Make sure everyone you know sees this
Make sure everyone you know sees this
The info is crucial, now more than ever
Welcome to the big Sunday edition of Progressives Everywhere!
Democrats and progressives are facing a number of major emergencies, some of which are going under the radar. Read on to learn more — including how you can help.
All the Absentee Ballot Info You need
As I’ve outlined for premium subscribers for the last few weeks, the Trump administration is waging a full-bore assault on the United States Postal Service and the very foundations of our democracy. Sorting machines are being removed, street mailboxes are being uprooted, mail is being deliberately held, worker hours are being cut, and Trump continues to wage Twitter war against absentee balloting.
While Congress is *breaking news* coming back to “consider legislation” regarding the USPS, it’s ultimately up to us to take action. We have to not only put public pressure on the administration and members of Congress, we’ve got to make sure our votes count.
To that end, today I launched AbsenteeBallots.info, a simple clearinghouse of each state’s voter registration and absentee ballot deadlines, early voting dates, and links to registration, mail ballot applications, and other info.
Right now, it looks like this:
If anyone wants to help make it more aesthetically pleasing, please get in touch!
The data in the spreadsheet has been triple-checked for accuracy (I didn’t get a lot of sleep the last few nights) but if you see something off, please let me know. It will continue to be updated as states figure out how to cope with both the pandemic and the continued assault from the White House.
Big News You Need to Know
Here are some of the big headlines you may have missed over the long weekend and late last week.
If you’re overwhelmed with work and life and just want someone to send you the most crucial election news directly to your inbox each and every night, you can subscribe to the premium edition of the newsletter! It’s dirt cheap — and if you sign-up now, I’ll give you a free week trial!
Also: When you’re done reading, could you scroll back up and click on the heart above? Substack tracks and promotes the day’s most liked newsletters and it’d be a huge help to climb up the charts!
Legislative Candidates Need Help
This is disconcerting: Democrats are trailing big-time in fundraising for legislative candidates, according to a report from the group Foward Majority.
Democratic legislative candidates are being swamped in the fundraising game in crucial swing states where they have a chance to flip at least one chamber of the legislature. In Texas, Democrats in top races have raised just 65% of the money that Republicans have taken in and have just 30% of their cash on hand.
In Florida, their 23 top candidates have raised just 30% of what the GOP’s candidates have raised.
These are all really winnable districts, where Democratic candidates like Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Gillum won in 2018 despite the GOP’s big money advantage. If we can help out, there is still a great chance that Democrats can flip some of them.
Our main Progressives Everywhere slate of candidates includes over a dozen legislative candidates running in flippable states like Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia. You can DONATE to them HERE to help out across the most important districts in the country. We’re adding another one to the list on Wednesday, a North Carolina progressive named Ricky Hurtado!
Meanwhile, I’ve highlighted the most flippable races in Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona in recent editions of the newsletter. You can donate to each of those full slates below:
Elections and Voting Rights
National: We’ve already spent a lot of time on the biggest voting rights issue of the moment, the full assault on the USPS. I just want to reemphasize just how terrible this is, for reasons that go beyond democracy.
The postal service is an integral part of the national infrastructure, a nervous system that makes so many other crucial operations possible. Absentee ballots, even with increased numbers this fall, won’t make up more than 3% of the mail this October and November.
Millions of people get their medication in the mail every single day and the slowdown will put their lives at risk. A whopping 20% of adults over 40 get ongoing medication through the mail. You’d think that would concern Republicans, but neither Trump nor other GOP lawmakers have shown any qualms about mass murdering Americans.
See:
Trump has a habit of saying the quiet part loud and expediting the long-term goals of the conservative movement. The USPS was saddled with unprecedented debt by the George W. Bush administration in 2006 because conservatives hate government and want to drown it so that for-profit enterprises can take over (and jack up prices on Americans). Unsurprisingly, Trump’s Postmaster General is a private shipping magnate. Even if he wasn’t trying to rig an election, he’d be working to bury the postal service in some way or another.
Ballot Initiatives: As we get closer to the election, more states are revealing which proposed ballot initiatives did and did not make the cut.
In Arizona, an initiative for marijuana legalization (Prop 207) has officially made the ballot. Unfortunately, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs announced on Friday that the proposed criminal justice reform initiative is likely to fall short of the valid signatures required.
Montana will also vote on legalizing weed.
The tireless grassroots group Reclaim Idaho acknowledged that its long battle to get its initiative to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund schools is not likely to make the ballot this year. As I’ve written about over the last few months, Reclaim Idaho — the driving force behind the state’s successful Medicaid expansion initiative in 2018 — was on track to get the required signatures before COVID hit.
A judge ruled that they should be able to collect signatures online, but Gov. Brad Little hates education so much that he fought tooth and nail against it, appealing to higher courts that will likely take months to sort out the matter, effectively rendering it all moot.
Massachusetts: What a week in western Mass, where Holyoke Mayor (and Progressives Everywhere endorsee) Alex Morse is primarying long-time Rep. Richard Neal (D-Wall Street):
To recap: Last week, unflattering allegations about Holyoke Mayor and Massachusetts congressional candidate Alex Morse surfaced via the College Democrats of UMass Amherst, who wrote a letter that was soon published in the school newspaper.
What soon became clear, however, was that the students involved in publishing the letter had political ambitions and connections to Neal’s office. Not only that, they’d spent months and months trying to catfish Morse into doing something inappropriate; he frustrated them by being naturally polite.
A few days later, it was revealed that the Massachusetts Democratic Party not only knew about the letter that UMass College Democrats were going to send, they fully encouraged it and even helped make it happen.
The College Dems have since apologized for all the homophobic insinuations and attacks that followed the letter’s release.
Morse, for his part, has apologized if he ever made anyone feel uncomfortable and says he now recognizes the power he holds. He taught a course at UMass in his 20s and dated a few students, though none he ever taught. Here’s his apology:
In an interview with BuzzFeed, he spoke candidly about his life as a young gay man and the pressures he faces. “I’m well aware of the impact that [apologizing] would have on other young people and queer people and people running for office in the future,” he said.
Florida: Big news on the disgraceful Republican side!
Laura Loomer, veritable right-wing demagogue who was long-ago banished from Twitter, is running for Congress in the state’s 21st district. Incredibly, she may not even be the most bonkers fringe right-winger in the party primary; Reba Sherrill is a full-on QAnon conspiracy theorist.
Last week, James Grant, the sponsor of Florida’s Jim Crow poll tax announced that he was not running for re-election, giving the GOP just a week to find a replacement. Their choice? Tracy Koster, a Tampa divorce attorney who has spent much of her career foreclosing on people’s homes.
Wait, before you go!
Progressives Everywhere is a one-person operation funded by readers like you (and whatever spare change I have in my pocket after paying rent). Together, we’ve raised over $1.3 million for truly progressive candidates and causes since 2018, helping to flip seats, restore voting rights, expand healthcare, and much more.
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