RFS feel-good update (4/5): 31 candidates on the ballot this week!
There are no off-years.
Hi all -
Tomorrow is Election Day! (As always, repeat after me: There are no off-years.)
We’re keeping an eye on 31 candidates in Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
Check out the full list here, then watch your inbox & our social media feeds for election updates.
We have so much that we’re tracking, so I’m breaking things out into three sections for this week’s update: candidate news (obvs, people currently on the ballot), alumni updates (for ways our network is making immediate progress in office) , and bench watch (updates specifically on our alum who are running for higher office - while we’re not endorsing them in these races in any formal way, we’re obviously rooting for them!).
In RFS 2021 candidate news:
In roller derby, Andrea Waner is known as “Maple Stirrup” — outside of derby, she’s chair of Columbia’s Commission on Human Rights and candidate for city council.
If Jasmine Harris wins her campaign for mayor of Omaha week, she’ll be the first Black woman to lead the city. Learn more about her campaign.
Anne Schweitzer is part of a slate of progressives candidates running to “Flip the Board” in St. Louis — if they’re successful, they can wildly transform the city’s public safety and public housing policy.
Diana Saleh is running for Arlington City Council on a platform to improve access to council and form a review board to investigate conduct complaints against Arlington Police, improve partnerships with schools and universities, support economic development, creating a permanent Unity Council and support transportation and road repair initiatives. Her race is making news because of large number of women of color competing — four years prior, there was only one candidate of color on the ticket.
If Rachel Giuliani-Hagenbaugh wins her race for New Port Richey city council, she’ll be the first woman of color to serve on the board. She explains: “I’m not the type of person to sit on the sidelines and just complain. I put my name out there simply because there was no one else doing it. And this insight and perspective of the everyday resident is needed to help buffer the differences that’s happening in our government. And everything starts local.”
Bryan Amezquita is an entrepreneur eager to be proactive on infrastructure driving down crime — he’s taking on an 8-year incumbent for a seat on the Rockford city council.
Health care professional Stacey Ellis is taking on an incumbent for Antioch mayor — she’s running in part because of the kindness her community showed her after her husband, a state trooper, was killed by a drunk driver last spring.
The Cut profiled Chi Ossé, the third-generation Brooklynite, queer, Black 23-year old activist running for City council. These photos are everything.
Alex Gray explains in Commonwealth Magazine: The disability community is being wildly ignored during the pandemic, even while people with developmental disabilities were 3x more likely to die after contracting COVID. (Alex is running for Boston City Council; if he wins, he’ll be the first Blind person to serve on the body.)
Let’s see what RFS alumni are up too…
MI State Sen. Mallory McMorrow gave birth a few months ago; she’s learning in real time just how hard it is to be a working parent without family leave. Read the sanitized version on NPR or the slightly more blunt Jezebel write-up, simply titled “More Women Hold State Office, But the BS Family Leave Policies Remain the Same.”
PA state Sens. Katie Muth and Amanda Cappelletti are joining as co-sponsors of legislation banning no-knock warrants; in Texas, state Rep. Jasmine Crockett is leading on the same issue.
MA Rep. Tram Nguyen is leading on fixing a bunch of Massachusetts laws that would strengthen the state’s hate crime laws.
Austin City Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes led on passing a resolution for renters rights, protecting immediate needs like broken pipes and water outages and works to address greater demands to support tenants, like expanding the Austin 311 hotline and making more multilingual dispatchers available; increasing funding for community-based legal services and tenants' rights clinics; and directing additional funding for rent relief, repairs and utility bill relief through funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
A great Q&A with new Phoenix City Councilmember Yassamin Ansari:
”So we knocked on well over 150,000 doors throughout the campaign about 90,000 since November. It really made me realize the importance of continuing door to door efforts. So, definitely intend to continue that through my term as a council woman around various issue items.So for example, one of the first things we’re hoping to do is bring more COVID vaccinations to District 7. And we’re planning to do door-to-door efforts that focusing specifically around folks who might only speak Spanish or folks who might be older and don’t have access to technology. We want to use canvassing as a way to reach them and make sure that they get educated about the vaccine, know where to go and help them get vaccinated.”
MI Rep. Abraham Aiyash has introduced a bill that closes loopholes which allows auto insurance companies to charge higher rates in Detroit than in any other city in Michigan.
