The political landscape has shifted, and the traditional ways of running campaigns are no longer enough to meet the moment. Today, I am thrilled to announce the launch of the 2026 DNC Playbook, a comprehensive guide designed to empower state parties and coordinated campaigns with the guidance they need to run winning organizing programs this year.
This Playbook is more than just a set of suggestions. It represents a fundamental “Organizing Re-Model” that rewrites the structures and assumptions that define an organizer’s day-to-day work. We are prioritizing what actually matters: building genuine, long-term relationships with voters.
What’s Inside the Playbook?
The Playbook serves as a living document of innovations and best practices, providing resources for campaign staff in every department, from Data & Analytics to Voter Protection. Because no two candidates or states are the same, these materials are designed to be adapted to any race.
Key sections include:
The Organizing Re-Model: A deep dive into how organizing programs can modernize their tactics and how to have more effective conversations with voters.
Case Studies: Documented learnings and innovations from Democratic organizations and campaigns in 2025 and 2026, from the DNC’s Local Listeners program to the Virginia Coordinated Campaign’s Small Business Organizing Program.
2025 Technology Pilot Findings: For the first time, we are publishing comprehensive results from our tests in 2025 of new tools like Winnable, OpenField, Matchbook, and OutOrganize.
Community Power Insights: Actionable recommendations from successful local community organizers who have effectively engaged voters Democrats lost ground with — with a focus on AANHPI, Black, Latino, Native, Workers, and Youth communities.
Key Takeaways: Evolving Beyond the “Numbers Game”
In the 2023-2024 cycle, we saw record-breaking outputs — 100 million doors knocked and 400 million texts sent yet contact rates declined. We need to expand our tactics and rethink how we engage with voters, especially early in the cycle.
The Playbook introduces three critical shifts:
Listen First, ID After: We are moving away from impersonal, script-heavy interactions. Our new conversation model focuses on “listening with curiosity” and connecting through shared experiences before asking for a vote.
Dismantle Department Siloes: To reach voters effectively, we must integrate Digital and Coalitions into our broader organizing strategy. The Playbook introduces a new organizational structure featuring “Coalition Regions” to better engage specific identity and language groups.
Invest in Our People: A 2024 Trestle Collaborative survey found that 60% of 2024 organizers rated their onboarding as “non-existent” to “average”. The Playbook provides new staffing designs and best practices for hiring and development to ensure our teams are prepared from day one.
A few reminders:
No candidates, states, or campaigns are the same. The Playbook provides baseline principles, templates, and guides that can be adapted to organize on any race.
Take from it what’s helpful. Throughout the Playbook we encourage states and campaigns to take ideas that are helpful, leave what doesn’t work, and challenge our ideas.
The Playbook is a living document. As we test and pilot strategies, we will update the Playbook to highlight what’s working and where we can pivot.
Building Long-Term Power
We aren’t just looking at the next election; we are looking at the long-term strength of the Democratic brand. By embracing service-based organizing — as seen in our 2025 Virginia Case Study where civic education built a grassroots infrastructure of 150+ leaders — we are proving that political power is built by investing in communities, not just in turnout numbers.
The Playbook is now live. Together, we will evolve how we organize to win in 2026 and beyond.
Submit your innovative ideas, case studies, or organizing tactics for consideration in a future version of the DNC Organizing and Political Playbook. We are looking for actionable, impactful work happening on the ground.
Onward,
Lorenza Ramírez
National Organizing Director, Democratic National Committee
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listen with RESPECT, not curiosity
the "other side" are people, too