Team UNITY is . . . Alex De Ocampo for YDA President   Dear Young Democrat, My name is Alex De Ocampo and I am running to be your next YDA President. I am writing you today because I know WE can make this organization better by having stronger resources for our state chapters, better communication for all activists and making sure our YDA & Democratic Party leaders are accountable and accessible. We put this model to work in my home state of California, where I recently finished two years of service as President of the California Young Democrats.  Under my leadership, we raised over 130,000 dollars, hired our first Executive Director and Campaign Manager in over 25 years. We organized networks to implement a massive campaign plan that targeted state Senate and Assembly races. We created rapid response teams to fight Republican candidates in coordination with the state Party and also revamped our media plan.  STRONGER RESOURCES provide empowerment for state chapters. We need to provide our chapters with paid Regional Organizers. These organizers will support state chapters by helping to build stronger infrastructure, continual outreach, and training. We should provide chapters with matching grants to implement local campaign programs. State & club presidents need better training, and we should provide mentoring for new presidents.  Every state, every club, every Young Democrat chapter needs these opportunities. BETTER COMMUNICATION is vital to deliver our message to the nation. We need our chapters to have the best technology to project our message to activists and potential new members.  We need effective marketing and messages developed to conduct outreach both to our young voter base and to non-traditional communities, as well as activists from organizations like the Sierra Club.  Continued publicity and media are needed for our organization to expand at a rate that will effect our critical next elections. WE NEED TO MAKE OUR LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE & ACCESSIBLE. Leaders need to be held accountable for serving the Young Democrats in all state chapters. Leaders need to be accessible to provide the support and communication to all Young Democrats, in all our state and local chapters, not just the ones that have been supportive of their particular "clique". I will be accountable and accessible! It has been said that YDA has grown enormously and we should not change leadership or our organization’s course. Growth should mean more than adding names to our email list. It should mean adding a significant number of chapters at both the local and state level and growing the number of active members in YDA.  Nevertheless, the current leadership chose to spend more than 100,000 dollars during the last election cycle in Wisconsin through the Young Voters Alliance program.  Wisconsin did not have a YD chapter when we began our efforts – and despite spending a major portion of our budget there, there is still no YD chapter in the state. Speaking of our budget – 90 percent of the revenue raised by YDA during the last election cycle came from a very small number of individual donors. We must diversify our donor base. In California, I led the effort to raise more than one hundred thousand dollars from hundreds of donors. We were able to greatly expand our donor base, even to the Republican portions of California. YDA can, and must, effectively pursue such a strategy for the entire country. I hope you will join the thousands of other Young Democrats who already share this vision by supporting my candidacy.  I have the drive, the experience, and the passion to make this organization the national powerhouse that it should be, and will be…But I can only do it with your help. We will rebuild the Young Democrats of America from the ground-up by listening to the needs of our state chapters…But WE can only do it by working together. It's time for a new direction. It's time for positive change.  My name is Alex De Ocampo, and I want to be your next YDA President. Sincerely, Alex De Ocampo

Top news

7/13 - Take the Team UNITY survey

7/8-7/11 - Rob visits Pittsburgh

7/2 - Stephanie speaks at NOW conference in Nashville, TN

6/25 - Joe attends Tennessee Young Dems Convention in Nashville, TN

6/25 - Stephanie attends YDA Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Retreat in Baltimore, MD

6/23 - Introducing Alex De OCampo

Team UNITY Travels

In the last few months, members of Team UNITY have visited:

Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington DC, Washington state, West Virginia