RFS feel-good update (4/7): Winning begets winning
The more we win, the more we'll win
Hi all -
Last week’s big elections on Tuesday reminded us once again: When we run, we can win.
Between the huge Democratic win over Elon Musk & Trump in the Wisconsin state supreme court race and the 14 + 15 point swings in the Florida special election districts that Trump won by 30 points each, I feel like we all needed this.
2025 is about winning for the sake of building power — and winning to practice winning and build momentum for future victories.
In 2025 + 2026, we need to expand the battlefield: Recruit widely and empower as many candidates as possible to run great campaigns. (We’re on it!)
We also had RFS candidates on the ballot last week. A few of our own big victories:
Carl Bryan held on to his seat on the Kenosha School Board, ensuring that the GOP slate didn’t take any power in a key WI community.
Julia Matthews beat an incumbent to win a seat on the Madison Common Council — she was motivated to run by the ongoing bullshit in DC.
Ethan Reed took a seat on the Eau Claire city council, running on a campaign for affordable housing.
We didn’t win every election, but we’re taking big swings and making the GOP fight for every single seat.
It all matters. Your support makes it possible. Thanks.
In RFS community updates:
Jolie Lippitt, a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe, is running for Topeka City Council — she’s not shying away from her history that includes multiple misdemeanors and instead is explaining how her experience has shaped her and given her an intersectional approach to leadership.
Montgomery (MD) County Councilmember Andrew Friedson is pushing forward a new zoning bill that would expand the list of housing options available to build, helping tackle the housing crisis.
“Meet the mild-mannered engineer who’s pushing Cambridge to finally tackle its housing crisis” (Spoiler: It’s City Councilmember Burhan Azeem!)
Alyshia Dyer, Washtenaw (MI) Sheriff, spoke with the local public radio station about breaking down the old boys club of law enforcement and the way her new style of leadership benefits everyone in the community.
Katie Brennan, candidate for NJ state assembly, makes the case for Democrats to either step up to fight Trump or step aside.
NYC Councilmember Chi Osse’s bill ensuring tenants don’t pay broker fees — which will save renters thousands of dollars each move — has the backing of the governor, ensuring that it doesn’t get caught up in an ongoing lawsuit by the real estate lobby.
CO Rep. Rebekah Stewart’s legislation streamlining services for kids with behavioral health conditions or complex health needs was officially signed into law!
VA Dels. Phil Hernandez and Michael Feggans led on the creation of a study that would help give local governments certainty around funding for climate resiliency projects.
Syracuse City Auditor Alexander Marion put out a new report on the city’s living wage ordinance — he makes the case that the law is filled with loopholes and lacks enforcement provisions that has meant that city and school district workers have been paid poverty-level wages.
PA Rep. Emily Kinkead explains her experience taking the challenge to live on $6/day of food benefits — and makes the case for needing to expand legislation to help hungry families.
After two long years, LA Councilmember Nithya Raman and Hugo Soto-Martinez and their colleagues have unanimously agreed to give legal representation to tenants facing eviction.
Jefferson County Clerk & Recorder Amanda Gonzalez, who is now running for Colorado Secretary of State, makes the case for how the SAVE Act would disenfranchise millions of Americans.
NY Sens. Samra Brouk and Andrew Gounardes made the case for doing whatever we can - including tax credits - to lift the 20% of New York kids who live in poverty.
Similarly: NY Sen. Jabari Brisport is working to get $1 billion into the final state budget to help establish universal child care across the state.
IL Rep. Nabeela Syed introduced legislation to create curb side voting during early voting and on election day.
In a bench watch:
Mallory McMorrow announced her campaign for U.S. Senate, making the case that — as we’ve been saying — the generation of leaders who got us to this point won’t be able to get us to the next one.
Manchester (NH) school board member Jason Bonilla announced that he’ll be running for the board of aldermen this fall, because he wants to do even more for his city.
In related reading:
I talked with Vox about what a Democratic “Tea Party”-type movement might look like. This Data for Progress polling in the story is realllllly eye-opening about the desire for generational change.
The good news is that a new generation of Democratic leaders are running across the ballot — along with Mallory’s Senate campaign, two other young leaders launched campaigns for federal office last week in CA (Jake Rakov) and AZ (Deja Foxx), joining Kat Abughazeleh, a great young primary challenger in IL. While RFS only works on state and local races, we’re really thrilled to see the next-generation movement expand and create broad change across the party.
More to come — maybe this will be uncomfortable, but all change and growth is.
If you protested over the weekend, I hope it filled you up. If you didn’t, I hope you’ve scrolled through the pics & videos from the millions of people who took to the streets, and let it inspire you to see how broad and deep the push is against Trump & Elon. We’re going to win. It will be hard, but we will win.
Thanks,
Amanda