2018 Post-Election Data Updates For Advocacy

With the midterm elections in the rear view mirror, we know you're planning your 2019 advocacy work. We want to make sure you know when you can target newly elected public officials.

Below is a breakdown of how we will update our advocacy data and districts after the election and some other tips.

We will use this blog to provide updates and further details on when newly elected officials will be updated in the system. Use the “Subscribe to this blog” link at the top of the page to ensure you get these important updates. 
  

"Lame Duck" Session Is in Effect

Blackbaud, working with our partners and data vendors, receives updated target data when new officials take office. After processing and validating the information we will push a series of updates to Luminate Online to ensure the advocacy data within your site is accurate.

• Federal Senators and Representatives return to Congress on January 3, 2019, when the 1st Session of the 116th Congress convenes. Newly elected Federal Senators and Representatives will take office at that time.
   
• Newly elected state, county and municipal officials and legislators will take office at various times throughout the remainder of 2018 and into 2019.

 

The Timing of Updates

• House of Representatives. Congressional targets will get updated in a timely fashion thanks to the adoption of the Communicating with Congress (CWC) standards. The CWC standards help improve deliverability and ensure that US Congressional data will be up-to-date no later than January 3, 2019.
    
• US Senate. The Senate is more challenging. The Senate has not yet agreed upon uniform communication standards. This means that timing of Senate updates depends on each individual senator. As new senators assume office, they will set up either an email addresses or a webform. We will update contact data within Luminate Advocacy appropriately. The timing can vary. In past years for some senators this has process has extended into February. 
   
• State targets (governors, state legislators). Timing for state level updates differs based on when we receive the new target data from each state. For some states the updates will be as early as November 2018 and in others as late as February 2019. See the table below for timing of state updates.
     

State and Local Legislative Updates

We will receive the State and local legislative data by the projected dates outlined below. The dates below are not necessarily the dates your site will receive the new target data. We ask for 1-2 weeks of delivery time after we receive this data in order to make sure we test and validate it from all ends. We will continue to post updates in this blog post when new advocacy contacts are live in the system.
   

Legislature	Distribution Date
Florida	Monday, November 12, 2018
Hawaii	Monday, November 12, 2018
Tennessee	Monday, November 12, 2018
Alabama	Monday, November 19, 2018
Delaware	Monday, November 19, 2018
Indiana	Monday, November 19, 2018
Nevada	Monday, November 19, 2018
Oklahoma	Monday, November 19, 2018
South Carolina	Monday, November 19, 2018
California	Monday, December 03, 2018
Idaho	Monday, December 03, 2018
North Dakota	Monday, December 03, 2018
Pennsylvania	Monday, December 03, 2018
West Virginia	Monday, December 03, 2018
Maine	Monday, December 10, 2018
New Hampshire	Monday, December 10, 2018
District of Columbia	Monday, December 17, 2018
Kentucky	Monday, December 17, 2018
Massachusetts	Monday, December 17, 2018
Michigan	Monday, December 17, 2018
New York	Monday, December 17, 2018
Ohio	Monday, December 17, 2018
Rhode Island	Monday, December 17, 2018
Utah	Monday, December 17, 2018
Colorado	Monday, December 24, 2018
Minnesota	Monday, December 24, 2018
Montana	Monday, December 24, 2018
Nebraska	Monday, December 24, 2018
South Dakota	Monday, December 24, 2018
Texas	Monday, December 24, 2018
Wisconsin	Monday, December 24, 2018
Wyoming	Monday, December 24, 2018
North Carolina	Monday, December 31, 2018
116th US Congress (Includes new ZIP code data for congressional districts in Pennsylvania and the state legislature in North Carolina)	Monday, December 31, 2018
Connecticut	Monday, January 07, 2019
Illinois	Monday, January 07, 2019
Maryland	Monday, January 07, 2019
Missouri	Monday, January 07, 2019
Vermont	Monday, January 07, 2019
Alaska	Monday, January 14, 2019
Arizona	Monday, January 14, 2019
Arkansas	Monday, January 14, 2019
Georgia	Monday, January 14, 2019
Iowa	Monday, January 14, 2019
Kansas	Monday, January 14, 2019
New Mexico	Monday, January 14, 2019
Oregon	Monday, January 14, 2019
Washington	Monday, January 14, 2019
Louisiana	No state elections in 2018
Mississippi	No state elections in 2018
New Jersey	No state elections in 2018
Virginia	No state elections in 2018

We want to be as open and transparent with you all as we are updating the system after the election. Make sure to continue checking this blog to receive updates on the timing of when targets will be updated. We completely understand that this is information that you need in order to move forward with your work.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to your Customer Success Manager or respond to this blog post with questions.

- John Miller, Luminate Online Product Manager & Kathryn Hall, Senior Product Marketing Manager