Like many people in Brookline, Tom Hallock and Laura Weisel were devastated when Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election.
“I felt impotent, like my vote didn’t matter,” said Weisel, a retired nonprofit and academic manager.
Hallock, who had recently retired from a career in publishing, had just spent two weeks knocking on doors for Hillary Clinton in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
“I remember thinking, this is going to change how I spend the rest of my life,” he said.
What they did next was not like most people.
Along with Cindy Rowe, who heads the Brookline Democratic Town Committee, and a small group that started meeting in kitchens and living rooms in Brookline and other parts of the Boston area, they got to work.
Today, that work has turned into a fundraising juggernaut called Force Multiplier, with Weisel and Hallock as co-chairs. Since 2017 the group, now made up of 35 volunteers, has brought in more than $22 million for strategically-chosen Democratic congressional candidates across the country.
The momentum in the Democratic Party with the ascension of Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket has led to a new surge in interest. In the past few weeks, Hallock said, the group has had to upgrade its Zoom license twice to accommodate the thousands of people registering for each fundraising event.
From Brookline’s “blue bubble,” Force Multiplier serves as a lifeline for Democrats running for Congress in districts that are far from blue. It started with the goal of flipping the House in 2018 to serve as a check on Trump, but today its goals have expanded to include both chambers of Congress, and beyond.
“I’ve always thought that fundraising is the most impactful thing we could do, other than knock on doors,” Weisel said. “But an old white, Jewish lady from Boston knocking on the door of somebody in a poor community in Des Moines, Iowa? I’d much rather pay for somebody from Des Moines to knock on doors.”
At first, Force Multiplier’s fundraisers were in-person. Candidates would fly into Boston to meet the group and its donors. If they were coming to town for another event, they’d stop by someone’s house for a Force Multiplier fundraising breakfast the next morning.
The Covid-19 pandemic changed that. While moving to Zoom was a difficult adjustment, suddenly Force Multiplier could reach a much larger audience.
“We were no longer geographically confined, and it caught us a little bit by surprise,” Hallock said.
Today, Force Multiplier typically holds one or two online fundraisers a month, featuring candidates they are supporting, congressional leaders, or other big names in Democratic politics that broaden its appeal.
Earlier this summer, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined them. This month, the group brought in Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson, whose popular “Letters from an American” newsletter mixes history and the news in its critique of Trump and the modern Republican party. September’s guests will include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Force Multiplier doesn’t collect money itself, but rather directs its donors to send money to candidates directly through ActBlue, the online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates and progressive organizations. Most contributions come from small donors; the average donation is about $100, Hallock said.
The group’s current slate of supported candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives lists well known and little known names alike. Incumbents earning Force Multiplier’s support include Don Davis in North Carolina, Derek Tran in California in Washington and John Mannion in New York.
The group also supports candidates challenging for Congressional seats in similarly far-flung states, such as Tony Vargas in Nebraska, Kirsten Engel in Arizona and Sue Altman in New Jersey.
“These are candidates that are not in the press. Nobody in Brookline is going to know about them,” Weisel said. “They’re phenomenal people who have been called to duty.”
Force Multiplier’s approach is “non-emotional and very pragmatic,” Hallock said. The group looks at which candidates are “most vulnerable politically and financially” and it tweaks its slate of recommended candidates as the election season unfolds. Its volunteers closely watch race ratings from political analysts, and pore over Federal Election Commission filings to see where money is already going. They prioritize efficient use of money.
‘A lot of people wanted to donate against Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example. But she was winning her district by 30 points,” Hallock said.
The group’s slates also include Senate candidates and voter empowerment groups that aim to educate and register voters across the country.
While Force Multiplier is independent of the Democratic Party, it works closely with the party’s leaders. Allies include Katherine Clark, the Massachusetts congresswoman who holds the influential position of whip among House Democrats.
“Force Multiplier is an incredible demonstration of grassroots power,” Clark wrote in a statement to Brookline.News. “I remember sitting around a kitchen table with this visionary group of volunteers at their inception. Now, witnessing their impact on our democracy, I couldn’t be more proud.”
Weisel, who today focuses on donor relations for the group, says its impact feels broad.
“When I teach other people in Force Multiplier how to raise money, the first thing to remember is you’re not raising money for yourself. You’re giving people an opportunity to have an impact on their own democracy,” she said.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated which state John Mannion is from. He is from New York.
--
Original Story HERE.