Hi, all, and happy Tuesday.
Still in Nova Scotia. Lucky me!
Having said that, I’m not unplugged, so I’m aware there’s a lot going on. The House has gone on recess, so today’s newsletter focusses mostly on the Senate, where lots of action could (or could not) happen in the next week. We’ve got the Manchin-Schumer bill (fingers crossed!), marriage equality, the burn pit bill…so much that’s critically important. So I’ve loaded a lot into today’s Senate call script. Try to get it all in, please—if you feel unable to say it, you can copy it and send it through the “contact us” field on your Senator’s official website. It will count just like a call!
Now, I know there was an Op-Ed in the Times yesterday that’s causing some consternation. The gist of it is that most forms of Democratic outreach don’t work. I find this to be laughable. In the last 5 years we have generated some of the largest turnouts ever seen in American elections. We did it by doing exactly what this article claims is ineffective. I call nonsense.
Does that mean we shouldn’t innovate? No. Does it mean we should assume everything we’re doing is right? Of course not. Does that mean Democrats are running a perfect field game? Emphatically not.
But it does mean that one Op-Ed by two people citing more or less one study on postcarding in one set of state legislative races isn’t enough reason for us to give up every tactic we’ve used to win.
Having said that, I’ve said all along that postcarding and letter writing alone will not win us elections. We absolutely must talk to voters. We must engage in community building. We must work locally to build the power that we can eventually take national. To that extent I agree with the Op-Ed’s authors.
The thing is this: there are no quick fixes for what ails us. What we need is a sea change in our approach to democracy. Where once we took it for granted, participating only around “big elections,” we now know we need to engage in it constantly. Helping win elections in some way should be a given for everyone who cares about our country. Democracy requires constant investment, engagement, and awareness. Many Americans still resist this notion, but they do so at their peril.
Autocracy, after all, thrives on a populace that “doesn’t do politics.”
So let’s do it. Not all day, or every day, but a little most of the time.
I promise to keep providing opportunities. Your job?
To keep providing the elbow grease.
Call Your Senators (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
There are several bills that have been passed by the House that I’d now like to see the Senate pass. They include S.190 Ethan’s Law, a common sense child safety gun law, S. 736 the Assault Weapons Ban Act of 2022, S. 3373 the Honoring Our PACT Act, S. 3223 the Access to Birth Control Act, and S. 4556 the Respect For Marriage Act. I want the Senator to support them all.
[If Democrat—especially Kyrsten Sinema—add:] And please support the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 as well! Thanks.
[If GOP add:] Please tell the Senator that Republicans need to stop delaying a new vote on the Honoring Our PACT Act. Every day veterans don’t have the health care they need is unacceptable. Thanks.
Help Kids
I do a lot of work with Parents Together, an excellent organization advocating for American children (think lobbyists, for kids!) They are asking me to help them get crazy numbers of signatures to two petitions, one to encourage Congress to fight to put Extended Child Tax Credits into the upcoming reconciliation package (there is a strategy here, I promise) and the other is to encourage the Senate to pass the Respect For Marriage Act. Please consider signing both, here and here!
Extra Credit ✅
I’ve got another letter for you in reaction to the recent Judd Legum article about the five giant corporations who have made large contributions to anti-abortion politicians even after they knew Roe v Wade would be overturned. We’ve written to CVS, AT&T, and Cigna already. Now let’s do Ford.
You can either:
✍🏼 Compose your own email and send it to mculler@ford.com and Scroley@ford.com. I’ve put a copy of the letter I used here. Feel free to copy, personalize, sign and send.
Or
✍🏼 Use my click-to-send email tool (this is easier). It will autopopulate a pre-written email in your mail program which you can adapt as wanted. Please change the subject line, add a few sentences, sign your name and city, and generally personalize it so they know real people are writing.
Get Smart! 📚
Y’all, Movement Voter Project is hands down my favorite organization. They’re all about funding grassroots groups in critical swing states—without them we’d have lost many of the recent elections that went our way.
Please join them on Wednesday, August 3, to hear strategies to win, both from MVP and their amazing grassroots local partners, from Michigan to Arizona, running brilliant campaigns to defy the odds in 2022.
Wednesday August 3rd, 8-9 PM EDT. Sign up here.
You will NOT regret it.
Give 💰!
Or just make a donation to them. Seriously. Money extremely well spent.
Win Races! 🗳
Freaking out about the climate emergency? Want to see us win races in November so we can address it?
Meet Postcards to Climate Voters! They’re looking for volunteers to sign up to write postcards to make sure climate voters turn out in key state & local races in November. They’ll send you the cards, scripts, everything you need. You just pay for stamps (and write the cards, of course). Minimum order is 200, but you’ve got time to write them. The mail date is in October.
Hope this appeals to lots of you! I love this org—they’re smart, strategic, data driven, and effective!
Resistbot Text (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.)
[to all 3 reps] [H/T] [quick send: text SIGN PEYRVV to 50409]
If Congress does not act by September 30th millions of households will receive letters just weeks before the midterm election that they will either need to pay more out of pocket or lose their health coverage.
Three million Americans will likely lose their health coverage at the end of this year while at least 10 million more will see their premiums skyrocket. The newly uninsured will join 2 million poor adults who are now denied Medicaid in 12 states but who are too poor to afford any other form of coverage.
Last year, the U.S. House passed a tax and investment package that raised more than $2.2 trillion in new revenue. You have the ability to invest in American families while making the rich and corporations pay their fair share.
I urge you to act now to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies, originally passed as part of the American Rescue Plan, and to provide health coverage for the 2 million poor adults now denied Medicaid or any other form of insurance. With inflation costing the average U.S. family $460 each month, please do all you can to prevent skyrocketing health care costs for millions of Americans. Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk tomorrow.
Jess
I've been compiling the research on effectiveness of postcards and more. Will take me a few days to get it together, but I'm upset about the NY Times piece. And yesterday there was also the point about how the Dems do nothing but send doomsday fundraising emails. Ugh! We need to educate people about (1) the effectiveness of GOTV and (2) the amount of amazing energy, number of people and organizations are doing this work. I'm working on an education piece about all of this as well!
I'm glad you addressed the NYY article. It left me feeling kinda mopey especially since the link to the study was paywalled. Quite frankly, I sometimes question the wording on the scripts in the letter and postcard writing campaigns. Nonetheless, I'll keep chopping wood and carrying water 😎