How America got Stephanie Hansen elected to Senate

When Stephanie Hansen won the special election for the Delaware Senate last month, she benefited from an outpouring of support from Democrats all over the country.

She received donations from all 50 states, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. So many volunteers came from Delaware and the region that her campaign had trouble finding enough doors to knock on and phones to call.

Organizations like Flippable, which use the internet to connect donors with candidates, are one reason this kind of support is possible.

RELATED: Read more about Hansen's victory

Flippable raised about $130,000 for Hansen, about a third of the $380,000 her campaign brought in, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. It also helped connect volunteers to the campaign.

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Here's the idea behind organizations like Flippable: If you're a Democratic Party voter in a politically "safe" district, your donations and phone calls might not make a difference. But they might in a close, key race, like Hansen's. Had she lost, Republicans would have broken the Democrats' complete hold on state government.

FURTHER READING: Unprecedented spending in the special election

"The idea is to build a more informed set of donors who can jump into pivotal races," said Catherine Vaughan, chief executive officer and a co-founder of the group. "We wanted to build understanding on the importance of legislative races and how they are interconnected to what happens on the national level."

Vaughan co-founded Flippable in November after coordinating out-of-state volunteers for Hillary Clinton's campaign in Ohio.

Hansen said she was "shocked" to see how much support voters across the country gave her. She chalked it up to Americans who were fired up by President Donald Trump and looking to push back right away.

"I think this movement had started and was looking for a vehicle, and we were that vehicle," Hansen said of her campaign. "When you saw all the people who went to the Women's Marches and the protests, it was clear they were looking for an outlet."

Flippable wasn't the only way out-of-state voters found Hansen. Other groups like Sister District also pitched in.

But the $130,000 Flippable funneled to Hansen was by far the most. Political pros usually say a Delaware Senate race costs between $50,000 and $100,000.

The Hansen campaign was only part of Democrats' financial arsenal. A friendly political action committee, First State Strong, spent more than $570,000 to boost her chances.

First State Strong won't have to disclose its donors until next year, but it is likely that outside groups contributed to it significantly.

Delaware Republicans have blasted the amount of outside money that backed Hansen, with state GOP Chairman Charlie Copeland complaining on election night that the state had become "politically bankrupt."

"The amount of money that was put into that race from outside the state was obnoxious, frankly," said John Marino, the Republican Hansen defeated. "People in Delaware should be represented for their best interests, not the interests of lobbyists or people outside the state."

Hansen argues her campaign talked extensively about local issues — heroin addictions, education, jobs — in addition to the national race.

"It wasn't like this was a sentiment that was being expressed nationally but not in the district," Hansen said, noting the 35 percent voter participation was unusually high for a special election. "When I knocked on doors, the first thing someone would want to talk about is what's going on nationally. But as soon as they got that off the chest, they wanted to talk about education or about the traffic or on job creation."

Outside political money is nothing new. The two political parties and associated groups have long served as platforms to route national money into key local races.

The Republican Legislative Campaign Committee spent $29.9 million on state legislative seats in 2010, $40.6 million in 2012 and $38.1 million in 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics website, OpenSecrets.org.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee spent $10.9 million in 2010, $17.2 million in 2012 and $15 million in 2014.

Vaughan argues groups like hers aren't doing anything Republicans haven't already been doing for a long time.

"Look at what the Koch brothers have done over the past few years," she said, referencing the billionaire oil tycoons who have donated millions to conservative politics. "To the extent that there is money going into these races, I think that shows an outpouring of Democrats expressing an interest in local politics. And that's a good thing."

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.