Feel-good update: Starting summer with 7 more winners!
Recapping Party for Something, our incredible new winners, and our alumni updates. Goooood stuff.
Welcome back from the long weekend, and happy first unofficial week of summer. We crammed a ton in last week — get ready for lots of good news.
First: Party for Something! More than 300 people joined us (and raised $325,000+) for an incredible evening with Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Stacey Abrams, Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, and our incredible alumni award winners. You can watch the entire program on Facebook — more videos to come, too.
Tuesday was also ELECTION DAY!! 7 of our 16 candidates on the ballot WON, including Olivia Bennett for Allegheny City Council, Jessica Rothchild for Scranton City Council, Deanna Philpott for North Hill School Board, Katherine Richardson for Philadelphia City Council, Sahar Muranovic for David Douglas School Board in Oregon, Carlos Garcia, the newest member of the Phoenix City Council, and Bethany Hallam.
You’ve got to read Bethany Hallam’s story — after a lacrosse injury in high school, Bethany was prescribed opioids. She became addicted, at one point lived in her car, and ended up in the county jail. Her experience as as an addict now in recovery directly informed her campaign — part of her incredible progressive platform includes making the criminal justice system work better for addicts. She was open and transparent about her journey, and ran an incredible campaign. On Tuesday, she beat a 20-year incumbent on the city council, changing the culture of local politics for the better. (Fun fact: Bethany was inspired in part to run by the successful candidacy of childhood friend, Sara Innamorato, another Run for Something alum!)
Also last week: We continued our push to recruit candidates in states with vicious abortion bans. I wrote for Vanity Fair, explaining how Republicans bought state legislatures over the last decade, strategically building what has become the anti-woman death star — and later, sat down with NowThis to talk about why it’s important for people to run for state legislatures.
And finally, in alumni news…
One of our award winners, Gwinnett School Board member Everton Blair Jr., made the news last week for paying off high school students’ debts so they could get their diplomas immediately.
In Albany, state Senator Andrew Gounardes is introducing legislation to force the MTA to increase accessibility — a huge issue, since fewer the 25% of the NYC subway stations have elevators, ramps, or other accommodations for disabled riders.
Also in NY: state Senator Alessandra Biaggi is taking on sexual assault and harassment with a package of 10 bills that overhaul and strengthen NY’s sexual harassment laws.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Jennifer O’Mara is starting the bi-partisan Student Debt Caucus to tackle the debt crisis. Not-so-fun fact: Pennsylvanians carry more student loan debt per person than any other state. Jennifer is one of the 2 million residents with debt — it’s personal for her.
Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow has a powerful op-ed on why it’s time to end conversion therapy — making both the moral and economic argument that it’s the right thing to do.
In Nebraska, state Senator Megan Hunt is leading the charge to both protect and advance reproductive health. She’s not letting the deep-red nature of her state discourage her from at least trying.
This is so lovely: Arizona state Rep. Alma Hernandez is likely the first state lawmaker to ever be featured in a plus-size clothing campaign.
We’re going full-force into the summer with more candidates on the ballot throughout the month, more endorsements to come, and more recruitment campaigns ahead of 2020. Thanks for being part of this. It means so much to our team.