RFS feel-good update (3/1): Our first winner of 2021!
Repeat after me: There's no such thing as an off-year.
Hi all -
First, rabbit rabbit! We made it to March. (Yes, it’s somehow finally March and also still March? Unclear on how time has been functioning over the last year, but we’re here, so let’s go with it.)
Good news: Last week, Run for Something celebrated our first winner of 2021!!! Chaundra Bishop won her race for Urbana City Council. We worked with Chaundra for the first time in 2020, when she ran for county coroner. She lost that election but got immediately back in the fight. Resiliency: We love to see it.
Also last week: We kicked off the first of what will be regular fundraising drives for slates of candidates — the first one is in partnership with Collective PAC to raise funds for overlapping endorsed candidates. Donate now to support Black leadership, and stay tuned for updates both to this slate and to more slates down the road.
Less good news… State and local GOP elected officials are pushing laws that will make it harder for folks to cast their ballots, specifically and proudly in order to hold sustainable power even while their policies are less popular. Even when Trump’s not on the ballot, his people are: As Axios put it, “we're quickly seeing that Trump's true power source is in the states.”
This letter to the editor to the Arizona Daily Star (which we did not solicit, I swear!!) sums it up pretty well:
We have a rot disease in government and need a cure. Good citizens must find a cure. Maybe the organization Run for Something has our elixir. Check out the site at runforsomething.net. We deserve better, demand better. Stop the rot.
In RFS candidate & alumni updates…
CO Reps. Yadira Caraveo and Julie Gonzales are leading on legislation that will tackle the daily late fees that some landlords add onto rent, prohibit evictions based solely on late fees, crack down on landlords who illegally lock people out of their homes, and make it easier for tenants to seek help in court if they live in unsafe conditions, such as no heat or water, or if there are holes in their roof. Renter representation matters!
As anti-trans legislation continues to bubble up across the country, it’s more important than ever to have trans legislators (and allies) leading. Watch this from CO state Rep. Brianna Titone…
Meanwhile, state Rep. Taylor Small, the first trans lawmaker in Vermont, introduced legislation to ban the “gay panic defense.”
In Texas, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee has launched an investigation into the agencies that run the state’s energy grid, while Travis County DA Jose Garza has launched a criminal investigation through his office’s public integrity unit. This is what accountability looks like.
NY state Sen. Jessica Ramos had an op-ed in the Gotham Gazette about the critical need for boosting access to affordable child care as part of covid relief.
WA state Sen. Emily Randall helped pass a bill that would ban paying sub-minimum wage to persons with disabilities.
Berkeley, CA, has ended exclusionary zoning, led by RFS alum Rigel Robinson and Terry Taplin, among others. Progress!
Also in Berkeley: The city council passed legislation to reform the role of police officers in relation to traffic enforcement — which is the most common way Americans interact with the police.
FL Rep. Anna Eskamani has launched a statewide voter registration plan, with a goal of registering 25,000 new voters in 2021. Year-round organizing is the only path forward to winning a state like Florida one day down the road.
In Virginia, Del. Danica Roem has passed legislation that prohibit school boards from suing families to collect school meal debt, building off her work in previous sessions around the same issue.
CA Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo has introduced a bill that would require CA-based companies with 1,000+ employees to provide up to 60 hours of subsidized backup child care — a first-of-its-kind bill.
In the latest edition of “Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo Is An All-Star,” check this out.
Washtenaw County prosecutor Eli Savit has announced that his office will not coordinate with federal immigration enforcement efforts — effective immediately, someone’s immigration status does not matter to the county’s criminal justice system.
“It is really scary as a young person, as a Black person (and) as a queer person to announce a candidacy for any position,” [Tiara] Mack said.
Between 2019 and 2020, she ran her campaign and unseated Metts, making her one of the youngest senators in Rhode Island at age 27, as well as the first Black queer woman in the Statehouse.
“I knew that the change that I wanted to see and the change that I wanted to access was in the Rhode Island Senate chambers, so that’s where I wanted to be.”
After the winter storm, TX state Rep. James Talarico has filed a climate action plan, pushing the state to plan for future disasters and establish goals for reducing emissions.
NC state Rep. Ricky Hurtado, the first Latino in the state house, knows his campaign and election was historic — but that’s not why he ran. He ran so working-class communities like his could have a voice in government.
Boston city council candidate Alex Gray writes in Blind New World:
I am running for office because I want to give a voice to the approximately 140,000 people with disabilities in Boston. I think people with disabilities want, and deserve, to have someone who has shared in their experience, that looks like them, in the conversation amongst elected officials. I think it is so crucial that we start to include conversations about people with disabilities not just in a silo, but in the larger policy and diversity conversation.The older I get, the more I think about dignity. It is one of the few things in life that can’t be taken away. So in my life and in this campaign, helping others to find dignity in their work and in their lives, no matter who they are and what background they come from, will always be a top value for me each and every day.
Ultimately, I’m running because what I think we need more and more in this world, are good listeners.
We’re very excited for Denver school board member Tay Anderson on his big announcement!
In related reading…
Politico has a cool deep-dive into the changing diversity (or lack thereof) in state legislatures. A fun fact: Run for Something has helped elect BIPOC leaders in all 16 state legislatures that have gotten more diverse since 2015.
National policy arounds climate change is critical, yes. But, city and county leadership also matters. Read this, in Bloomberg (from, uh, Michael Bloomberg):
”Here’s an example of why city leadership matters so much. Two years ago, cities and states came together to pass important new energy-efficiency standards for homes and offices, over fierce opposition from building contractors and real estate developers. Now, the construction industry has asked the International Code Council, which manages model codes, to eliminate the right of cities and states to vote in the setting of future energy codes. Instead, the builders would become the arbiters of model standards for houses and offices.”
Just dropping this here as some food for thought…
This week on the Run for Something podcast: A conversation with Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam on her journey into elected office, which began when an anti-Muslim shooter killed her best friend and two others. We talk about her role on the Durham County Commission and how she built her campaign, and Nida speaks candidly about the great joy she took in campaigning as a Muslim woman, as well as the threats she endured. She promises: She may be the first, but she's not the last. Get the show wherever you get your podcasts.
As we approach the one year anniversary of the pandemic, I just want to say thank you, as always. This work is so hard, and especially over the last year, has been so hard, and will continue to be hard, but we’re lucky to get to do it with you.
Thanks for making it all possible.
- Amanda