This is very cool — LogoTV’s #RainbowWave series includes spotlights on DE Sen. Sarah McBride, OK Rep. Mauree Turner, and HI Rep. Adrian Tam.
Combo candidate & alum story: VA Del. Sally Hudson and candidate Jennifer Hudson are sharing their voter files with folks helping do vaccine outreach. This is great.
A fascinating read about RFS alum Louise Snodgrass: “At just 25, Louise Snodgrass was one of the youngest candidates for a seat in the South Dakota house of representatives the state had ever seen. They were also the first nonbinary candidate for any statewide legislature race in South Dakota and collected a key endorsement from the progressive group Run for Something. As a young, non-heteronormative candidate running in a conservative state, Snodgrass got used to being forthcoming and generous with the details of their life and personal politics. But nothing about their state office campaign compares to the demands they now field on TikTok, all coming from strangers who are hungry for details about everything from Snodgrass’s pants size to personal money management practices.”
VA Del. Subhas Subramanyam, the first Indian American and Hindu American elected to the VA general assembly, has joined with others (including fellow RFS alum Kelly Vonvirs-Fowler) to create the body’s first ever AAPI caucus.
The NC constitution still includes a “voter literacy test” — Rep. Terry Brown is co-sponsoring legislation to take steps to get this Jim Crow era suppression law out of the constitution.
Caitlin Clarkson Pereira’s advocacy is working: A bill that would allow CT candidates to use campaign funds to pay for childcare is slowly making its way through the state’s general assembly.
Very cool: Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards has been named one of the most impactful Black women in Boston.
We’re proud to be on Jessica’s team.
PA Rep. Amen Brown is leading on legislation to suspend sheriff sales — auctions in which sheriffs sell off distressed real estate — until the pandemic ends.
NC Rep. Brian Farkas is sponsoring legislation that would require at least one permanent nurse in every single school.
Awesome: Sen. Julie Gonzales’s bill has passed, making Colorado the one of the first states to allow undocumented immigrants access to housing benefits.
“Eleven years ago, when Fady Qaddoura first began working as an intern for the Indiana Senate legal office, a former staffer in the IT department asked him his name and where he was from. Qaddoura answered, and the staffer said, “Oh, you’re one of these effing terrorists that just came from overseas.” The people working in the legal office reported the incident, and the employee was disciplined.
Qaddoura has continuously pushed past the turning points in his life and those that have impacted the nation to pursue public service and became the first Arab-Muslim lawmaker in state history.” Read more in The State House File.Maryland Del. Vaughn Stewart is sponsoring legislation to ban counties from entering into contracts with ICE or private prison companies, and phasing out current ICE facilities.
Meanwhile, a quick bench watch:
U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta wrote an op-ed on eradicating racism in schools; he also rolled out the endorsement of the current mayor of Braddock, PA. (This is noteworthy because Malcolm’s top opponent is the former mayor of Braddock…)
Jennifer Carroll Foy explains powerfully what it’s like running for governor while taking care of twin boys.
In related-to-Run for Something reading…
PragerU, a right-win nonprofit known for viral “educational” videos that are jam-packed with conservative talking points and white supremacy, is now infiltrating classrooms. This is not an accident; it’s a byproduct of a 40-year long-term strategy to build conservative power.
Just going to leave this here, and remind you that Rep. Matt Gaetz got his start as a young member of the FL state legislature. He’s what the GOP bench looks like…
Relatedly, dive into this Mother Jones story, aptly titled: The most radical Republicans are not in Congress. They’re in state legislatures.
According to the Brennan Center, there are now 361 bills with restrictive provisions moving through 47 states — five have already been signed into law (including the egregious shit we’ve seen out of Georgia. The key to winning national elections is winning state and local elections.
A quick RFS events update: Circle the date on your calendar, because on April 27th, we’re hosting a fun virtual house party. Tickets start at $25.
This week on the Run for Something podcast: Kendra Hicks is an activist, an organizer, a mom of a son on the autism spectrum, and a possibly history-making candidate for Boston City Council. She’s a rising star and win or lose, you’re going to see her on the national scale in a big way in the next few years. Listen wherever you get your shows.
We’ve got so much going on! Thanks for making all this possible. We’re grateful to do this work with you.
- Amanda