How climate activist Sarahana Shrestha pulled off an election upset

Shrestha’s campaign was marked by an expansive ground game in which volunteers knocked on more than 32,000 doors in the district. According to For the Many, a local advocacy nonprofit, its Independent Expenditure Committee sent nearly 80,000 mailers, ran digital ads with over 445,000 impressions and made 76,262 direct voter contacts by canvassing or phone — more than half the population of the 103rd Assembly District.

Shrestha says she was able to mobilize that level of support because she was already a known quantity among progressive organizers in the Hudson Valley. She is the co-chair of the Ecosocialism Working Group for the Mid-Hudson Valley DSA chapter and has been active in community organizing around climate issues, especially as part of the Stop Danskammer Coalition, a multi-year effort that halted the construction of a proposed gas-fired power plant on the Hudson River.