Feel-good update: How we’re adapting to the crisis
Our new strategic plan, updates from our events, and more on how our community is leading when it matters most.
As always, hope you’re safe & sane right now. Today is Monday, we made it to another week! A few org updates for you…
First: This morning, we’re publishing our plan for how we’re adapting to the pandemic. The TL;DR: Our mission stays the same, our program has & will continue to adapt to support our candidates in the best meaningful ways possible. This doc is a quick read, but I hope you’ll take a look. Putting this plan out is in line with one of our core values, honesty and transparency — just like our strategic plans, it’s detailed and clear-eyed about the challenges ahead of us and the ways we’re going to try and tackle them together. Let us know if you have thoughts & questions.
Second: Thanks to the many of you who joined us for a Front Row Series event (or a few of them!) last week. If you missed out, or want to replay one of the videos, everything is up on YouTube and linked to here. I couldn’t dare pick a favorite. Fun fact: More than 1100 people joined us throughout the week, and while we didn’t set a specific ticket amount knowing that folks are going through tough financial situations right now, we raised more than $30k with an average donation of $27.
Third: A quick elections update: Last week we got confirmed results for the four RFS candidates on the ballot in Wisconsin — congrats to Lynnsey Erickson & Elena Haasl for winning their competitive races and Alex Joers & Max Prestigiacomo (who may be one of the youngest elected officials in America!) for getting their election wins certified!
Some RFS candidate & alumni news…
- Across the country, RFS alum are pushing for rent relief: In Virginia, Alexandria Councilmember Canek Aguirre is pushing for a moratorium on rent and mortgage payments, and to protect folks’ credit scores during this crisis. In New York, Utica Councilmember Delvin Moody is urging the city to use emergency solution grants to help residents pay rent. State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi is pushing for legislation to cancel rent statewide and relief for property owners who’d miss income accordingly.
- The Atlantic published a powerful look at a day-in-the-life of Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. as he works to save lives in his city, even while the Arkansas governor refuses to issue a stay-at-home order.
- Denver Councilmember Candi CdeBaca is fighting for the city to take concrete steps to protect communities of color, who are being disproportionately harmed by the pandemic.
-South Carolina: Rep. Kambrell Garvin is pushing to expand Medicaid at a moment when health care is more important than ever.
- Massachusetts: Sen. Becca Rausch sponsored legislation to send mail-in ballots to voters and PPE to poll workers. Sen. Rausch also joined in on cosponsoring RFS alum Rep. Maria Robinson’s legislation requiring essential businesses to pay workers time-and-a-half.
- Missouri: It’s worth listening to NPR’s interview with Brianna Lennon, the clerk of Boone County, on how she’s working with her Republican counterparts to push for making absentee ballots more easily available to people.
- Connecticut: Sen. Will Haskell has a powerful op-ed in the local paper on how simply striking three words from state election law would make it quick and easy for all citizens of CT to cast their ballots from home this fall.
- Remember how in 2018, Floridians passed a ballot initiative to restore the right to vote to 1.4 million people who’d served time in prison, and then the state legislature instituted a law that in practice acted as a poll tax, requiring those 1.4 million people to pay down court debts first? The sponsor of that legislation (who is also trying to destroy unions, among other things) is the incumbent that RFS candidate Jessica Harrington is running against (and she came within 5000 votes of beating him last time around.)
Finally: We talked with Business Insider about how this crisis affects state legislative races (and the fight for redistricting) ahead of 2020.
Thanks for sticking with us. Here to talk whenever you need.
We’re doing another Drink for Something event this Thursday, hosted by DNC CTO Nellwyn Thomas and DNC CMO Patrick Stevenson. It should be fun! Join in.