The Multi-Year Effort to Flip Summit, NJ from Red to Blue
Starting in 2023, Great Society Strategies joined forces with the Democratic Party in Summit, NJ in a multi-year effort that culminated in the November 2025 election with the establishment of a 5-2 Democratic majority on the city council. This victory was the result of two years of recruiting and training candidates and slowly chipping away at Republican support within Summit, proving that flipping suburban cities from red to blue is possible through years of concerted effort. Our strategy combined rigorous voter targeting with compelling persuasion programs designed to reach moderate Republicans, independents, and low-propensity Democrats across the city.
Project Details
After the 2023 general election, Republicans were ascendant in Summit. Dr. Elizabeth Fagan, a Republican, was elected mayor and swept to victory along with her “Together for Summit” slate members, all of whom won the election by at least a five-point margin. This overwhelming Republican victory shifted the city council from a 5-2 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Republican majority, handing the GOP the reins of power within the city. But within just two years, the Summit Democrats would work with Great Society Strategies to propel themselves back to their former council majority.
In 2024, Great Society Strategies went above and beyond for the Summit Dems, providing services from crafting and sending out seven ward-specific text messages focused on targeting Vote-by-Mail and GOTV, to shooting promotional videos and photoshoots, to sending out six pieces of mail that highlighted our candidate’s strengths. We harnessed the grassroots power of campaign volunteers, knocking on 12,320 doors and making 2,293 phone calls to Summit voters. We established a digital program designed to reach Summit residents across various social media platforms, ensuring that our candidates were having their message delivered to voters online. This led to the 2024 municipal election in which Summit Democratic candidates Michelle Kalmanson and Claire Toth both won their council races, Kalmanson by 5.82 points and Toth by 6.67 points. Here are just some of the pieces that we produced for the Summit Dems:
Tactics
Targeting & Engaging Summit Voters in 2024
- Knocked a total of 12,320 doors and made 2,293 calls
- Sent a total of 7 text messages to voters, focused on Vote By Mail and GOTV efforts
- Hosted two Weekends of Action during the critical GOTV period, with over 80 volunteers
- Utilized a contrast-focused mail program with 6 pieces of mail sent to voters
- Refined messaging to focus on kitchen-table issues, like taxes
- Produced a full-scale video and photoshoot for our candidates
- Implemented a robust digital program with ads across META, Programmatic, CCTV, and Static Display platforms
Results
In 2025 we continued our efforts with the Summit Dems, knocking another 8,971 doors and making 6,436 calls to Summit residents. We hosted phone banks with the candidates, allowing them to speak directly with voters to discuss their hopes and concerns for Summit. We expanded our mail program, crafting thirteen mail pieces that addressed key voter concerns like taxes, and highlighting the shortcomings of Summit’s Republican leadership by tying them to Jack Ciattarelli and the wider MAGA movement. We also expanded our digital outreach, crafting persuasive posts for various social media sites and making over 780,000 impressions online. We used Callhub to send out nine crafted text messages to Summit residents that focused on how the Summit Democrats and their policies would improve the city. These efforts yielded incredible results for the Summit Democrats in the 2025 General Election, with At-Large Candidate Dan Crisafulli winning by 4.2 points, and our ward candidates, Jaclyn Lasarcina and Chantal Landman, winning by 3.5 points and 6.4 points respectively, reestablishing a Democratic majority of 5-2 on the Summit City Council.
Moving forward, GSS will continue to utilize the tactics from this campaign—including digital outreach, personalized voter contact, targeted mail, and in-person engagement—to excel in municipal elections across similar communities. This campaign reinforced that voter engagement rooted in a clear understanding of local priorities is the key to winning and sustaining momentum in suburban municipal races.
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