Hope you had a good Labor Day weekend! Please enjoy this holiday edition of our feel-good update, coming to you on a Wednesday to make your post-vacation work week a little more delightful…
First, election updates: We’ve gone through two primary days — congrats to our winners: Andres Cano (AZ House, LD 3), Alma Hernandez (AZ House, LD3), Joe Bisaccia (AZ House, LD 12), Kelly Damerow (Brevard County School Board, District 5), Pasha Baker (Mayor, Sanford, FL), Dotie Joseph (FL House, 108), Wesley Anne Beggs (Sarasota County Commissioner, District 4), Carrie Blumert (Oklahoma County Commissioner, District 1), Becca Rausch (MA State Senate), and David LeBoeuf (MA State House.)
We’re still going through results from last night, so more inevitably to come.
One larger trend I want to note for you: Candidates who talking heads, institutions, & the polls have written off — Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Andrew Gillum, Stacey Abrams, Ayanna Pressley, to name a few — keep winning. It’s not because there’s some secret tool they’re using; it’s because they’re exciting, passionate, rooted in community, and willing to do the work to connect with voters. Imagine how many people told them not to run, or to wait their turn, or that the polls said they couldn’t win either the primary or the general so they shouldn’t even try.
That’s why we are so insistent that “viability” and “electability” as metrics for both candidate recruitment and support are problematic and dangerous. Go with your gut. Find the people that get you excited and who are doing the work, and do what you can to help them. I promise you: That’s what we’re going to keep doing.
You can get a taste of the kind of folks we’re working with in our newest video: “From classroom to campaign.” In honor of back to school season, we highlighted some of our many incredible educators running for office. This is one of my favorite videos — it’s so inspiring and so optimistic.
We’re not the only ones who think our candidates rule. Ahead of the NY primary on September 13th, the NYT endorsed THREE of our candidates for state senate: Alessandra Biaggi, Jessica Ramos, and Zellnor Myrie.
Opinion | True Reformers for New York's Senate
Inspiring challengers deserve voters' support as they face business-as-usual lawmakers in the Sept. 13 primary. By The…www.nytimes.com
A little more outside validation: Politico listed us on their “Politico 50” list of the top ideas driving (and changing) politics today. While of course these lists are somewhat silly, anytime we get to outrank at least two members of Congress plus Ben Shapiro, we’ll take it.
Feeling fired up and want to plan out your fall calendar? We’ve got events in NYC on 9/20, DC and Madison on 10/4, and Austin on 10/11 — plus way more to come. Want to host an event? Email us!
Thanks for making all this possible. We’re so grateful to get to do this work with you.