Chop Wood, Carry Water 10/30
Keep going!
Hi, all, and happy Wednesday!
Six days to go! Are we having fun yet?
I think I may be too tired to write a coherent intro, my friends. I’m having a problem with my shoulder and it’s making sleep difficult. Of course, our country is having a problem with fascism, which ALSO makes sleep difficult. I suspect I’m not the only one who’s battling fatigue.
It’s hard to believe that we’re having to work this hard to defeat someone this awful, folks. I get it. But defeat him we will. I know every hour feels like a decade right now—it likely will until November 5 is behind us. But we’re stronger than we realize—we can do this.
I’ve been watching a lot of “Call the Midwife” recently, so I like to imagine we’re in a maternity ward and this is the final push after many, many hours of labor. It’s painful and seems endless. We feel we can’t continue another moment! But we can! And this baby will come!
If you need a little boost to fuel your efforts in the meantime, watch this glorious new ad from the Seneca Project. I’m not crying—you’re crying!
We should all be uplifted, too, by Kamala Harris’s remarkable “Closing Argument” speech from last night, as well as the fact that somewhere between 60,000 and 75,000 people turned out to hear it. That’s a lot of people! Harris did brilliantly, as she always does—despite not having had a day off since she entered the race! She is running a tireless, brilliant, absolutely stellar campaign.
In short, she’s doing her part. Tim Walz is doing his, too. Democratic surrogates across the country are doing theirs, as well.
So let’s keep doing ours. As Dale Carnegie said: “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." In our case we have every reason to be hopeful. But even if you’re not feeling it today—keep going. That is how we succeed.
And succeed we will. We are about to accomplish something very important. Something historic. Something the entire world will greet with joy and relief.
So grab my hand and let’s get to work one more time.
Extra Credit ✅
The terrific Robert Reich has made it easy to send a direct message to the CEOs of NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, & MSNBC to ask that their election divisions explain the “red mirage” and Trump’s history of using it to sow disinformation to their viewers now. Inoculating voters against the big lie by giving them the truth in advance is one of the best ways to stop it.
If you’re not sure how the “red mirage” works the petition page has a great 4-minute video explaining it. Worth a watch! It’s all here.
Get Excited! 📚
Join Stacey Abrams, New York AG Letitia James James and Congresswoman Lauren Underwood tonight at 7PM ET for the 2024 Supermajority Get Out The Vote Rally!
This is an event that you do not want to miss!
Women are the majority of voters and in just a few days, women's votes are going to decide the future we want to create. We're not leaving anything to chance.
Join them for a special virtual GOTV Rally to learn how you can get plugged into the work ahead of election day! Register here.
Get Smart!
Messaging strategist
of Reframing America just posted this piece about how best to talk to voters who pay no attention to politics. LOVE it. Very useful. Please read and share.
Spread the Word About the Ellipse Speech! 📣
DemCast has loaded 16 clips from last night’s Ellipse speech into a social media toolkit. This makes is really easy to share these powerful moments—and we absolutely should!
Spread the Word About Vote Swapping!
From the folks at Swap Your Vote!
SWAP VOTES: Many folks in our circles or that we canvass or call absolutely want to defeat Trump, but also don’t want to vote for Harris. This is especially true right now for folks heartsick around Gaza, even as we all know Trump would be ten times worse. Luckily Americans across the country have found a way to vote with their head AND their heart: #SwapYourVote. The key lies in teaming up to vote against Trump in the swing states that will decide the election, while making protest votes in safe states. The stories of connection between swappers are downright heart balm for this fractured moment, including GA Assemblymember and Uncommitted activist Ruwa Romman. Billy Wimsatt of Movement Voter Project wrote this moving story and is now trying to start a sister city voter swap between his hometown in MA and the city in MI where his swap buddy lives.
Phone a friend and swap your vote, or get matched with a voter by signing up at SwapYourVote.org, and be sure to share this resource with your fellow phonebankers and doorknockers in case they encounter 3rd party voters.
Give 💰!
Tax-Deductible GOTV Option in North Carolina!
Please help close a $60,000 gap in North Carolina to fully fund their non-partisan "Convince-Yourself-to-Vote" professional phone calls to young, mostly women voters on the fence about showing up. This approach was piloted in 2022 to great success. Voters rate themselves on how likely they are to vote and then asked why they didn't rate themselves a 1 or 2 (the least likely). They speak their reasons for voting and then discuss key issues, like abortion, gun control, and climate change, before receiving information on polling locations.
Each $100 means 113 more calls and calls can be added through Friday COB. Getting out the youth vote is key!
