The end-of-the-year deadline is fast approaching, and I wanted to make sure to give you advance notice because of the holidays. I know that for many families, finances are tight and you may be reviewing your charitable giving. I just wanted to make a quick request to include our campaign in your plans for the end of the year, as an investment in our state and country’s future.
Here is the link to make a donation. You can donate with your credit/debit card, PayPal, or Apple Pay. You can also donate with a check made out to “Kevin Kiley for Congress” and sent to 9458 Treelake Rd. Granite Bay, CA 95746.
I also wanted to thank you not only for your support, but for being a reader of my blog. I thought I’d take a moment to tell you a little bit about how it came about.
I started the blog in June of 2020, as a way to communicate with Californians during Newsom’s lockdowns. As fate would have it, one of my first posts ever was about Gallagher and I winning a temporary restraining order against Newsom in court. I was then able to use the blog to give Californians a play-by-play account of our lawsuit, which ultimately resulted in a victory over Newsom at trial.
Along the way, I learned a very important lesson: getting out the truth is half the battle, if not more. So I have continued writing the blog throughout our extraordinary journey together – through all the insanity, all the ups and downs, all the setbacks and triumphs, of these last three years.
The blog will always remain available to everyone, free of charge. You can see every post since its inception here; the ones from this year start on the 12th page. You can sign up at the bottom of any page to receive the posts by email.
I write every blog post myself, and try to do two a week but always at least one. In practice, I often write them while I’m flying home from DC at the end of the week, which is what I did yesterday. (My flight to DC, on the other hand is a red eye that leaves around midnight, so I’m usually sleeping at least for the first leg of the trip!). The House has been in session 13 of the last 14 weeks, and I’ve flown back and forth each time.
For the blog posts, my goal is always to provide as much useful information as possible in as little space as possible. I’ve found that readers are interested in the facts and a candid perspective on what is happening. Since I know you are busy and get lots of emails, I try to keep the posts simple and concise; but I include links so you can learn more if you’d like, and where possible I link to the primary source material. My rule of thumb is each post should not exceed 300 words, and each paragraph should not exceed three lines when I type it in Microsoft Word.
Emails like this one, which I usually only send at the end of the month (but am making an exception here because of the holidays), have a different format. I use the campaign heading to differentiate from the blog posts. I also don’t put any limit as far as the length. Instead, I try to break the email into chunks, each followed by a link to donate (like this!), so that you can stop wherever you’d like.
When I write these, it is a much more stream-of-consciousness process. I try to convey why your support is so important to the success of the campaign, and to share with you the genuine heartfelt appreciation I have for each and every donor. In asking for your support, I always want to be completely authentic and straightforward. I don’t use any of the typical gimmicks you find in political emails.
Sometimes I wish that my district were not so competitive, so that I didn’t have to worry about raising large amounts of money just to survive. But on the other hand, the need to do so has created the opportunity to form a truly special bond with my supporters. It’s helped bring together a community. I think it has helped enable me to approach my job as the representative of a movement, rather than as a typical officeholder.
I do know this: I have the very best supporters in the country. I have had the chance to meet many of you. Some I haven’t met in person, but I feel like I know you because I see your name when I sign the thank you notes and feel a tremendous sense of gratitude each time.
I sign every thank you note by hand, which can be time-consuming (and hard on my writing hand – I wish I were ambidextrous!), but it is extremely important to me. I usually do them all in one night once a month and stay up well into the morning. We have a wonderful and extremely dedicated volunteer who then folds the letters and sends them.
I’m proud to have by far the most efficient campaign in the country when it comes to making use of donors’ money. Our spending rate is way below any other campaign in a competitive district. I don’t hire a bunch of expensive consultants, I don’t pay people to write emails, I book the cheapest accommodations whenever I travel, and I personally review every bill, asking vendors detailed questions as to what we’re being charged (and often finding errors that get corrected).
Our campaign is also unique in its overwhelming reliance on donations from individual citizen donors. I never, ever share any donor’s information with anyone. My online payment system is efundraising, which does not cause your information to get added to other lists or shared, as with some other services.
I only send emails to people who have asked for them – either by signing up on the blog’s website or through the homepage at ElectKevinKiley.com. I’ve never bought a list or emailed people unsolicited. I do love it when readers tell me about how they forward the blog posts to their friends. If your friends would like to get the emails directly, they can sign up on the blog website!
When you reply to the emails from me, by the way, I see those replies and read them! I used to respond to every email, but that isn’t always possible these days. But I do read and very much appreciate each message. They are truly encouraging.
Thank you so much for considering an end-of-year gift to our reelection. You can donate online at this link.
Sincerely,
Kevin