Gear Up for 2018

The Re:Act newsletter from two weeks ago had an excellent section on preparing for special elections and regularly scheduled elections in 2017 as well as the very important 2018 midterms. I’m going to share it here because I think as many people as possible should see it. I’ve already mentioned and supported several of these organizations and promoted some of these actions in this blog, but seeing everything together is helpful in terms of getting an overview of everything we need to do to get more Democrats and progressives into elected office.

Organizing

✓ Find your local Democratic party office. No matter who you support for Chair, the DNC is likely to be in good hands in the years to come, and will be prioritizing local organizing. A few volunteers for a local rep or state senate candidate can make all the difference.

✓ Sign up with #KnockEveryDoor. This initiative is a set of nationwide, volunteer-led canvasses to organize communities against Trump. Canvass where you live and invite your friends to get involved, especially if you live in a county that flipped from Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016.

✓ Donate to the Movement Voter Project. Efficient, localized donating to maximize impact. The organization talent-scouts both national movement-building efforts and local efforts in all 50 states that are focused on voter engagement. These are organizations where an extra $10 will make the greatest difference for achieving progress in keeping democratic institutions viable and accountable.

✓ Find local actions with Indivisible. This search tool allows you to find and create events for the 4,500 groups nationwide.

Special Elections in 2017

✓ For 2017 special elections, share the below Flippable links. Flippable has compiled a list of the 23 upcoming special elections in 2017. These races provide electoral opportunities to resist the Trump agenda. The organization prioritized three races as targets to flip or hold based on the closeness of the race and the long-term impact of these seats on national politics. They’ve also listed all the elections so people can see the nearest one to them:

• Share the site
• Share the Facebook post
• Share the Twitter post

House races

✓ Check out Swingleft. Control of the House in 2018 will be decided by a handful of Swing Districts, places where the last election was decided by a thin margin. Find your closest Swing District and join its team to learn about actionable opportunities to support progressives — and defeat Republicans — in that district, no matter where you live.

✓ Read “These 23 Republicans hold congressional districts that voted for Hillary Clinton” to see if one is near you.

Senate Races

✓ Follow Roadto2018, a coalition focused on the 2018 midterms, with a specific choice to marshal resources to support 12 specific Senate candidates. Speaking personally, I worry about these races getting the attention they deserve, specifically because they will be tough fights.

Gubernatorial Races

✓ Read “Democrats look to 2018 governors races for rebuild.” Twenty-seven of the 38 governorships up in 2017 and 2018 are Republican-held.

✓ Check out the Ballotpedia article on 2018 Gubernatorial elections.

Candidates

✓ Sign up at Run for Something, a new group which will recruit and support talented, passionate young people who will “advocate for progressive values now and for the next 30 years, with the ultimate goal of building a progressive bench.”

✓ Women considering running for office: Check out: VoteRunLead, a non-profit that has trained over 15,000 women for political leadership, the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), and She Should Run.

Voting Rights

✓ Sign up for Let America Vote, a new project by Jason Kander, former senate candidate and secretary of state in Missouri. Says Kander, “We have a voting problem in America. Voting in our country has never been easy, but there’s a new challenge: Politicians are now trying to stop Americans from voting because of who they are likely voting for in an election … Let America Vote will be there to lead the way against it.”

✓ Support VoteRiders, an organization making sure that no eligible citizen is denied his or her right to vote for lack of ID.

Sign Up for Let America Vote

With so many states where Republicans hold a trifecta (State House, State Senate, and governorship), there have been a lot of new voting restriction laws coming out of the woodwork, and frequently passing. These laws are frequently billed as helping to prevent ‘voter fraud’, but rates of voter fraud are so low as to be practically non-existent, and what these laws tend to do in practice is make it much more difficult for young people (especially those who are attending college in a state that is different from the one that they vote in) and POC to vote – both groups that traditionally skew democratic in their political preferences.

It’s important that we do all we can to ensure that nobody who is eligible to vote is disenfranchised by one of these discriminatory and damaging laws. One way that you can help is by signing up and getting involved with Let America Vote, a new venture by former Missouri Secretary of State and 2016 Senate candidate Jason Kander (who is great on Twitter – you should follow him).

The organization is still in its very early days, but it already has the support of some Democratic superstars (Cecile Richards, Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Stephanie Shriock), mostly on the younger end of the spectrum, which is awesome. Donate to help get it up and running, or sign up for information on how you can help to ensure all Americans have the chances to make their voices heard at the ballot box once they’ve gotten on their feet.

Support Jon Osseff in the GA-6 Race for US House of Representatives

Now that Tom Price has, unfortunately, been confirmed for his position in Trump’s Cabinet, his house in the US House of Representatives is open. A special election is being held April 18 to determine who the new Rep for the 6th Congressional District of Georgia will be. Jon Osseff is a former staffer for Rep. John Lewis, and has his support in the race. Trump seriously underperformed expectations in the presidential race in this district, coming in about even with Hillary Clinton. That means that the Democrats have a real chance of taking this seat with enough support and visibility.

Help show Washington that Trump’s agenda is already losing by flipping the first seat in the House back to a Democrat mere months after his inauguration.

Learn more about Jon, donate, and find other ways to support the campaign on his website.

Further reading:

Here’s how you can volunteer to help Jon Ossoff win the special election for Tom Price’s House seat (Daily Kos)

A special congressional election in Georgia could be an early trial for Trump’s popularity (Business Insider)

Support Stephanie Hansen in the Special Election for Delaware State Senate

Inspired by Flippable:

How Democrats are doing on a state and local level is as, if not more, important than how they’re doing on a national level. Right now, Republicans are killing us in that regard – 33 out of 50 governors are Republicans, and Republicans in 24 states control both the entire state legislature and governorship. This is… not good. That’s why we need to support Democrats running for State and local offices, and this week, one of those Democrats is Stephanie Hansen. Stephanie is running for State Senator in Delaware’s February 25th special election. Right now, Delaware is one of the only Democratic ‘trifectas’ in the country, which means that Democrats control the entire state legislature and governorship. If Stephanie wins, that will continue to be true, but if she loses, Republicans will control Delaware’s state senate and will be able to gridlock progressive legislation.

You can learn more about Stephanie and donate to her campaign here.

Add the 2018 and 2020 Elections to Your Calendar

Do it now while you’re thinking about it! Tuesday, November 6, 2018, and Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020. Better yet, October 6, 2018 and October 3, 2020, which will give you time to educate yourself on the issues, educate your friends and family, and get out the vote (and give you a time cushion if you do mail-in or absentee voting).

Voting in the midterm elections is so important! In 2018, Democrats have a lot of incumbent seats to protect in the Senate, and the Republican incumbents will be difficult to oust. But if you commit to voting now, and commit to also getting five of your friends to vote (and so on), it can make a difference. Let’s get Democrats back into the House and Senate. There will also probably be some local and state elections on your ballot, and those are super important too!

And just for your reading pleasure…

US Midterms – What are they, and why are they so important? [The Independent]

Look to 2018 – The midterm election could be the most important for the Democrats yet [Salon]

Register to Vote

If you aren’t registered to vote, register now, while you’re thinking about it. Encourage family and friends to do the same. One less thing to think about when 2018 and 2020 roll around (or whenever your next local election is)! Once you’re registered, try your hardest to vote in all elections that you’re eligible to cast a vote in, from the smallest local elections to the presidential election every four years. The more that any given demographic reliably votes, the more politicians will value their opinions outside of election years (which is *partially* why older white people seem to have a lock on political influence – they vote really reliably).