Chop Wood, Carry Water 9/27 🥾

Teamwork is the dreamwork!

Hi, all, and happy Tuesday!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend—especially if you’re one of the lucky folks who got three days off!

Me, I did my first Christy Smith canvass of the cycle on Sunday, in 95 degree weather, in Lancaster. While I didn’t have the best success rate—for whatever reason I encountered an unusual number of “not homes” on my list—I still managed to knock on 35 doors, get in 6300 steps, and get a selfie with the co-founder of Indivisible, who came to canvass with us. Here’s me and her before we went out.

Indivisible formed me as an activist, and I’m still deeply involved with them on both a group and a leadership level, so meeting their co-founder and getting to thank her in person was sort of a thrill.

More thrilling, though? To just get out there and do my part towards winning in November.

Some days, after all, our canvasses will go well. Sometimes they’ll be a bit of a dud. Same with phonebanks. Same with fundraisers. Same with Congressional calls.

It doesn’t matter, as long as we do them.

My job isn’t to control the outcome. I can’t! My job is simply to “suit up and show up,” as they say. To do the work.

It’s how I stay sane. It’s how I serve my country.

And, when enough of us do it, it’s how we win.

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P.S. — A number of you have written in to say you also need help buying stamps. Since so many of you offered to help with our first writer, would y’all kindly use the comments section today to find each other? As much as I’d love to, I can’t find the time to keep coordinating this. So if you need help with the expense of postage or letter or postcard writing materials please share that! And if you don’t have time to write but want to “sponsor” a writer please look for someone to help in the comments section! Thanks! 💌

Call Your Senators (find yours here)

[The Senate is scheduled to vote today on whether to attach Manchin’s dirty deal to a must pass government funding bill.]

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

I’m calling to ask the Senator to vote no on any attempt to attach Joe Manchin’s dirty pipeline deal to the Continuing Resolution today. This deal will gut out climate goals—it can’t happen. I’ll be watching his/her vote closely. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here)

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

I’m calling to strongly urge the Congressmember to work to include funding to expand access to affordable housing and prevent evictions in the year-end spending bill. Congress should expand housing vouchers and vote in favor of significant funding to preserve and operate public housing, bolster HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants program, fund legal assistance to prevent evictions, and strengthen the competitive tribal housing program, targeted to tribes with the greatest needs.

So many people are hurting due to inflation and multiple public health crises. It’s critical that Congress pass this legislation to help. Thanks. [H/T]

Extra Credit ✅

Democrats Deliver has just launched Democrats-Deliver.org - a free website which they hope will be a powerful resource to help educate pro-democracy voters, and ensure that Democrats win up and down the ballot in 2022. Please check it out and share it!

Here’s what you’ll find on Democrats-Deliver.org: 

• Key points on the 24 issues most important to Democrats, Independents and non-Trump Republicans. Got an older voter who cares about border security, a younger voter who cares about climate action, one who is worried about Social Security and the economy? We got it covered. For many sections, we also provide a “More Details” section for those folks who want more information. 

• High-level overviews on what a difference our time, money and votes made in 2020. We cover what Biden inherited, what the Dem-led Congress has accomplished, the differences between the Biden-Harris administration and the Trump administration, what VP has been doing, what’s at stake, messaging and what’s required to win in 2022.

• Volunteer recommendations.

• Graphics to share on social media. 

• Downloadable PDFs. These PDFs cover all 24 Issues and the 7 Big Picture sections on Democrats-Deliver.org, and have a linked table of contents for quick referencing. They can be provided to volunteers to give substantive, vetted and researched answers.

So incredible. Please check out the website then share widely!

Get Smart! 📚

Yesterday I sent you a tweet containing my Tiktok about why voting early helps Dem candidates win, but I didn’t realize that the person who’d shared the video only posted the first 15 seconds! Gah! Here is the video in its 52 second entirety. Please spread the word about the info it contains! (Here it is on IG if that’s easier.)

Voting early is our secret weapon!

Give 💰!

Force Multiplier, a great volunteer-led org working to raise money for progressive candidates, is having an online event featuring—and fundraising for—Tim Ryan! Whoooo! You’ll get to hear him speak about why his race matters and how he’s going to win it!

It’s this Thursday, September 29th, from 6:45-7:45 pm ET

REGISTER + DONATE here (you can donate any amount to attend. Please be as generous as you can, though—all proceeds go to the Ryan campaign.)

Hope you can make it!

Win Races, Write Letters to Climate Voters! 🗳

I LOVE THIS! 🌎

Greenpeace just launched a new letter-writing campaign into key swing Congressional districts that have climate Dems running in them. These letters are super cool because they have info about the specific candidate in them, including how they stand on key enviro provisions. AND the letters are bilingual. Genius!

You can print them yourself OR if you don’t have a printer they will send them to you. They will even send stamps if the expense is a hardship!

Super cool, and an easy way to help. You just write a few sentences on each letter—the rest is pre-written—then put in an envelope, address, and hold to send on October 28th.

Sign up here. And please spread the word!

By the way, they’re having a Thursday evening (7 pm EST) happy hour for letter writers if you’d like to join them! It’s a fun way to meet fellow volunteers—sign up at this link. 

Win Races, Make Phone Calls!

PowerHour Sundays Virtual Phone Bank
Sundays @ 3 – 5pm EDT
If you have only one hour per week to give to strengthening our democracy, make it worthwhile and enjoyable. Join Lean Left's Election PowerHour Sundays — anytime between 3 and 5 pm EDT — when volunteers come together to do the work and support one another.
 
These are work sessions making calls to four target states: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. To make your PowerHour experience focused and productive, you’ll receive the steps to prepare when you sign up.

Which you can do right here!

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

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

We know that Ginni Thomas exchanged text messages with Mark Meadows, Trump’s former Chief of Staff, telling the White House not to concede the 2020 election. She pressured lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin to overturn the election results should Biden win the presidency. She corresponded with John Eastman, the lawyer who schemed with Trump to pressure Mike Pence to block the certification of Biden’s victory. And she attended the deadly insurrection on the Capitol on January 6th.

Despite all of this, her husband, Justice Clarence Thomas failed to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases related to January 6th. On the contrary—he was the only justice to vote against granting the January 6th Select Committee access to key Trump administration documents related to the insurrection.

This is a clear conflict of interest and is blatantly unethical. But unlike every other federal judge in the nation, Supreme Court justices aren’t beholden to any structured code of conduct.

With Mrs. Thomas set to testify in front of the Jan. 6th committee, only time will tell how much farther the Thomases will go to hide the truth. As a voter and your constituent, I'm urging you to launch a full investigation in Clarence Thomas’s actions and to pass the 21st Century Courts Act (H.R.7426 / S.4010), which would introduce a long overdue code of ethics for the Supreme Court.

No one is above the law—even the Supreme Court. It’s time for accountability. Thanks.

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

Talk tomorrow.

Jess