RFS feel-good update (6/24): We built the bench 🔨🔨🔨
Here's what that looks like...
Hi all -
Last week, Suhas Subramanyam won the very competitive 11-way primary for U.S. House VA-10 — a seat previously filled by a retiring Democrat, and one that Suhas is likely to win in November. This will make him at least the fourth RFS alum to serve in Congress, joining TX Rep. Jasmine Crockett, CO Rep. Yadira Caraveo, and Sarah McBride, who is currently uncontested for a congressional seat in Delaware.
When we launched RFS in 2017, one of our long-term goals was to build the bench with young diverse leaders who could rise through the ranks and become compelling national leaders. It is, to put it bluntly, so fucking cool to see that happen in real time.
We’ve still got a ton of alum running for Congress, including Emily Randall in WA, John Padora in CO, Yassamin Ansari in AZ, Lucia Baez-Geller in FL, Rhonda Hart in TX, and Rodney Govens in AR. (Some of those still have primaries to come, so stay tuned on final outcomes.)
We’re also tracking at least three RFS alum running for statewide office — Wesley Harris for NC state treasurer, Malcolm Kenyatta for PA state auditor, and Kyle Evans Gay for DE Lt. governor.
In addition to those folks, we have at least two dozen other alum running to move on to higher office, whether that’s from school board to municipal, municipal to state legislature, or between chambers in state legislatures.
It’s noteworthy to me how many of those folks running for higher officer are women, people of color, or LGBTQIA+ (or some combination of those) — we are building a beautiful and powerful group of present & future leaders of our party.
As always: The work is working. You made that happen. Thanks.
Some other wins last week: Alyia Gaskins, currently a city councilmember, has won her primary and will likely be Alexandria, VA’s first Black woman mayor.
Also congrats to Shan Rose, the newly elected Orlando City Commissioner who’s hitting the ground running after her win last week, and Tashé Allen, who won her primary for district 3 on the Clayton County Board in Georgia.
We’ve got 32 candidates on the ballot tomorrow — stay tuned for updates!
Some good news from across the RFS community:
This headline from Essence about RFS alum Kyra Harris Bolden — phew! Read the full profile here.
This is a really lovely profile of Noah Nordstrom, an openly queer school teacher running for office in Tennessee. (Fun fact: He was actually the campaign manager for RFS candidate Brandon Washington in 2023!)
NV Rep. Selena La Rue Hatch, a teacher who won an open seat back in 2022, is now being challenged by a Republican who has personal backing from the GOP governor as one of the top targets for the state GOP, and who so far has outraised Selena 6 to 1 — she’s staying explicitly focused on her work around education, workers’ rights, climate change, and abortion access.
Nida Allam, the Board of County Commissioners Chair in Durham, NC, successfully fought to exponentially increase funding for Durham public schools in the county’s latest budget - a huge win for Durham families.
CO Rep. Brianna Titone led on sponsoring legislation to put marriage equality on the ballot in the state, which still has a ban on gay marriage in the state constitution.
CA Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo has introduced legislation to provide reparations on behalf of families who were evicted in order to build Dodger Stadium back in the 1950s.
MI Rep. Fabian Nelson’s bipartisan bill to force social media companies to verify the ages of their users and ban digitally-produced or modified images of child pornography is now being challenged in a lawsuit by a major trade association. Hmmmm.
It’s been hot hot hot on the east coast in the last week — in Worcester, MA, city councilmembers Thu Nguyen and Etel Haxhiaj have, along with their colleagues, been pushing for more cooling center offerings.
In related reading:
Our Wisconsin State Director, Darrol Gibson, spoke with Bolts Magazine about why recruiting prosecutor candidates in Wisconsin is so challenging and why it matters to keep trying anyway.
“But in order to win a legislative majority, in any state, we need Democrats in urban areas; we need candidates who represent the suburbs and exurbs; we need people who can compete in rural areas. This is why having the right candidates all across the state matters so much. You put all of those districts in play, you put really smart storytellers out into the world, you talk to voters and you sell our story. We’re not giving up on anywhere.” - Heather Williams of the DLCC, summing up the RFS theory of change pretty succinctly!
Organizers looking to turn out young voters in Arizona spoke to how this is playing out in real time.
“I personally am not going to use my organization to be an all out for Biden organization, and I don’t mean we’re not engaged. But I’ve always seen our campus group as a group that engages locally. I’d love to turn us out for local candidates. I think your work for local candidates goes a lot further,” Isabel said. “If you encourage people to start voting blue at the bottom of the ballot, chances are that’s going to trickle up and they’ll vote for Biden in the long run.”
Gem, who works in the labor movement, agrees.
“That’s definitely been the standpoint for a lot of organizing I’ve seen in the labor movement as well. We focus mostly on Arizona because Biden is not a really easy sell for most people. Unless you are an avid MSNBC watcher, it’s hard to sell people on Biden, and even then, some of the most avid MSNBC watchers don’t like him,” they said. “But we have such strong down ballot people… really interesting progressive people.”
Two events this week to put on your radar:
Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, June 25th at 1pm ET where we will be taking a deep dive into our school board program and how our work is helping to save public education and defend our democracy. We’ll be chatting through both nonpartisan and partisan opportunities for 2024. I would love to see you on the Zoom!
On Wednesday, June 25th, I’m joining Democracy Fund for the first session of their 10th Anniversary webinar series —- we’ll be talking about the crucial role of election administrators as stewards of democracy. I’ll be highlighting our Clerk Work program (including sharing some updated numbers!!) so register now!
Thanks for making all this possible.
- Amanda
If we can't SELL Biden at the top of the ticket, there won't be any place for the down ticket candidates. If Trump wins, his scorched earth plans will destroy all the progress made since WWII. Roe is just the beginning! Please, try harder for Biden and Harris!