Chop Wood, Carry Water 10/22
This is our election
Hi, all, and happy Tuesday!
This morning I got a text message from one of my local postcarding volunteers. She told me that she’d gone to the USPS branch in Los Feliz—a fairly large one, not far from my house—to purchase stamps so she could come get more packets from me. (Yes, I still have packets!) But she was told that they had only 17 postcard stamps left—they’d been selling massive amounts of them and couldn’t keep up with demand. They said they “had to print more of them” and told her to check smaller branches.
I’m going to take this shortage as a very good sign.
Speaking of good signs, please watch this video of a woman in Tennessee who’s just gone to vote early. She’s in tears, because she’s been a voter in Tennessee her entire adult life and has never, ever encountered a wait to early vote. But this time she has, and then some. Really, watch it.
We heard a similar story from a subscriber, Cheryl, in the comments on yesterday’s newsletter. She is helping with early voting in North Carolina. What she is seeing is AMAZING and deeply moving. It is also unprecedented. Go back and read the comment, really!
And there’s this. According to Ethan Nichtern on Threads:
Across the 7 main battleground states, at the END of early voting in 2020, Dems had a modeled lead of only 341,000. As of yesterday, across the same states, the current raw lead is ALREADY 529,000.
This can’t be a bad thing.
Finally, I just read that Kamala Harris is going to Houston, Texas for a rally on Friday. Texas! Here’s the RSVP page—the campaign is asking our help to make sure the event is packed.
Heather Cox-Richardson yesterday, in the Red, Wine and Blue call she spoke on, described this moment as “a movement.” I couldn’t agree more. She emphasized, too, as I have, that it’s a movement that’s seemingly invisible to the media and the pundits. It is always this way. They can’t—or won’t—see what’s happening right in front of their noses. But we can. We can feel it, too. Something. Is. Happening. It’s real, and if the “experts” can’t see it now they’ll see it once the votes start being counted.
Our job? To keep it going. Make it bigger. Double down.
As Cox-Richardson said at the end of the call:
“This is our moment. This is our election. Let’s put our names in the historical record just like the people we’ve read about our whole lives.”
Let’s do that, indeed. You are crushing it. Don’t stop. History will wax poetic about what you’re doing right now.
But I know at the moment it just feels like work. So let’s do it gladly, and save the paeans for posterity.
Extra Credit ✅
Your extra credit today is to help me with a project I’m working on. I’m trying to find a progressive voter guide for every state in the country. Not county specific, necessarily, but just something that tells people what ballot measures to vote for, which judges to support, and which other state-wide races are important. If you have one for your state could you send it to me? I’d like to compile them all into one google doc (I’ve started it here).
Someone sent me this great AZ guide, for example—I’m looking for a resource like that for every state! Thanks! You can email it to hijesscraven101@gmail.com
Get Smart! 📚
If you’re worried about election subversion and wondering if Democrats have a plan to counteract it you’ll be thrilled with this (really) in-depth post from the folks at Protect Democracy. It’s called: “Deceive, Disrupt, Deny—2024 election subversion strategies and how to defuse them.”
It outlines the many ways Republicans will seek to disrupt the election and what the remedies are. I just watched a presentation on it, and the gist is that these attempts will be plentiful and exhausting but that we are ready for them; they shouldn’t succeed unless the American people allow them to. As for the experts on our side? This post should reassure you that they have gamed out and are prepared for pretty much every eventuality.
Oh, and want to feel even more reassured? read
’s latest piece:
Spread the Word! 📣
This is a good graphic to share—it’s easy to post on social. I got it from this person on X, then right-clicked on it to save the image. You can also share it from my Instagram post here.
Give 💰!
Nevada is going to be really close. As such, please consider donating to the Nevada Tribal Reservation Canvass Program.
This initiative aims to mobilize Nevada’s Native voters by conducting a statewide canvass of the 28 Tribes, Band, and Colonies. The Nevada Tribal Reservation Canvass Program, in partnership with Blue Action, will launch a “Tribal Reservation Canvass” tour starting October 19, 2024, continuing through Election Day on November 5, 2024. Their goal is to engage Native voters, ensuring their voices are heard in support of Democratic candidates, including Vice President Harris and Governor Walz, Senator Jacky Rosen, and other down-ballot Democrats.
Despite the significant role that Native voters play in Nevada, current federal campaign funding does not cover outreach to Tribal reservations, leaving a large number of potential votes untapped. This program is the only initiative specifically designed to canvas Tribal communities across the state. Without it, thousands of Native votes may be left on the table.
Planned Activities
- Statewide Canvassing: Their team will door-knock Each of Nevada’s reservations, engaging directly with Native voters and providing them with important voting information.
- Democratic Candidate Info Nights: In addition to canvassing, they will host several candidate information nights on key reservations. These events will feature catered dinners and serve as an opportunity for voters to learn more about Democratic candidates and their platforms.
