Chop Wood, Carry Water 9/1

Hi, all, and happy Friday!

I was at my kid’s Back to School night last night, roasting in an under air-conditioned classroom, when I saw a twitter alert on my phone announcing that Mary Peltola had won her race. I literally squealed out loud and grabbed the parent next to me—whom I barely knew—to show her my phone.

She gave me a bemused look, shrugged, and went back to listening to the teacher.

But I didn’t care. I knew it was good news; I needed to share it with someone.

Y’all. We are on an upswing, and after months and perhaps years of swinging in the opposite direction, or, on our better days, simply stopping backwards momentum, I’m enjoying it tremendously.

I’m also marveling at the simple power of hard work.

We’ve seen it now in Alaska. And in Kansas. And in NY-19. These elections weren’t won only because of voters’ anger over Roe. They were won because of that and the hard, largely unsung efforts of volunteers showing up and doing what we’ve learned works.

Yesterday, on the last day of our legislative session, we saw the fruits of such labors here in California, too. Environmental activists scored a huge win by getting a bill passed that will mandate a 2300-foot setback statewide between oil and gas drills and schools and homes. It was a victory that took years of collaborative efforts, people power, and breathtaking persistence. Years.

But we did it.

Sophocles said “Without labor nothing prospers.” He was right. It’s so simple. It’s about the work. The work of making ourselves heard. The work of pushing politicians to do better. The work of electing better politicians when that’s not feasible. The work of persisting.

The work of simply showing up and doing what needs to be done.

So the bad news is that if we want to keep winning we’ll need to keep working.

The good news? Is that when we work we win. Hugely.

Call Your Senators (find yours here)

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

I’m calling to see if the Senator has yet co-sponsored the DISCLOSE Act (S.443), which would stop anonymous spending in our elections by requiring entities trying to influence our elections to disclose their major political donors. If not I’d like them to.

I also want to say again that I want the Senate to pass S. 4556 the Respect For Marriage Act. With this extremist Supreme Court legislating from the bench we need to codify marriage equality immediately. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here)

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

I’m calling to see if the Congressmember has yet co-sponsored the DISCLOSE Act (H.R. 1334), which would stop anonymous spending in our elections by requiring entities trying to influence our elections to disclose their major political donors. If not I’d like them to. Thanks.

Extra Credit ✅

Please send this letter to the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve using their contact us form. (Choose Board Members as your subject)

[Lead with a personal sentence stating why you worry about the climate crisis]

I'm writing to urge the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to follow the lead of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation by proposing climate-related risk management principles for the large banks under its supervision.

Financial risks posed by climate change to banks' safety and soundness are well documented and indisputable. These risks include the physical impacts of climate change on our communities and our financial system and the transition risks that arise as society continues the inevitable transition to a clean energy economy. The Fed has a mandate and a responsibility to address such climate-related financial risks. The Fed's climate guidance should require banks to:

-take a whole-of-business approach to mitigate climate risk

-consider appropriate time horizons for assessing and addressing climate risk

-conduct accurate climate scenario analysis modeling;

-ensure internal strategies align with their public climate commitments;

-recognize how risk-management measures can have adverse effects on low-income and other disadvantaged households and communities, and take steps to mitigate these risks.

The Fed's principles must also explicitly acknowledge that banks' continued financing of greenhouse gas emissions accelerates the climate crisis and threatens the stability of the financial system as a whole. Thank you!

[H/T Sierra Club]

Get Smart! 📚

Want to get more involved in the PA election?

Join NOPE on September 8th to hear from John Fetterman about how he plans to win! You’ll also hear from some of my favorite PA grassroots groups’ leaders: Jamie Parrapeto from Turn PA Blue, and Alonzo Washington and Daniel Alvalle from PA's CASA in Action. All of them will talk about how we will win PA in November. It’s going to be great!

P.S. Strong voter turnout for John will also help PA Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro and PA Democratic candidates for Congress. Win win win!

The event is on Thursday, September 8th, 7-8PM ET. Register here.

Be the Messenger! 📣

Did you know that an amazing group called Into Action offers free GIFs and memes—they add new ones all the time—with progressive and election-related themes? In fact I get many of the graphics I use here from them. They just released a whole new trove of midterms-related content and it’s great! It’s all available to download and use for free!

There are only 68 days until election day: use these images to encourage everyone to get involved and vote for change!

Win Races! 🗳

It’s Thursday, so that means I’m hosting my phonebank into Arizona today from 3-5 PT / 6-8 ET. Won’t you join me?

Blake Masters, the maniacal extremist running against Mark Kelly, just scrubbed his website to remove all of his forced-birther positions and Stop the Steal rhetoric. It’s critical that we let voters know who he really is, and who ALL the Republicans running in AZ are—violent extremists!

Please join me for this fun, easy, and critically important phonebank. I’ll train you!

Oh, and I’m going to do a TikTok live of myself making calls for the second hour, so if you want to see what phonebanking looks like feel free to tune in! I’m at @jesscraven101 on Tiktok.

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

Talk tomorrow.

Jess