RFS feel-good update (6/27): A long-term plan to win back our rights
There is no feeling good right now - but at the very least, here's what's next
Hi all -
I confess: Like most Americans, I’m still furious.
After decades of focused strategy and investment in state and local elections, anti-abortion activists achieved their goal: Roe v. Wade was overturned.
With pre-Roe bans and trigger laws already on the books in 26 states, this decision will jeopardize the health and freedom of tens of millions of people across the country, especially harming poor women and women of color.
Despite unified Democratic control of the House, Senate, and Presidency, there is no effective federal response as of yet — the future of abortion access will be determined state by state, and in many places county by county.
There is no sugar-coating this: This is a devastating loss that will take decades of rebuilding power to rectify.
Just as the anti-abortion extremists worked long-term and locally, we have to do the same, and we have to start today.
Our work is a key part of the broader network of organizing and mobilizing happening across the country.
We’ll keep recruiting, supporting, and training candidates for the tens of thousands of local races across the country, for as long as we’re able to do this work. We’ll recruit and elect State Legislators who will block anti-choice bills from advancing or advance legislation to expand the right; District Attorneys who will refuse to prosecute those seeking or providing abortion care; City Council members who can fund local reproductive healthcare and enact new zoning to allow for new clinics; and School Board members to ensure comprehensive sex education keeps kids safe and informed.
Over time, we’ll be able to expand access to abortion in blue states and prevent the worst bills from passing (or at least, passing without a fight) in red states. Flipping red cities and counties blue over the next few years will help lay the groundwork for a more expansive federal and gubernatorial map in 2026, 2028, and beyond — and the leaders we elect to school boards and city councils today are the ones likely to run for those congressional and governors’ races for election cycles to come.
We’re already on the task: Our pipeline is made up of diverse and progressive Americans under 40 – the most pro-choice age group voting today — and as far as we know, it’s the largest pipeline of potential candidates in Democratic politics, and it’s growing every day.
As you’ve read many times over, we strategically do not work exclusively in “battleground” states – as we’ve all seen seen, winning the presidency and even Congress is simply not enough, and especially on abortion, the worst laws are likely to come from the reddest states.
We are out to protect access to abortion for everyone because the threat to bodily autonomy is everywhere.
We’ve already seen what running good candidates everywhere can do. In Texas, District Attorney José Garza, RFS alum, has pledged to not prosecute doctors or patients seeking necessary abortion care, saying “I promise to continue fighting for the rights of women and to use my discretion to keep families safe.”
This model has been followed by all other district attorneys that RFS has helped elect, including county attorney Eli Savit in Washtenaw, Michigan, and Alexis King in Colorado. Current county/state’s attorney candidates Allison Miller in Florida and Julie Gunnigle in Arizona have promised to do the same if they win this November.
Also in Texas, city councils in blue areas are showing initiative. RFS Alum Paige Ellis, Vanessa Fuentes and their colleagues are leading from the local level, allocating city funds to low income mothers who need childcare assistance to leave the state for abortion care and devoting resources to amicus briefs challenging SB8.
In Nebraska this spring, Senator Megan Hunt, a Run for Something alum, successfully filibustered a trigger bill banning all abortions in Nebraska. The bill would have made providing abortion care at any point in a pregnancy a felony in Nebraska.
Holding the floor for 8 hours to prevent amendments to the bill or votes to move forward, Sen. Hunt said “If you think my 11 year old should be forced to give birth, you are not my friend.”
Blue states matter, too. In New York, after taking on a big-time Democratic incumbent and winning in a competitive primary (despite being wildly outspent), Senator Alessandra Biaggi helped pass the Reproductive Health Act, taking abortion out of New York’s criminal code, and is leading the fight for a state abortion access fund. She was backed up by her fellow co-sponsors and RFS alums like Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos.
And in Illinois, Cook County Commissioner Kevin Morrison has been pushing to cancel Chicago contracts with companies supporting the politicians pushing Texas’ extreme abortion laws, as well as banning official travel to Texas.
