28 Comments

I'm gonna have to disagree with you on one thing, Jess. I think the moderators did an excellent and fair job. They did fact-check Vance a couple of times despite CBS's announcement that they wouldn't do so. They also asked pointed questions of both candidates, and elicited answers that were helpful (even Vance's non-answers were helpful to see how smarmy he is). I doubt the debate moved any voters one way or the other, but anyone who thinks Vance is harmless needs to think again.

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I agree the moderators did great. I blame CBS for not running a live fact check--not them. Should have clarified.

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I LOVE the word "smarmy" and describes Vance to a tee!!!!

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Doesn't it, though?

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Without fact-checking throughout this wasn’t a debate. This was Vance given a national audience to lie to for 90 minutes.

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I got really worried in the debate when Vance kept blaming immigrants. Housing market, grocery costs, crime... it was textbook fear mongering. It was maddening to hear it.

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I agree. Should be disqualifying.

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JDV assumed enough people would be as ignorant as their magats, and...smoothly looking at the camera he his lies would be accepted. A fatal "disqualification".

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Agree! I made a video about that!

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So grateful for you, Jess, for highlighting all the things that we can still do to make a difference. I've found my niche with writing the votefwd.org letters and it's a wonderful way for me to use up my still very large stash of first class Forever stamps, reams of colored paper and stationery, and cases of envelopes. My FIL passed away and left behind a lot of this, and so I'm using up as much as possible then donating what's left, assuming that the letter writing campaigns will be less needed going forward after the election. The clock is ticking ever closer to Election Day but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that democracy will be saved, and freedom of choice can be restored.

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I wouldn't assume you won't need that stuff again in the future, just saying!

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And thank you!

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I hope that we have made substantial and significant progress towards preserving our democracy, but of course we can never take it for granted that the task is or will ever be done.

Per the famous quote by Wendell Phillips, an abolitionist, [when] speaking to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1852, Phillips said: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few."

The quote is often misattributed to Thomas Jefferson.

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Is your North Carolina information at the bottom of your newsletter still valid? How are the folks impacted by Helene even supposed to vote? Provisional ballots?

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That's only one section of North CArolina. The majority of the state is still very much voting! And I am hopeful that at least some of those affected in Asheville may still be able to, as well. I know there is work happening now to ensure it.

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How are people going to vote in North Carolina when much of Western NC is non-viable?

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See above.

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The colleges are closed as are the schools. That area was mostly blue so we need their votes. My family live there and they have had to leave their home. I’m reading today about provisional votes and voting packets. Still worried.

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Oh! Nancy and I put out yard signs on US 64 today for Shelane Etchison for Congress in the 9th Districe, and Independent scrambling vigorously to unseat an incumbent Republican Trumpster.

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I’m finding phone banking frustrating. The scripts are wordy. The decisions trees are complicated and hard to follow. I phone banked for one organization that when I asked what the purpose of the calls were - it didn’t match the wordy scripts. I don’t want to waste my time. I’m quite committed to this - I’ve done hour long trainings on the election law in PA because I’m canvassing there. I’ve tried to focus my phone banking there so I know the issues. But what organization does well organized and thought out phone banking?

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Have you tried Swing Blue Alliance?

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I dropped 90 postcards in the mail Tuesday for Ruben Gallego. Two friends and I are going to join the Hopium Thursday postcarding session today. Every little bit counts 😊🙏

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Yay!

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I was very sad that Vance performed so well, presenting himself as almost congenial and certainly polished and confident. Also, sadly, his lies hardly mattered. Tim was also pleasant and congenial, but he has to know to get ahead of when he was in China; a totally forgivable error that he needed to accept with no waffling. His long evasion, using the question to tell his history, was not wise. "Yes. I had my times mixed up. I was in and out often." Don't dwell on it. He and his team HAD to KNOW the question was coming. Soooo glad he gave a hard blow to Jan 6 and "Hang Mike Pence". There was the place to dwell. Give Vance and voters a little thinking time about when Trump will find it convenient to throw Vance under the bus. Love, Doc

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On abortion Vance never mentioned support for anything but a 6 week ban and kept mentioning “family planning.”

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I know. So creepy.

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Hi Jessica!

There's been some requests for a spanish version of the Project 2025 flyer I shared with you previously, so here it is in case you want it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P88DbKFbEcN7JbQnpauz2m8fu72L4kEB/view?usp=sharing

Hope this helps and thanks for doing all the fantastic work!

Best,

Dana

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Can you link to the undecided voters' views on debate? Thx.

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