Win Races! 🗳
Indivisible sent out it’s list of to-dos for the week and they are EXCELLENT! Let’s all pick one! (I recommend number one if you possibly can.)
From them:
If you’re eligible, sign up for Neighbor2Neighbor. Our innovative Neighbor2Neighbor program is twice as effective as traditional door-to-door canvassing, connecting you with 10 likely-Democratic voters right in your neighborhood. We’ve knocked 162,000 doors so far, and are well within reach of our goal of 200,000. Sign up and get your first 10 names today!
Call voters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, October 22 at 6pm ET/3pm PT. This entire election could come down to PA and Kamala’s lead over Trump in the Keystone State is narrow -- help widen that gap by calling voters in Pennsylvania with Indivisible.
Call-o-ween! Call NY voters on Wednesday, October 30 at 6pm ET/3pm PT. The path to taking back the House runs through New York. Let’s scare the pants off of MAGA Republicans by joining fellow Indivisibles for our Call-o-ween phonebank to call voters to support Harris/Walz and congressional candidates Laura Gillen (NY-04), Mondaire Jones (NY-17), and Josh Riley (NY-19).
Mobilize voters in North Carolina on Sunday, Nov 3 at 1pm ET/10am PT. Trump won NC in 2020 by an incredibly slim margin and recent polls show that his lead over Harris in the state is nominal. Join us in contacting NC voters to make sure they turn out for Kamala and Tim -- the voters we contact now could push this purple state in the right direction!
Join Indivisible co-founders Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg for a special pre-election coffee klatch on Monday, November 4 at 3pm ET to take a deep breath and plan for Election Day (before knocking a few more doors or doing one more phonebanking shift)! Leah and Ezra will talk about what to expect, what information to consume and how to interpret returns.
Win Races—Make Calls with Simon Rosenberg (and me)!
Simon has three more Win the House phonebanks coming up. I’ve committed to Thursday’s. He needs more people there badly. Can we all sign up for one?
Tuesday, Oct 22nd, 7-9pm - Calls For Amish Shah (AZ-01) and Harris-Walz - Register Here. Amish Shah will be joining us live at 710pm or so.
Thursday, Oct 24th, 7-9pm - Calls For Derek Tran (CA-45) and Harris-Walz - Register Here (expect to hear from Derek Tran live)
Tuesday, Oct 29th, 7-9pm - Calls for Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Janelle Stelson (PA-10) and Harris-Walz - Register Here (hope we will hear from both candidates, still working on it)
Win Races—Knock Doors!
Please consider signing up to knock doors for Democrats in the final days, either in a swing state or in your local area. This election will likely come down to the margin of effort, and knocking doors is the most important thing any of us can do between now and Nov. 5. Me, I’m going to Philly for the final weekend. How about you?
Billy Wismatt from Movement Voter Project recommends Seed the Vote as a great place to find canvassing opportunities. Check it out! They can often help with expenses, too!
Win Races—Write Letters!
You guys adopted 1,170 letters through my Vote Forward team portal yesterday! We have 7 more days to get letters out! Can anyone else sign up?
Win Races—Text!
The Coalition For Human Needs is holding two upcoming textbanks! Please join!
October 29, 6:00 pm ET – Text Banking Party – Find your Polling Place
November 4, 6:00 pm ET – Text Banking Party – Voting Reminder
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[To: all 3 reps] [From Alan Unell’s Healthcare Advocacy] [Text SIGN PNHMXS to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]
I am your constituent and I want you to know we have a problem with a lack of OBGYN services in the US and it is dangerous.
Between 2006 and 2020 more than 400 maternity programs have closed. Between 2011 and 2021, 267 rural hospitals closed OB services, representing 25% of all rural OB units in the U.S. When a woman has to travel more than 40 minutes to get there her life and the pregnancy are both at risk. I know you don’t want that. This is a dangerous situation and I want to you pay attention and address it. Here is what you can do:
Expand tele-health to cover areas where gaps exist. This would require partnerships between hospitals in maternal care deserts and hospitals with a decent sized OB-GYN program.
Enable Running OB-GYN rotations from hospitals with established maternity programs to those in maternal care deserts for prenatal care services. A full hybrid model would include patients traveling to the larger hospital where the OB-GYN originated for labor and delivery.
Enable Launching mobile OB units to reach underserved areas.The CARE for Moms Act, which is not yet passed, includes proposed grants for rural obstetric mobile units.
Create incentive programs to encourage OB-GYNs to practice in rural areas.
Extend Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months.
I know you care about healthy women and children, now show it.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
Please warn everyone you know to check to see that their ballot has been received. I dropped the ballots for myself and my husband TOGETHER into the mailbox right outside the post office. His was received 5 days later, mine hasn't been received yet--three weeks later!
Your ballot has to be received in order to be counted. CHECK on your ballot!
The Post Office in our little town in northern NH was also running short of post card stamps. The employee who waited on me said it was because so many people were writing postcard to voters. Whoohoo, it's contagious.