Even now, we have folks running who are fighting hard however and wherever they can. We’re helping Ashley Gantt run against a pro-life Democratic incumbent who voted for Florida’s abortion ban and working with Becca Moyer DeFelice take on a pro-life GOP opponent, along with leaders like Kate in Oklahoma and Jennifer in Rhode Island.
Recruiting and electing pro-choice champions at the local level can both mitigate immediate harm and expand access — but we need to go bigger to win back our rights permanently.
As Time Magazine explained:
Abortion rights can still be saved, but only if feminists focus their energy on electing allies at the state and local level. In a post-Roe America, that’s the kind of representation that matters most.
I’m sure you spent this weekend making recurring donations to abortion funds and health care clinics. Next, three things you can do right now to help.
First, ask someone you know to run for local office. Send them this link:
Ask them to run. Tell them you’ll help them. Commit to be their first donor and to knock doors with them.
Second, find a Run for Something candidate to help win this year. I don’t know about you but I’m pretttty uninterested in Democratic members of Congress right now — good thing that thanks to reverse coattails, the doors knocked for local candidates help the whole ticket. Every endorsed RFS candidate has affirmed they’re pro-choice and told us exactly how that value shows up in their campaign. Find one near you and sign up to help them win.
Finally, help fund our longterm work to win back abortion access by recruiting and supporting pro-choice leaders across the country. Every dollar we raise right now will support the recruitment efforts and candidate support that will get pro-choice candidates on the ballot and in place to win.
That program includes new in-state and national recruitment managers, pipeline managers, recruitment events, SMS and digital recruitment, and partner support, including regrants to reproductive justice organizations who might not otherwise have the resources to work with or source candidates at the hyperlocal level of the ballot.
Additional funds will allow us to greenlight more tools – more recruitment ads and texts, more staff on the ground, and more support to our partners in order to fill every local seat we can with a pro-choice champion.
This is going to be a long fight. Many people will suffer while we wage it. We will lose a lot until we finally win. But the alternative is to give up — and we’re not willing to do that. So onward we go. Thanks for making it possible.
The only hope I’ve got is that more than 1,200 folks signed up this weekend to run for office — summed up pretty well in messages like this:
I know it’s hard to even think about what happened in the news last week besides the Supreme Court decision - but I still want to highlight a few other small spots of progress from across the RFS community:
PA Rep. Nick Pisciottano is taking on price gouging, and in partnership with Rep. Sara Innamorato, increasing the AG’s authority to take on anti-trust violations.
RI Sen. Jonathon Acosta helped pass a law to reserve parking spots for kids in strollers. As a dad, this legislation was personal for him.
Jessica Altagracia Woolford decided to run against a 28 year incumbent for NY state assembly in part because of the challenges her grandma faced after retiring as a home health aide. Her opponent simply isn’t delivering for his community.
People Magazine highlighted Floridians Janelle Perez and Eunic Ortiz as two amazing LGBTQIA+ Latinas running for office.
Zachary Parker handily won his race for D.C. city council last week, putting him on a path to be the first openly gay member of the Council since 2015.
It looks more and more likely like labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez beat an incumbent on the LA City Council by at least 5 points, running on an aggressive campaign on the “traumatizing” sweeps of homeless encampments.
Thanks to RFS alum Caitlin Clarkson Pereira’s fierce advocacy, candidates for state and local office in Connecticut can now use campaign funds for childcare.
In some related reading:
Our clerk work program is ongoing within a larger ecosystem of the fight to protect democracy. Read all about it in the Washington Post.
Our school board work is also ongoing as school board fights get more and more nationalized. Read more in CNET.
It’s worth reading this “anatomy of a book banning” from Dave Eggers as he identifies the political effort from the right that won over a South Dakota school board who ultimately yanked his books out of the classroom.
Thanks for sticking with us. We’re here to fight alongside you for as long as it takes.
- Amanda