* Juliana Stratton campaign fundraising email from May 27th of 2025…
Hi friend,
I made a tough decision this morning, and as a member of our grassroots team, you deserve to know the details.
On Friday, my campaign team came to me with an urgent request. We needed to expand our digital outreach — fast. Why? We’re pacing behind our May fundraising goals, and time is not on our side.
My team walked me through the numbers and laid out a plan. They recommended expanding our digital outreach to help us grow our base, reach new supporters, and raise the resources we need to catch up. But there was one problem: the money wasn’t in our budget.
I spent the weekend thinking it over. And this morning, I gave them the green light.
It was a risk — but one I’m willing to take. Because I believe in the power of this team, and I believe in you. If we’re going to build a people-powered campaign that’s rooted in real connection, we can’t play it safe.
Right now, I’m betting on this grassroots team to help us close the gap and make this investment worth it. So on the heels of this difficult budget decision, I am asking:
Can you chip in $3, $25, or whatever you can today to help us cover this cost and keep building the momentum we need?
* Juliana Stratton campaign fundraising email from September 25th of 2025…
I made a tough decision this morning, and as a member of our grassroots team, you deserve to know the details.
Yesterday, my campaign team came to me with an urgent request. We needed to expand our digital outreach — fast. Why? We’re pacing behind our critical September fundraising goals ahead of our FEC deadline, and time is not on our side.
My team walked me through the numbers and laid out a plan. They recommended expanding our digital outreach to help us grow our base, reach new supporters, and raise the resources we need to catch up. But there was one problem: The money wasn’t in our budget.
I spent the day thinking it over. And this morning, I gave them the green light.
* Stratton fundraising email from October 24th of 2025…
I made a tough decision this morning, and as a member of our grassroots team, you deserve to know the details.
Last week, Q3 FEC reports were released, and my team and I sat down to look at our opponents’ reports. Soon after, my campaign team came to me with an urgent request.
We needed to expand our digital outreach — fast. Why? Because one of our opponents is outraising us right now. Not through grassroots support, but through big donors and corporate money. […]
I spent a few days thinking it over. And this morning, I gave them the green light.
* Stratton fundraising email from November 23rd of 2025…
I made a tough decision this morning, and as a member of our grassroots team, you deserve to know why.
Yesterday, my campaign team came to me with an urgent request. We needed to expand our digital outreach — fast.
Why? We’re pacing behind our November fundraising goals, and with our final quarterly FEC deadline approaching before the primary, we cannot afford to come up short. […]
I spent a few days thinking it over. And this morning, I gave them the green light.
* December 21, 2025…
I made a tough decision this morning, and as a member of our grassroots team, you deserve to know why.
Yesterday, my campaign team came to me with an urgent request. We needed to expand our digital outreach — fast. […]
So I spent a some time thinking it over. And this morning, I gave them the green light.
* January 25, 2026…
I made a difficult decision this morning, and as a member of our grassroots team, you deserve to know why.
Yesterday, my campaign team came to me with an urgent request. We needed to expand our digital outreach — fast. […]
I spent a day thinking over whether we should take the risk and make the investment. And this morning, I gave them the green light.
* February 16, 2026…
I made a tough decision this morning, and as a core part of our grassroots team, you deserve to hear it directly from me.
Yesterday, my campaign team came to me with an urgent need: We have to scale up our digital outreach — and fast. […]
I spent a long day weighing the risk. And this morning, I said yes.
* March 9, 2026…
I made the toughest decision of this entire campaign this morning, and as a member of our grassroots team, you deserve to hear it from me.
Yesterday, my campaign team came to me with an urgent request. We needed to expand our digital and TV outreach — fast. […]
So I spent a day thinking over whether we should take the risk and make the investment. And this morning, I gave them the green light.
* April 22, 2026…
I took a big risk this morning, and as a member of our grassroots team, you deserve to hear why:
Yesterday, my campaign team came to me with an urgent request. We needed to expand our digital outreach across the state. […]
So I spent a day thinking over whether we should take the risk and make the investment. And this morning, I gave them the green light.
* May 23, 2026…
I made a difficult decision recently, and as a core part of our grassroots team, you deserve to hear it directly from me.
My Republican opponent has been pummeling me with attacks and smears. He’s calling me extreme. Inexperienced. Claiming I’ll protect criminals. Saying I’ll raise costs on working families.
None of it is true. I know that. He knows that. And I believe you do too. But he’s using his personal wealth to fund and run with these attacks.
So my campaign team decided we needed to respond. We decided to scale up our digital outreach to combat these attacks and make sure Illinoisans know who I am and what we’re fighting for. But there was a problem: the funding wasn’t in our budget.
I spent a long day weighing the risk and ended up giving the green light.
* May 26, 2026…
I made a difficult decision recently, and as a core part of our grassroots team, you deserve to hear it directly from me.
My Republican opponent has been pummeling me with attacks and smears. He’s calling me extreme. Inexperienced. Claiming I’ll protect criminals. Saying I’ll raise costs on working families.
None of it is true. I know that. He knows that. And I believe you do too. But he’s using his personal wealth to fund and run with these attacks.
So my campaign team decided we needed to respond. We decided to scale up our digital outreach to combat these attacks and make sure Illinoisans know who I am and what we’re fighting for. But there was a problem: the funding wasn’t in our budget.
I spent a long day weighing the risk and ended up giving the green light.
* June 13, 2026…
I made a difficult decision recently, and as a core part of our grassroots team, you deserve to hear it directly from me. […]
I spent a long day weighing the risk and ended up giving the green light.
