Chop Wood, Carry Water 10/28

Oct 28, 2022

Hi, all, and happy Friday!

If you didn’t have a chance to hop onto the comments section yesterday, I encourage you to go back and read what others wrote. It’s utterly inspiring. You guys are doing incredible, phenomenal, tireless work everywhere—really, the level of involvement and extraordinary commitment is heartening and deeply hopeful.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I see you.

My husband asked me this morning how I was feeling about our prospects. I told him I was feeling the same thing I felt back in 2018, which is a very good thing.

“What were you feeling in 2018?” he asked.

“Like the pollsters, the pundits, and all of the ‘experts’ were telling us we would likely fail, but they were missing one massive part of the equation,” I said. “And that was us. They didn’t see us coming then, and they still don’t now.”

It’s true. In all of the discussions about “likely voters” and “registered voters” and money spent and tightening polls and digital ads and debate performances what they never, ever talk about is us. The energy, the determination, the untold hours of work individual Americans are putting into swaying the outcome of this race. It’s as if we don’t exist!

Except we do. And our impact is huge. I’m not just saying that out of misbegotten ego. It’s an empirical fact based on past performances. We keep winning elections, and they keep telling us we can’t.

They told us we couldn’t flip the House in 2018. We flipped 43 seats.

They told us we couldn’t unseat a popular incumbent President in 2020—one with Koch money behind him. We beat him by 8 million votes.

They told us we’d never flip two Senate seats in Georgia in 2021. We did.

They will keep arguing for our limitations, pretending we’re not a factor, and ignoring our movement.

That’s fine. There are advantages to being invisible.

They’ll keep acting like we’re not here.

We’ll keep shocking them with our results.

Call Your Senators (find yours here)

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.

I’m calling about S 4556, the Defense of Marriage Act. I understand it’s being brought up for a vote soon, and I’d like the Senator to vocally support it. [Insert personal story about why protecting marriage equality matters to you.]

[If GOP add:] I will be watching this vote closely. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here)

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.

I understand that today Rep. Carolyn Maloney will introduce the Abortion Care Awareness Act of 2022, a bill that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to put out a national public health campaign to help people find abortion services and learn about traveling across state lines. It will also call on the White House to issue guidance on how to distinguish between real abortion providers and crisis pregnancy centers. I want the Congressmember to sign on as an original co-sponsor. Will they? [H/T]

Extra Credit ✅

Chubb is one of the biggest fossil fuel insurers in the world, with a massive footprint in oil and gas expansion. It has insured oil drilling in sensitive ecosystems off the coast of Brazil, energy exploration off the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, and construction of massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.

While their CEO Evan Greenberg claims to be a climate champion, he is doubling down on Chubb’s support for fossil fuel expansion, claiming that it can be “sustainable.” There is absolutely nothing sustainable about building new oil and gas projects.

Please click on this link to call Greenberg and demand that Chubb stop underwriting fossil fuel projects. Make sure you fill out the form and hit "Make a Call." The script will appear after that.

If he doesn't pick up, be sure to try the next number. And/or leave a voicemail.

Get Smart! 📚

On Tuesday, November 1st at 7pm ET, join the Workers Circle for an event with journalist Ari Berman, Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright, historian Hasia Diner, artist V.L. Cox, singer-songwriter Jean Rohe, and activists across the nation. It’s called “Remaking American Democracy: The Ballot and Beyond."

Come learn about the challenges of our democracy and explore the cultural, historical, and grassroots power of "we the people" to fight for the America we must become.

RSVP HERE

Give 💰!

David Henry from Senate Circle wrote me last night and asked if I might promote Down Home's North Carolina’s canvassing program. They've gotten the fundraising gap to shrink from $100K to $50K and they are knocking on 4,000 doors a day!

Here (or below) is a truly inspiring video about Dreama Caldwell, the Director of Down Home (she just won a Smithsonian Cycle Breaker award).

If you have any funds left at all to give please consider giving them here. Early voting in NC is promising but we have a much larger pool of sporadic voters we need to turn out to match the larger conservative base voters. WE CAN DO THIS!

Smithsonian Channel @SmithsonianChan

Mother, Organizer, Cyclebreaker: Dreama Caldwell has been on the ground in NC ensuring that every voice is heard. Canvassing in under represented areas, she is fighting for working people to make change using their ballots. Watch the latest episode of #Cyclebreakers ⬇️

Win Races! 🗳

Indivisble has added Will Rollins (CA-41), Kim Schrier (WA-8) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-3) to their Give No Ground Candidate roster!! They are hosting a virtual Phonebank and Textbank party to support them and their other West Coast GNG Candidates.

This will be a "pick your own adventure" type of virtual party. Everyone will come together on a Zoom call and they will have breakout rooms for each activity. So, you can do both texting and calling for some really amazing candidates in tight races!

Here is who they will be texting and calling for:

Texting for Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in WA-3 (available from 5pm - 7pm PT)
Texting for Kim Schrier in WA-8 (available from 5pm - 7pm PT)
Calling for Mary Peltola in Alaska (available from 5pm - 7pm PT)
Calling for Mark Kelly in Arizona (available from 5pm - 7pm PT)
Calling for Will Rollins in CA-41 (available from 5pm - 7pm PT)
Calling for Jamie Mcleod Skinner in OR-5 (available from 5pm - 7pm PT)

Never texted or called with Indivisible National? NO PROBLEM AT ALL!! They will have training available to any first-timers or anyone who needs a refresher.

Resistbot Text (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.)

[to all 3 reps] [H/T] [Quick send: text SIGN PGJTIU to 50409]

I am your constituent and I am urging you to do everything in your power to pass permanent legislative protections for millions of undocumented immigrants, including permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers -- immigrant youth who need permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship in the place they call home.

Court decisions that leave DACA recipients in constant uncertainty underscore the need for Congress to pass permanent protections by the end of this year. This must be a priority for Congressional leadership. Thanks.

OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.

Talk tomorrow.

Jess

Chop Wood, Carry Water