Hi all -
Happy almost-July 4th!
Before I get into the good stuff - on last week’s Supreme Court decision: The fight is never over. We need leaders who personally understand what’s at stake — we need more LGBTQ+ people in office, more people with student debt or tackling the cost of higher education in office, more young people in office who know exactly what we’re up against and why it matters to fight even when the system makes it hard as hell. We won’t stop fighting, and neither will our community.
As we’re now halfway through the year, I wanted to do a quick mid-year check-in on how things are going here in RFS-land…
So far in 2023 elections, we’ve endorsed 234 candidates - 33 have already won their elections outright.
Overall, in 6 years, we’ve elected 825 people — 56% women and 55% people of color, including 289 state legislators, 371 people to municipal offices, 131 school/library board members, and 34 people to legal roles like DA, judgeships, or sherriff.
Our alum hold office in 49 states and D.C. (we’re only missing Idaho, if you’re curious.)
Our pipeline — the list of folks interested in maybe one day running for office — now includes more than 135,000 people (!), the biggest candidate pipeline in Democratic politics, as far as we know. ✨
Internally, we’ve grown by leaps & bounds, with 21 people joining the team since the year began and more to come. All that growth is in service of impact: We’re doing recruitment programs we could have only dreamed of 5 years ago, deepening our support for candidates, and finding new ways to reach the young diverse leaders who we desperately need in office, all while building an inclusive work environment that works hard but values rest (literally: we’re actually closed this week!)
All this is only possible because of your support of RFS to this point. Thank you for making it happen.
In other RFS community updates:
Quick run-down of our June winners — let’s goooooo
On that graphic: Susanna Gibson in Virginia, who decided to run specifically because of the Dobbs decision last year — just the first of many thousands of candidates we’ll see on the ballot in years to come inspired by this bullshit Supreme Court.
MT Rep. Zooey Zephyr’s love story is yet another way she inspires so many other LGBTQ+ people across the country. This is so sweet.
More love stories: The deep adoration Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez has for his adopted hometown, San Antonio.
Thanks to State Sen. Becky Whitley, NH is now extending Medicaid coverage to post-partum moms for a full year after birth — Medicaid covers 40% of all birthdays nationwide and 25% in NH alone.
In Idaho, alum Natalie MacLachlan (who ran in 2022 and came up short), has been endorsed by a retiring Democrat to fill her seat. A loss is never the end of someone’s journey!
NYC Councilmember Chi Ossé is introducing legislation to shift the costs of the broker fee to whoever hires the broker, protecting tenants from paying for services they didn’t ask for.
Phoenix City Councilmember (and candidate for Congress!) Yassamin Ansari explains how her city can lead the way on affordable housing by passing key zoning reforms.
NC Sen. Sydney Batch is speaking out against proposed legislation banning gender-affirming care: “Children will die.”
Last week we ended Pride month with “See Yourself Running: LGBTQIA+ Candidates” — you can catch up on YouTube. It’s a beautiful and inspiring conversation.
On Clerk Work: Former Rep. Steve Israel in the Hill explains the three counties where local election administrators could undermine the entire election (making a very compelling case for our Clerk Work program….)
“Democrats (and supporters of democracy) need to be vigilant. In 2008, my party ran up the score in national elections, while virtually ignoring GOP operations to sweep state and local races. Two years later, Republicans added six new governors, 700 state legislators, and took control of 20 state legislatures, closing their grip on redistricting. We aimed for the sky, and Republicans beat us on the ground.
Now we have to go even deeper. Hijackings work when no one is looking. We can’t ignore the once-banal functions of administering elections in remote towns and counties. It’s unclear whether embedding election administration with zealots will be enough to swing a national election, but Steve Bannon’s declaration should ring in the ears of anyone concerned about democracy: “We are taking over all the elections.”
In related reading & listening:
Book bans threaten democracy. The way to stop them is through local elections.
This weekend was the Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia. They’re being even more explicit about their focus not just on protesting but on winning elections by running themselves or supporting school board candidates.
This is worth noting, from Reuters: “The Republican candidates' courting of the group's members signifies its arrival as a major conservative player in national politics. Its summit is being sponsored by longtime right-wing policy shops such as the Heritage Foundation and the Leadership Institute, which trains candidates for office.”
We’re one of the few national organizations (outside teachers unions) that works closely with school board candidates in every state Moms for Liberty is in — this will continue to be a high priority for us as we fight to keep schools places where kids are free to learn, free to be safe, and free to be themselves.
Have an amazing holiday tomorrow. Celebrate what America could be — we’re making that dream a reality together.
- Amanda