* July 23, 2026…
I made a difficult decision recently, and as a core part of our grassroots team, you deserve to hear it directly from me. […]
I spent a long day weighing the risk and ended up giving the green light.
She raised about $1.1 million in the second quarter and had $1.1 million cash on hand.
I dunno, maybe spend fewer long days making difficult decisions to blast out rote emails? /s
{Stratton is also raising money for a joint committee, Juliana Victory Fund.]
- Steve - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 12:52 pm:
This is great stuff! Juliana Stratton doesn’t even need to run ads. Don Tracy has as much chance of winning as someone getting 4 Powerball numbers the next drawing.
- Pundent - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 12:52 pm:
At some point don’t these decisions become easier? I mean she’s been filled with the same angst for over a year and a dozen or so emails. If this were grief she was grappling with I’d be moving her into the acceptance column by now.
- Anotheretiree - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 12:53 pm:
I made a tough decision and have concluded that this post is ripe for snarky comments.
- King Louis XVI - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:04 pm:
Pathetic as pathetic gets.
- Resign - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:19 pm:
How tough is it when you have JB funding your super PAC?
- City Zen - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:19 pm:
I made a tough decision this morning…to ask JB for more money.
- Tammy - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:21 pm:
This does nothing to dissuade my fear that Stratton will be a mail-it-in, replacement level senator.
- YD - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:21 pm:
Great catch. Now imagine and read each as it if was addressed directly to JB…
- Irreverent - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:25 pm:
I made a tough decision and slept in this morning. Can I have some money now?
- Been There - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:30 pm:
I also made a decision recently (actually a long time ago). I totally ignore these cookie cutter plea’s from candidates. And it was an easy decision.
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:35 pm:
Now she will have a dedicated staffer to have AI rewrite the opening line so it will always be different. And a dedicated proof-reader to ensure it makes sense.
- Tough Decisions - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:39 pm:
Is the victory fund a conduit for JB’s prez run?
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:40 pm:
Governor Pritzker is a great ally but has no established portfolio of campaign donors to share with anyone. He knows a lot of wealthy people, but he doesn’t have an established relationship with more modest donors and during the last two terms of office the there’s been no campaign fundraising for the Lt Governor to be a part of in order to establish her own relationships, beyond the introductory ones.
I wonder how much of the Lt Governor’s time is being occupied by dialing for dollars.
Emails written by a campaign finance intern or what have you will never be a replacement for an actual interaction with the candidate. I hope it is a campaign finance intern because if someone is getting paid to resend this same listless and empty plea they need to find a different line of work.
- Sue - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:42 pm:
Is this a joke or is she so lame she forgot JB’s phone number
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:43 pm:
===she forgot JB’s phone number ===
Did you forget about federal campaign contribution limits?
- SAP - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:51 pm:
Does she even have a red light?
- Sue - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 1:53 pm:
Rich- is it not the case that JB more or less single handedly funded Stratton thru a PAC not subject to limits- it was published he wrote checks of at least 10 million or was it 20?
- 44 - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 2:10 pm:
Makes it hard to participate in anything these days, consequences are idiotic spam.
- Interested observer - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 2:27 pm:
This exemplifies Stratton–and it highlights exactly the kind of US senator she’ll be.
- It's always Sunny in Illinois - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 3:00 pm:
As a former resident/taxpayer….Ms Stratton will be a do nothing tow the line Senator
Hard to defend Durbin…..but he’s better than this is gonna be….
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 3:03 pm:
===but he’s better than ===
Stop.
You don’t know that yet.
- Sue - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 3:41 pm:
DMC- if JB wins the presidency????- have you noticed that the current D party is not very (1) pro Jewish or (2) Billionaire- Blago has a better chance of being president and that is zero for both
- It's always Sunny in Illinois - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 3:44 pm:
Respectfully disagree……this is national politics with huge implications….as the result of inside Illinois election primary outcome electing someone with a minimal record…..followed up by High School level fund raising…..when someone shows you who they are…..believe them
- Timmy the Spike - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 3:55 pm:
Someday, we’re going to have to have a real conversation about Mothership and other Dem-aligned outsourced fundraising groups, both their role in creating this pleading, manipulative style of ask and how much money the people running them harvest from small-dollar donors who think they’re supporting a campaign or cause they believe in.
- OneMan - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 4:04 pm:
Profiles in Fundraising Courage
- Give us Barrabbas - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 4:11 pm:
That is some lazy staff work there. It suggests the campaign is complacent and disconnected. I would have to fire someone over this just to get the staff’s attention.
- Pundent - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 4:23 pm:
= Blago has a better chance of being president and that is zero for both=
Remind us again of your predictions about Stratton’s chances.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 4:26 pm:
My spam filter is full of junk like this from candidates all over the country. I’m surprised anybody actually reads these. It’s too easy to hit the delete button and miss the fact that it was the same message you deleted last month. And the month before. And the month before that…
- Lincoln Lad - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 4:28 pm:
I was pro-Stratton until watching the campaign she ran against Raja. Didn’t like it, and she lost me as a supporter. There are probably many more like me who don’t see a Republican opponent who can win, and seeing no threat and not liking her primary campaign will sit this out. Doesn’t matter if she asks for money, a lot of us won’t be sending any no matter what she does.
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 4:56 pm:
She doesn’t need money she really doesn’t have to campaign. She has no viable opponent. She should spend her time studying up on the senate and what she can do there and what she can do to help the people of the state of Illinois. I hope she does well we had a go along get along senator for too many years
- Walker - Thursday, Jul 23, 26 @ 5:55 pm:
Pundent’s got it. I doubt Julianna even knew about these messages until Rich pointed it out for her. Some professional fundraiser is on contract