SF March 2024 Primary: What is the DCCC?
February 25, 2024
This obscure election is the most important one on the March primary ballot
(Note: this post is adapted from Chang's "Principled Agents" blog.)
Primary elections are upon us, and if you’re a registered Democrat, it might be tempting to not pay much attention because of a lack of a competitive presidential primary. In particular, you might be tempted to gloss over the section titled “County Central Committee” with a bunch of names on the ballot. In fact, this is an extremely consequential local election that we should all pay attention to.
If you’re short on time and just want a call to action:
- The SF DCCC election is both low-turnout and low information, so individual votes are much more likely to be decisive. Only registered Democrats will see this race on their ballots.
- Double-check your voter registration. If you're not currently registered as a Democrat at your current address, you may have to re-register and vote in-person.
- I’m voting for the YIMBY-backed SF Democrats for Change slate, because I think they’re the most likely to back pro-housing candidates and ballot measures in future local elections.
What is the DCCC and why is it important?
Local elections and ballot measures tend to be both low-turnout and low-information. This is because the vast majority of voters do not have the time or policy expertise to conduct their own deep dives into every local office and ballot proposition. The net effect is that most voters will often either leave these races blank, or base their selections entirely off of a list of endorsements. During past election seasons, you may have received mailers like the one below:
The SF DCCC is the organization that decides what goes on those mailers. Here, the SF DCCC stands for the SF Democratic County Central Committee, which serves as the official arm of the Democratic Party in San Francisco. Since SF is so heavily Democratic, these endorsements can often have an decisive impact in close races. In the past 4 years, there have been three Board of Supervisors elections that have been decided by less than a single percentage point. Two of those - the 2019 Board of Supervisors D5 Election and the 2020 Board of Supervisors D1 Election - were were decided by less than 200 votes!
Hopefully you’re now convinced of the DCCC’s importance. However, many SF residents with a vested stake in these elections may not even realize what they're missing out on, because...
