How to fight back
Voter suppression is still rampant
On Saturday, President Trump’s crack legal team issued its first response to the impeachment trial. The all-star roster of pedophiles and hypocrites insisted that daring to hold Trump accountable for his brazen corruption was a “dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president,” a specious and undemocratic argument if we’ve ever heard one. It’s absurd for many reasons, including the fact that Republicans have absolutely no interest in free and fair elections.
This week alone, there were major developments in the GOP’s effort to suppress the vote and steal elections in four crucial swing states. (Don’t worry, I’m going to tell you how you can help fight back soon.)
In Florida, the conservative-dominated state Supreme Court backed the GOP’s Jim Crow poll tax. The GOP-passed poll tax will likely strip a million people of their right to vote, pending federal intervention. Plus, Florida Republicans are trying to destroy the ballot initiative system, a direct assault on democracy. Read more in our premium edition.
In Wisconsin, the battle over a conservative-pushed voter purge rages on. Last week was a bit of a roller coaster and the legal wrangling continues. Not willing to take any chances, the state’s Democratic Party is teaming up with Stacey Abrams’ group Fair Fight to make sure they can overcome any purge.
In Arizona, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs settled a lawsuit over the GOP’s failure to update voter info and offer other services in accordance with the law. Now, the rush is on to implement changes by the 2020 election, to ensure as many people as possible can vote in this blue-trending state.
And over in Georgia, it emerged that the state’s election servers were likely repeatedly hacked by Russian operatives and other enemies of democracy. Republicans not only didn’t do anything about it, they secretly wiped the evidence.
So what do we do about all this? Fight them in court, sure, and there are plenty of lawsuits underway. But given how conservatives have hijacked the courts, the surest way to save democracy is to generate more democracy.
Progressives need to be running for office everywhere for many reasons, and combatting voter suppression is one of the most prominent. More active candidates equals more community engagement, more voter registration drives, more rides to the polls, and more poll workers.
But here’s the thing: running for office is hard work! Between all the fundraising, infrastructure, paperwork, and outreach, it’s really a full-time job. Believe me, the number of candidates I’ve spoken to who are also their chiefs of staff and communications director is astounding. Luckily, a group called Run for Something is here to help progressives with all these challenges, ensuring that there are good Democratic candidates at all levels of government.
Run for Something is a nationwide organization run by young activists and elected officials that offers essential services to candidates up and down the ballot. If you want to fight voter suppression, end gerrymandering, and enact good local policy, Run for Something is a crucial group to support. You can check out their growing list of supported candidates here; below are two of my favorites from the list.
CLICK HERE to donate to Run for Something’s efforts to help progressive candidates everywhere!
Akilah Bacy (Texas, HD-138): Democrats lost this Houston-area district by a heartbreaking 47 votes in 2018. Last spring, the Republican legislator who barely held on to the seat saw the coming blue wave and decided to jump ship, announcing that he would not be seeking re-election in 2020.
This is the most flippable seat in Texas and Democrats are lucky to have progressive lawyer Akilah Bacy as their candidate this year. She’s focused her legal career on defending disadvantaged employees and helping children seeking asylum, and her platform is indicative of how quickly Texas is not just turning blue, but producing truly progressive Democrats.
Javier Estevez (Florida, HD-105): This is another district where Democrats fell achingly short of victory in 2018, as the Miami-area race hinged on just over 400 votes, or less than one percentage point. Estevez, a member of the LGBTQ community who grew up in the district, is running to finish the job after coming agonizingly close in the last election.
The son of public school teachers, he’s focused on funding public education and expanding Medicaid, as well as dealing with the environmental crises that are starting to ravage Florida.
CLICK HERE to donate to Run for Something’s efforts to help progressive candidates everywhere!
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