Break the Wall Down: Funding a Viable Green Alternative - Part 2.

In part 1 of this series I introduced the 500 day plan for the campaign, talked about the unique resource challenges third parties face, and identified that we can break the cycle of the two party trap.

From Conversation to Action: Building the Green Campaign We Need

Last week I joined the Maryland Forward Party for an online forum about the role of money in politics. You can watch here.

The panel included a Republican State Delegate, a Democrat who has run for County Executive, an Independent, and myself, representing the Green perspective. There was almost universal agreement that the way money works in politics is a problem for candidates, elected officials, and most importantly for voters. There was also almost universal agreement that in the current political order these problems are not going away.

I know that billionaires own both parties and that the money that drives politics and government is a foundation of the two-party doom loop. I know this is a problem that needs to be called out at every possible opportunity. I know the two party system is a trap, and that we can not rely on it to solve the problems that money in politics creates. I also know that to get those messages out, to organize people around solutions and to find a way out of the doom loop, we must have the resources.

It is in that context that we are launching our goal to raise $50,000 this summer.

Section 3: Vision for a Fully Staffed, High-Impact Campaign.

One of the biggest resource problems for a small grassroots campaign running against the two party system is recruiting and hiring campaign staff. Campaign staff are essential to:

• recruit and coordinate volunteers
• stay on top of policy and politics news
• contact voters
• produce web and social media content to deliver the campaign message
• be present when the candidate can not

Each of these things is even more inescapable when the candidates and the campaign staff are working people who need to earn a wage.

Beyond that the skills and experience required of campaign staff are specialized and valuable and the work is tiring and demanding. Paying people to do the core work is not just right, it is also necessary.

Half of the $50,000 we hope to raise this summer will go toward part time staff positions.

One key position is a volunteer coordinator and manager. If we want a successful campaign we must have a person who is responsible for onboarding volunteers, designing volunteer roles and tasks, developing regional volunteer leaders, and managing a statewide volunteer program.

This is not just important for the campaign, it is essential for a grassroots movement that aims to transform Maryland politics over the next decade. We want a volunteer coordinator who understands this and knows how to work for the short-term campaign while building long-term power.

The good news is that the ideal person for this role is already volunteering for the campaign.

Andrew is a Johns Hopkins University PhD student who graduates this fall. He has been with the campaign since it started in 2022. While completing his PhD he has been an instrumental leader and organizer in the work to successfully unionize over 3000 JHU graduate students. Since then, thousands more JHU employees are building unions of their own, inspired by this movement. He is a Young Green, a member of the Baltimore City Green Party steering committee, and has been a core team member on some of the most successful campaigns in Maryland Green Party history.

When he graduates this fall we want to pay for him to bring his very successful union organizing experience to the campaign and toward the goal of creating a statewide Green organizing network for our campaign with an eye toward a durable network that can help lead a grassroots transformation of Maryland politics. If we can't pay him to work on this project, it is almost certain that someone else (likely a Democrat running for office or a non-profit that seeks to access the Democrats) will pay him to work on their campaign. Anyone who’s worked in politics knows this is how capitalism keeps the two-party system intact.

This is a very clear example of the vicious cycle third party campaigns face in retaining good and talented campaign staff. People develop skills and talents in their careers while volunteering with the Green Party. Most Green Party campaigns cannot pay those people. Life being what it is people need employment, and Democrats and non-profits awash in cash can pay them, and so they (often begrudgingly) leave the Green Party.

Organizing the working class outside of the two-party system can't happen as long as good candidates and talented organizers are limited by this vicious cycle.

It is time to break that cycle.

Plenty of working people are done with the two party system, they know it must change and they are willing to work to change it, but capitalism and wealth redistribution toward the elite make organizing nearly impossible.

Our campaign offers a tangible way to begin to change that.

If we can raise $50,000 and have $1,000 in recurring monthly donations by September 29th, 400 days out from the election we can bring Andrew on board when he completes his PhD.

But it doesn't stop there. We can bring on a part time policy analyst and a part time social media coordinator to help get our positions clear and our message out. (Young Greens are volunteering for the campaign in these roles already.)

We can develop our first digital ad campaign with a young Black filmmaker who is eager to lend his craft and his crew to the campaign.

We can host and attend events all over the state, we can create a voter contact and tracking system, we can send mail to voters across Maryland, and we can be ready to react if an opportunity presents itself.

