RFS feel-good update (5/22): Librarians in jail!?

A Democratic president can’t fix this

Hi all -

I’ll get to the story referenced in the subject line in at the end…

First, good news: Election results!!! Melanie Rose, our PA state director, was on the ground with folks all of Tuesday (and the days/weeks leading up to it), working hard to get out the vote in the final stretch.

Congrats to:

Makeda Lewis | School Board, New Rochelle, NY
Bethany Hallam | County Legislature, At-Large, Allegheny County, PA
Dan Grzybek | County Board, District 5, Allegheny County, PA
Monet Reilly | Commissioner, Ward 9, Haverford, PA
Amelia McMillan | School Board, Central York, PA
Olivia Bennett | County Council, District 13, Allegheny County, PA
Katherine Gilmore Richardson | City Council, At-Large, Philadelphia, PA
Jarrett Smith Municipal | City Commissioner, At-Large, Philadelphia, PA
Amanda Bakay | City Council, At-Large, Lancaster, PA
Hakim Jones | Judge, District 4-1, 4-1, 4-3 and 2-3, Norristown, PA
Katrina Eames | School Board, Bellevue/Avalon, PA
Ashley Smith | City Council, District 2, Venango County, PA
Justin Douglas | County Commissioner, Dauphin County, PA
Gavin Scott Griffin | City Council, Titusville, PA
Christina DeMarco-Breeden | District Attorney, Washington County, PA
Neil Makhija | County Commissioner, Montgomery County, PA

Curtis Gittelman | City Council, Ward 1, Haverford Township, PA
Katy Frey | School Board, Region 1, West Chester, PA
Alex Christy | School Board, Region 1, West Chester, PA
Gabriela Saldana-Lopez | School Board, Position 4, David Douglas School Board, OR
Ahmed Ahmed | City Council, At-Large, Lancaster, PA
Benjamin Walker | School Board, Central York, PA Education: Central York - School Board/Board of Education
Jessica Rothchild | City Council, At-Large, City of Scranton, PA

In other RFS community updates:

• In spite of the hard work of Senators Megan Hunt, Jen Day, John Fredrickson, and others, an abortion & gender-affirming care ban has passed in Nebraska. Megan’s interview with Semafor is an absolute must-read — she doesn’t mince words. New York Magazine has a powerful history of this year’s session in Nebraska in gut-wrenching detail, showing us once again why investing in states like Nebraska matters.

• MI Rep. Jason Hoskins and Sen. Mallory McMorrow are partnering to introduce legislation to ban LGBTQ+ conversion therapy for minors - RFS alum leading when it matters most.

• In Waterloo, IA, councilmember Jonathan Grieder led on a similar ordinance to ban conversion therapy.

• CO Sen. Julie Gonzales is leading on legislation to prohibit the Colorado Dept of Corrections from making money off prisoners’ making phone calls.

• Rep. Jasmine Crockett is making waves in Congress, bringing her signature method for accountability to oversight hearings over DC’s crime and public safety. You can also watch her on MSNBC.

  

• Someville, MA, is in the NYT this week thanks to Willie Burnley Jr.’s leadership in making the city welcoming to those who practice consensual nonmonogamy.

• NJ Senate candidate - and Roselle Park mayor - Joe Signorello is fighting hard for expanding light rail and PATH.

• Shout out to RFS alum Atlanta City Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari, WI Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, Tyler Titus, and NE Sen. John Fredrickson for being named 2023 Bohnett Leaders Fellows by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute.

• NV Sen. Dallas Harris is proposing a way to remove historic racist language from property covenants - Washoe County alone has at least 11,000 such documents!

• Teen Vogue profiled GA Rep. Rusa Romman, the first Muslim woman and Palestinian American in the state house.

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Quick bench watch:

• Alum Sara Innamorato won her race for Allegheny County Executive - a position that scholars call “more powerful than the mayor or a member of Congress.” And Sara’s all-in on creating a more inclusive county gov’t (with the help of other RFS folks in county government, like councilmember Bethany Hallam!)

  

• Keep an eye on this: Brevard School Board member Jennifer Jenkins is considering a run for U.S. Senate - when she won her school board race in 2020, the woman she beat ended up founding Moms for Liberty.

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Some Clerk Work related updates:

• The verdict is in: Denying election results is bad for GOP candidates. It cost statewide candidates 2.3-3.7 percentage points in the midterms. Catalist found that candidates who were outspoken election deniers did 1-4 points worse than other Republicans.

• That being said: In PA, nearly all the county election officials who amplified the Big Lie won their primaries.

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And finally, some related reading:

• The fight for abortion is now a local one, especially in red, rural communities on state borders — to win back our freedom, we need to be in those communities.

• When we run for school board races and make it clear the stakes, we can win!

• The gerontocracy continues to reign — senior citizens control Congress and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon until we do more to bring young people into government at every level.

Finally, as promised up top: At least seven states have passed laws that could put school librarians in prison for even stocking banned books, let alone promoting them - another dozen have considered more than 20 similar bills, half of which are likely to come up again in 2024.

The New Yorker gets specific about how this is playing out in Missouri, including alarming details about even the Secretary of State’s office is getting involved by regulating the public library system

I want to say something that might be controversial but is simply a fact: This is the kind of thing re-electing a Democratic president won’t fix. (After all, it’s literally happening right now, under a Democratic president!) The way we keep red states from passing laws that hurt people is by winning power inside red states — and the way we do that is by contesting local races year after year, moving the margins in our direction, winning where we can, and building a bench of talent who can run for higher office over time. That’s what Run for Something does, and it’s what you’re doing as part of this team.

More to come as we head into the summer. Stay tuned!

- Amanda