RFS feel-good update (4/8): Small wins that are big wins for democracy

Happy Eclipse Day!

Hi all -

Happy eclipse day!

Last week, 14 Run for Something candidates won their elections — a 58% win rate (although we’re still waiting on one final call out of Alaska!) -- including some major victories:

• Stephanie Knezz won a seat on the Kenosha County Board - she’s been a fierce advocate for inclusion in the classroom, especially in the science classes she teaches as a professor. This is particularly important in Kenosha, where the county board was attempting to make public libraries ban kids under the age of 18 from any adult collections (including classics and research books…)

• Kelly Leibold, a brain cancer survivor and community leader, won a seat on the La Crosse County Board in WI. This is huge — she beat out a fake Trump elector who used to serve as the GOP county party chair; he was literally forced via lawsuit to acknowledge that Biden won the election. (I was delighted to be able to highlight Kelly to a national audience on MSNBC on The 11th Hour over the weekend!)

  

• Sabrina Landry won a seat on the Kenosha School Board, ensuring that not a single Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidate won. 👑👑👑

• Jessica Cifuentes, who beat an incumbent for a seat on the Oklahoma City Public Schools board and will become the first Guatemalan American elected in the state of Oklahoma. Jessica is only 25 years old!

• Casey Clowes won a seat on the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District in Arizona - a long name for a powerful office controlling one of the largest public utilities in the country. Casey’s win will directly affect the community’s action on climate change. We’ve been working with Casey for years, and are just over the moon for her!!

  

• Cassi Benedict won her seat on the Sun Prairie City Council, and specifically called out the support of RFS Wisconsin State Director Darrol Gibson as one of her best resources. 🥹🥹

  

Some RFS community updates:

• In 2023, Run for Something helped recruit and elect Justin Douglas to run for Dauphin County Commission - a race he won by fewer than 150 votes. Now he’s doing as promised and expanding access to the polls!

  

• RFS alum WI Minority leader Greta Neubauer is leading efforts to recruit candidates for as many of the assembly seats as possible, knowing that local candidates can drive statewide turnout as well as turn her into majority leader.

• VA Sen. Russet Perry successfully got into law a new bill that will update rural roads and make a major impact on her community’s infrastructure.

• Ashley Comans, candidate for PA state house, explains why she got involved locally:
  
  “I wanted to send my kids to the school down the street and feel comfortable with that. So I ran for school board, and the rest is history. I couldn't just show up to vote; that wasn't enough. [Running for] school board was an immediate way to effect change for our community, knowing that, if we don't help ourselves, no one else is going to do it. Unfortunately, prior to me running, I didn't see it for myself.”

• On a similar theme - WI Rep. Francesca Hong says it straight up:
  
  “It's time to cut through the bullshit and elect leaders who understand the lived experiences of working families — the struggles of finding affordable child care, the challenges of making ends meet, the dreams torn down by systemic inequity. We need politicians who aren't afraid to share their stories, to be themselves, to bear witness and affirm the real challenges people are facing.”
  
  Read the rest.

• This is a really cool breakdown from Portland City Auditor Simone Rede about how she prioritized incorporating community voices into the audit topic selection — it’s in the weeds, but it illustrates in detail how even seemingly small or technical offices can increase engagement.

• NY Sen. Zellnor Myrie is pushing the NYPD to join the Gun Safety Consortium, which pressures gunmakers to take better advantage of technology to drive down shootings. Not so fun fact: The NYPD is second only to the U.S. military in the # of guns it buys.

• Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb opened the city’s first Open Data Portal, a digitized collection of records which will ease the burden of people seeking public information.

• Huge! Elen Asatryan was elected Mayor of Glendale by the city council!! This is the fourth largest city in LA County and the city with the highest percentage of immigrant residents of any in CA.

• The power of personal storytelling matters, especially in the fight for abortion access. RFS candidate Allie Phillips in TN and alum Sen. Eva Burch in AZ are proving that out, one day at a time.

• After being contacted by students at the California School for the Deaf, CA Assemblymember Alex Lee is introducing legislation to erect highway signs to the school on nearby highways — helping raise awareness about a critical education institution.

• RI Rep. Brandon Potter’s personal experience with nursing homes drives his leadership on new legislation.

• Sheena Barnes, former president of the Toledo School Board, shares a heart-wrenching story about her son’s experience in third grade as an example of an education system that views some children as more dangerous than others.

• NE Sen. Terrell McKinney - one of only two Black lawmakers in the Nebraska state legislature - successfully passed legislation to honor Malcolm X in the state where he was born.

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In related reading:

• I am obsessed with this story about one way reverse coattails can work: Barbara, an older Republican in Virginia, voted for a Democrat for the first time when Sen. Danica Roem came to her door to talk about traffic. Now that she’s broken the seal to voting for the other party, she’s considering voting for Biden — or at the very least, not voting for Trump. That’s what we mean when we say investing locally can move the needle.

• WHEN WE RUN, WE CAN WIN: Peep this headline — “Conservative school board candidates handed humiliating loss in St. Louis area”. Every single extremist school board candidate lost last week. You LOVE to see it.

• Relatedly, this is such an alarming stat that reinforces - if you care about public education, you have to care about state legislatures:
  
  ”Three-fourths of the nation’s school-aged students are now educated under state-level measures that either require more teaching on issues like race, racism, history, sex and gender, or which sharply limit or fully forbid such lessons, according to a sweeping Post review of thousands of state laws, gubernatorial directives and state school board policies. The restrictive laws alone affect almost half of all Americans aged 5 to 19.”

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Every win we notch is because of you. You did that!! Thanks for making it possible.

- Amanda