DFA's combination of critical fundraising (to the tune of $40,000) and boots on the ground in volunteer phone banks and door-knocking helped lift Donna F. Edwards in her upset of Congressman Al Wynn in Maryland’s Democratic primary. Edwards’ win was significant not only because she upset a candidate with a huge advantage in terms of special interest contributions, but also because she became the first African American woman from Maryland to serve in Congress. The Nation highlighted the Edwards-Wynn race as the “bellwether contest in the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party...these local primaries have national importance, as they could answer an essential question: will a Democratic Party that muddled its message after gaining control of Congress in 2006 advance a progressive brief in the post-Bush era?”