one of the biggest indicators of where a race stands and a strong end-of-quarter showing carries significant weight.

Here’s what’s at stake in North Carolina, and why this deadline is so important to us. The Republicans know this will be a tight race, even though we have a little bit of a lead at this point. The Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s official super PAC, has already committed $71 million to this race. A second GOP super PAC has committed another $17 million. That’s nearly $100 million so far aimed at just our Senate seat. That’s $100 million that will be used to spread lies about me and my record. There will be so many false attack ads launched that will reach voters early.

If we show weakness in our fundraising, this will give them incentive to flood the airwaves with tens of millions more to drown us out.

That’s a risk we can’t afford at this point in the race. We have to show everyone that our grassroots movement is thriving and unstoppable – that we have what it takes to build the strongest voter outreach and mobilization program our state has ever seen. When these FEC filings go public, everyone will be watching.

And so far, we’ve stood our ground. Thanks to the support from many of you, we launched our first two ads this month. Last quarter, we outraised my opponent by almost $9 million, and we did it with an average donation of less than $100.

North Carolina hasn’t sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 2008. But the best chance to flip the Senate and take back Washington relies on us.

Our people-powered movement has proven that this race is winnable. And the GOP knows that.

That’s why this deadline is so important. When our report goes live, everyone will be watching. This filing will signal whether we are vulnerable to even more attacks.

We have been building an amazing movement of grassroots donors and volunteers. Now is the time to show it.

I appreciate each and every one of you in this fight. Thank you for chipping in a few dollars when you could, volunteering to knock on doors or just staying updated on this race. I am grateful for it all.