Win Races—call to defeat Scott Perry! 🗳
From my friends at Swing Blue Alliance:
Call voters to elect Pennsylvania Democrat Janelle Stelson to Congress, fire MAGA Republican Congressman Scott Perry, and Flip the House. Pennsylvania is a battleground state critical to defeating Trump.
Stelson can defeat Republican Perry. Polling shows that the race is a dead heat.
SBA does a training at the beginning of every phone bank, and trained volunteers are available to answer questions, and help with any technical issues. At the end of every phonebank callers can debrief to share stories, discuss problems, make suggestions, learn from each other and create community. Join them to make a difference!
Win Races—Do Voter Protection Recruitment!
Common Cause is looking for more phone and text bank volunteers for the final days leading up to Election Day.
They urgently need help in critical states to recruit Poll Monitors who can assist voters at the polls. These will be "easy" phone banks and text banks. You will contact Common Cause Members who have already shown interest but need to be asked to join poll monitoring training.
Please sign up for a phone bank shift here and watch a quick training on how to use Scale to Win!
They are also looking for volunteers with texting experience who want to join their small but mighty national text team! They will send out texts daily and need folks for rapid response on November 5th. Sign up here.
Win Races—Text Your Friends a Voting Reminder!
The Presidential race is a dead heat so the winner will be decided by turnout on (or before) Tuesday, November 5.
Here’s the good news: 25 million Democrats have voted early!
But here’s the bad news: many of our Democratic friends have not yet voted!
So Swipe Blue is hosting SuperVote Saturday to make sure all our Democratic friends vote.
Join them this Saturday from 1-3 pm ET / 10-12 PT.
They’ll have awesome guests tell us how they are mobilizing millions of Democrats to vote - and inspire us to mobilize all our Democratic friends.
And you’ll use their free SwipeBlue app to tell you which of your Democratic friends have not yet voted - so you can text them a friendly reminder.
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[To: all 3 reps] [H/T] [Text SIGN PQLBVB to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / MESSENGER]
The housing crisis is devastating communities all across the country, and corporate executives are exploiting it to put more money in their pockets. We shouldn’t allow private equity firms to buy up vast quantities of American homes and create a generation of lifelong renters. Congress needs to act fast and help promote access to safe, affordable housing and homeownership for American families, not Wall Street.
That’s why I support S. 3402 / HR 6608, The End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act. This legislation seeks to put an end to the harmful practice of hedge funds buying up single-family homes by banning hedge funds from owning these types of homes and requiring them to sell at least 10% of the total number of single-family homes they currently own to families per year over a 10-year period. After a 10-year full phase-out, all hedge funds will be completely banned from owning any single-family homes. This legislation will bring down housing prices, giving more families the opportunity to purchase a home and set their families up for a bright future.
I’d like you to co-sponsor and work to pass this vital legislation. Continued Congressional inaction on the housing crisis is unacceptable. Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
Doing the work is the best way to avoid stressing.
But, I happened to see this recently and thought it was worth sharing: a Suffolk University survey that's gotten little-to-no media coverage—and yet, it's a survey tracking ACTUAL(!) early voters, vs. likely/registered voters:
Harris leads Tr*mp by a commanding 63%-34% among the small subset of respondents who have already voted. Asked what they consider the most important issue, 19% of those who have already voted cited “abortion/women’s rights,” second only to “economy/inflation” (25%). Other issues cited were “democracy/constitution” (12%), “honesty/integrity/character” (9%), “immigration/border security” (8%), and “Donald Tr*mp” (7%).
“Harris’ strength among those who have already voted serves two purposes,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “First, large Harris voter leads are being banked every day not only for the office of president, but also for Democratic candidates for Congress and those for whom abortion rights is an important issue. Second, it gives the Harris campaign some time to persuade Election Day voters, including some previously reliable Democratic voters who have drifted away over the past few weeks, like young Black and Latino men.”
Also 63% of those who have already voted are choosing the Democratic candidates for Congress, compared to 33% for Republican congressional candidates, in sharp contrast to all likely voters nationally where 47% are planning to vote for the Democratic candidate versus 45% for the Republican.
Keep fighting—because when we vote, we win...and when we vote early, we win BIG!
Source: https://www.suffolk.edu/news-features/news/2024/10/21/16/00/suprc-national-poll-10-21
For anyone concerned about low early voting in California:
1) People may want to wait for vote in person due to all the fu*kery we're seeing around the country.
2) Also, Californians get up to two hours of PTO to vote on Election Day. I wouldn't be surprised if people are waiting to take advantage of that. https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/time-vote-notices