Chop Wood, Carry Water 2/22
Hi, all, and happy Wednesday!
It’s happy indeed, for the results in three special elections that took place yesterday were all even better than I’d hoped for.
In Virginia, Jennifer McClellan achieved a landslide win, overperforming her Democratic predecessor by almost 15 points. Once she’s sworn in she will be the first Black female Congresswoman from Virginia. It’s about time!
In New Hampshire a do-over election for a Statehouse seat in Rochester Ward 4—the two candidates tied in November—yielded a solid Democratic win. In fact, the result represented a considerable overperformance for Democrats. To quote Daily Kos:
While Joe Biden carried the district by about 5 points, the Democrat’s 12-point win means, with rounding, that [Massie] ran 7 points ahead of the president—a welcome sign for Democrats, especially since turnout was more than 50% of November’s.
The GOP’s margin in the chamber is now just 201-198—the narrowest gap between the parties in state history.
Finally, in Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court race, Janet Protasiewicz blew her opponents out of the water. Look at these vote totals!
She will now advance to the general election on April 4th with the weaker—in my opinion—GOP candidate, Daniel Kelly. He’s already lost one statewide judicial race and looks poised to lose this one, too, if we keep up our momentum.
I derive my guarded confidence, of course, from the fact that the two liberal candidates, Protasiewicz and Mitchell, netted 516, 934 votes while the two GOP candidates got 441,902. If we can turn out our voters in a proportionate way for the general election we’ll flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with enormously positive implications not just for the state, but for the nation as whole.
The GOP, of course, won’t allow this to happen without a knockdown, drag-out fight. This race will be the most expensive State Supreme Court race in American history. Republicans know the stakes as well as we do. We’ll need to work very, very diligently to ensure our win. So if you’ve been sitting on the sidelines until now, I urge you to find a way to contribute to Protasiewicz’s campaign, either financially or with your volunteer hours. As always, my Wisconsin document contains ample opportunities for either. I’ll be updating it often between now and April 4th.
Let us remain hopeful but diligent, y’all. The wins don’t happen by themselves. They happen because we create them out of hard work, attention to detail, and persistence.
All things, for better or for worse, that we’re very good at by now.
Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
[We are repeating the below call as often as possible until we win. Please keep it up!]
I want the Senator to support advancing the confirmation of Gigi Sohn for the Federal Communications Commission. Her presence on the FCC is essential to ensuring that the Commission represents the interests of the American people versus the giant cable and telecommunication companies. Will the Senator make this a top priority? [H/T]
Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
I know the Department of Transportation is calling on Congress to increase the maximum fines that the department can issue to rail companies for safety violations. I also know they’ve requested that Congress support their efforts to pass new rules on electronic brakes and high-hazard flammable trains. I support those requests. Americans want new, stronger regulations on trains and we want them now. To quote Secretary Buttigieg: “Profit and expediency must never outweigh the safety of the American people.” Thanks.
Extra Credit ✅
Judd Legum wrote another post about that same awful teacher in Florida who is getting books banned that portray LGBTQ people. One of the books is called “And Tango Makes Three.” It’s a children’s book—based on a true story—about two male penguins who raise a chick together.
This unapologetically homophobic teacher is supported in her efforts by the Escambia County School Board and the principal of the school she works in. So I thought we should write them all an email. I have no idea if it will make a difference but sometimes you just have to speak up. Do read the article, please, and then either use my click-to-send email here or write to Principal Sherrill at MSherrill@ecsdfl.us and the remaining school board members at kadams2@ecsdfl.us, dwilliams3@ecsdfl.us, pfetsko@ecsdfl.us, phightower@ecsdfl.us, bslayton@ecsdfl.us.
The letter I wrote is here. But it doesn’t need to be yours—feel free to edit it or start from scratch!
Get Smart! 📚
Ready to get to work on the Wisconsin election? Get started by attending the DNC Call Crew’s WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT GENERAL ELECTION PREVIEW.
This is an optional call to learn more about the candidates, the state of the race, and other background information to help you be an informed caller.
Attend today, FEB 22ND AT 8PM ET. RSVP here.
Spread the Word! 📣
POLITICO: 'A political stunt’: Trump’s Ohio visit revives questions about his own safety legacy
“Trump’s administration withdrew an Obama-era proposal to require faster brakes on trains carrying highly flammable materials, ended regular rail safety audits of railroads, and mothballed a pending rule requiring freight trains to have at least two crew members. He also placed a veteran of the chemical industry in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s chemical safety office, where she made industry-friendly changes to how the agency studied health risks.”
Link to article is here. Please share! And read more about how Trump slashed transportation safety and environmental rules here.
Win Races—Text!
This Thursday please join VoteRiders for a virtual textbank to make sure ALL eligible Arizona voters have what they need to make their voices heard in the upcoming Phoenix City Council runoff election on March 14 — and ALL upcoming Arizona elections!
Textbanking is fun and easy! If you’ve never done it before, our volunteer team will train you on everything you need to know to use our texting platform to get critical voter ID information to Arizona voters.
We’ll see you (virtually!) there! Sign up for our textbank on Thursday, February 23 at 7pm ET!
Win Races—Write Postcards! 🗳
Are you curious about what it's like to send postcards to low propensity environmental voters with the Environmental Voter Project? They're hosting a postcarding orientation for potential new volunteers on Monday, February 27th at 5:30pm PT / 6:30pm ET. Highly recommend checking it out!
Win Races—Make Calls! 📲
I’ll be running my weekly Grassroots Dems phonebank into Wisconsin today from 3:30-5:30PT and I’d LOVE to see some of you there. It’s going to be so fun—new script, new approach, and finally a single candidate to focus on!
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
No Resistbot today. I’m sick again. 😩
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
Woohoo! Great night last night and a sign of WisDems excellent organizing and the volunteers doing the work to get out the vote. Excited to see us win again in Wisconsin and what a game-changer this will be on the state and national level!
Jessica, your site is excellent and your energy is amazing! Thank you for doing what you do!