$50,000 in a 100 days is small change for the big parties and their candidates, they can raise that in one fundraiser. Our goal is not to keep up with them, rather it is to build a campaign that is well positioned to transform our current political order into a more just, more peaceful, more democratic, more Green Maryland.

Section 4: 100 Days to Decide – Bare Bones or Breakthrough?

At the end of this 100 day summer, September 29th 2026, it will be 400 days from the election. If we can have a successful summer, bring on a core team of staff, begin our voter contact, and start our ad campaign we will be well set up to spend the next year building a historic campaign that can shoot for a transformative goal of 100,000 votes.

What is the significance of 100,000 votes?

100,000 votes is a made-up number. It has no particular legal or historical consequence. We can understand its importance by looking at some numbers that do have legal or historic consequence

• at 1 % (~21,000-24,000 votes) we secure Green Party ballot access for 2028 and the best Green Party performance in a Governor's race.
• at 1.6% (~33,000-38,000 votes) we would have the best third-party performance by vote share and vote count in a gubernatorial race in my lifetime (50 years on election day).
• At 2% (~42,000- 48,000 votes) we would have the best third-party performance in a gubernatorial race by vote share in the 20th and the 21st century.
• At 3.3% (~63,000- 72,000 votes) we would have the best third-party performance by vote share, in a Maryland Governor's race since reconstruction.
• At 3.4% (~71,400-81,600 votes) we would have the best Statewide Green Party performance by vote share.
• At 4.3% (~91,000- 104,000 votes) we would have the best performance by vote count outside the two party system in a gubernatorial race since Reconstruction.

I share these numbers for context, and as a means of level setting. It is hard work to run a statewide campaign outside of the two parties in Maryland. Surpassing any of these benchmarks would be a worthwhile accomplishment and would set our campaign apart as a Green Party gubernatorial campaign. If we get to the 400 day mark in September and the top tier goals don't seem possible, then we can recalibrate.

But I think right now, with a productive summer we have an opportunity to aim really big and go for 100,000 votes which would set new benchmarks for politics outside of the two party system in Maryland.

The symbolic significance of 100,000 votes cannot be understated. It would show that Marylanders are dissatisfied with business as usual politics and angry at both parties. It would show that after 25 years the Green Party is ready to make a significant impact in Maryland politics. It would show that a grassroots campaign made up of working people and utilizing small dollar donations and public financing can make a real difference. It would show that a campaign focused on building a party instead of building up a person resonates with voters.

My friend and the Director of Public Policy at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a grassroots Black think tank, explains the way that our campaign could change political outcomes here in Maryland in this Instagram Reel.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dayvon Love (@westbaltimorelove)

Perhaps more important than the symbolism is the kind of infrastructure we would need to build a Green Party campaign that achieved 100,000 votes. We will not reach this goal without a great statewide volunteer program that brings people in, identifies leaders, and provides volunteers with the resources they need. We will not reach this goal without building a great message that has reach and resonance and that identifies people’s concerns, and gives them hope about something better. We will not reach this goal without being able to contact voters all over the state, discuss their concerns about voting outside the two parties and convince them to get to the polls. We will not reach this goal without building a small dollar fundraising program that qualifies us for public financing.

But if we can build the infrastructure to get 100,000 Green Party votes for governor, we will also have the infrastructure to build a grassroots movement that has the courage to imagine and the power to transform.

What we invest in this summer will determine what we can build in 2026. Everything we build in 2026 helps us lay the groundwork for a decade of transformation.

Conclusion

Billionaires own both major parties and they have created a system to run elections and government. It relies on dark money, large donors, lobbyists, corporations, and national political narratives. Both national parties are dependent on the billionaires and in the current two party system, neither of them will change the system billionaires bought.

Third party campaigns are uniquely positioned to highlight the broken political system and the way that money destroys democracy and hurts working people. Yet in the ”two-party” system third parties willing to make this their focus have a hard time resonating with voters because they lack the resources that it takes to reach voters.

Campaigns are the way most people pay attention to politics, and if third parties are not visible in campaigns they have no way to reach voters. This is a vicious cycle.

We have an opportunity to break the cycle here in Maryland in 2026, but if we are going to do that we need to raise the resources, hire the staff, and build the infrastructure to do the hard and mundane work to imagine a better world and the power to build it, from the ground up.

I am clear about the bleakness of the times, and the reality of our position. I am also hopeful that we can build something better.

If we can do it this summer, 2026 can be the year we start that transformation.