RFS feel-good update (11/8): All our Election Day winners!!
128+ reasons to feel good about last week's election
Hi all -
I know last week’s election results felt on the whole, pretty rough. Losing the VA governorship and some key seats in the state house, the tighter-than-expected race in NJ, and a number of other critical losses across the country — all of it hurt.
And, at the same time: Run for Something candidates had an excellent night. With 16 races still to call and at least 5 candidates moving to run-offs, we’re tracking at least 128 winners — including 17 school board candidates, 5 state legislative races, 103 municipal elections and 3 legal roles.
Our winners from Tuesday are ~60% women, ~65% BIPOC, and ~25% LGBTQIA+; they live across 18 states.
Some of the many many highlights:
Justin Bibb will be the next mayor of Cleveland — he didn’t just win, he creamed his opposition.
Melanie Arroyo beat out an incumbent and became the first Latina elected to the city council in Lenexa, Kansas.
Shahana Hanif became the first Muslim woman to be elected to the NY City Council.
Activist Kenda Hicks became the first person of color to represent her district on the Boston City Council. Ruthzee Louijeune won an at-large seat on the Boston City Council as well and will be the first Haitian-American to represent the city.
Indira Sheumaker, a 27 year old Black Lives Matter activist, beat an incumbent on the Des Moines City Council in Iowa.
First-generation Mexican American activist Gabriela Santiago-Romero became the first LGBTQ woman of color on the Detroit City Council.
College senior Justin Tseng became the youngest member of the Medford City Council in MA.
Xander Orenstein, a housing activist and renter, became the first non-binary member of the federal judiciary when they won a seat on the Allegheny County Magistrate Court; Xander beat an incumbent who sided with landlords a vast majority of the time.
Peter Ageropoulos flipped a seat on the Manchester school board red to blue.
Mary Wineberg, a gold medal Olympian, won a seat on the Cincinnati school board.
Aisha Chugtai became the first Muslim woman elected to the Minneapolis City Council. Jason Chavez, an organizer and LGBTQ+ Latino, was also elected to the coucnil.
Rebecca Maurer defeated a 16-year incumbent and became the first LGBTQ+ woman elected to the Cleveland City Council.
Sophia Garcia-Jackson was elected coroner of Chester County, PA.
Hamdi Mohamed & Toshiki Grace Hasegawa both beat incumbents to win seats on the Port of Seattle Commission. Hamdi will be one of the only commissioners ever elected from South King County.
(Because I always get emails asking: every single candidate ran on progressive, visionary, values-driven platforms and prioritized grassroots efforts and voter-contact above all else.)
We won big — but so did conservatives. Outside of the obvious ones in VA & NJ, two thirds of the anti-CRT school board candidates endorsed by the Trump-affiliated 1776 Project won their elections — you can read how a conservative slate of candidates in Colorado were able to win seats on a school board.
Republicans found success rallying around education and “parental rights” as an issue — we can expect to see that again in 2022.
This mixed bag of results shows us: We can win when we fight — but so can the GOP. We can’t let our foot of the gas for one minute.
(Of course, none of this is a surprise to regular readers of these emails — we’ve been talking about this for months!)
In the meantime, if you need some listening or reading material:
I talked with Michael Moore about why young people should follow in his footsteps and run for office themselves.
From the NYT, an op-ed appropriately titled Laugh at the ‘S.N.L.’ School Board Skit, Take Your Local Politics Seriously: “Local public meetings are easy to dismiss: They can alternate between boring and chaotic. They can be dominated by extremists, by special interests or by people with too much time on their hands. But people who think local democracy is beneath them are making a big mistake. Not only are consequential decisions made at public meetings; local democracy holds the secret to counteracting the endemic problem of partisan polarization. In fact, it offers the potential for interesting new coalitions to spring up, defying the ordinary dividing lines of partisan politics.”
I’m still marinating on this but it’s super interesting:
This week on the Run for Something podcast: First, a quick run-through of how previous guests did on Election Day, and some thoughts on VA & NJ. Then: We talk with Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon on what it was like running an election during a pandemic, what county clerks actually do, and what you should do now if you might want to run for that position one day. You can find Brianna on social media at @briannalennon, or listen to her podcast, "High Turnout, Wide Margins" wherever you get your shows.
Two RFS events to put on your calendar:
This Wednesday, 11/10, at 8pm ET: Unapologetically Progressive & Native — a conversation with Indigenous leaders about what it takes to run for office, free for members of the RFS community like you!
Save the date: On December 14th in the afternoon, we’ll be joining with some partners and special guests for a debrief on 2021 & a look ahead to 2022. If you’ve attended our December summits in the past, you know how interesting and insightful these events are. Don’t miss it — tickets are free!
Thank you for making all this possible. These wins are because of you — these historic victories and change-making leaders are only happening because of the support of you and thousands of other members of the Run for Something community.
You’re the best.
- Amanda