RFS feel-good update (8/1): It's always Election Day for our team
Rabbit rabbit! It's going to be a great month
Hi all -
Our 2022 work stampedes forward. First, new endorsements!!!
This brings us up to 542 campaigns across 48 states — 52% women, 2% non-binary folks, 57% people of color, and 26% LGBTQIA+ leaders.
26% are ages 18-30, 30% are ages 31-35 and 43% are ages 35-40.
56% of our 2022 candidates are running for state legislature, 25% are running for municipal office, 10% are running for education-related roles, and 9% are running for legal offices.
This quick thread (below is part 2 of 3) from one of our new endorsees is why we do this work, in a nutshell. I love it so much.
This is what building power from the ground up looks like!
Tomorrow is Election Day for 69 (!) RFS candidates in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Washington. Here’s who we’re rooting for & have been working with — take a scroll through then keep an eye on our social media (or in this email next week) for updates.
A quick Clerk Work update for you this week:
We talked with Time magazine about the results of Clerk Work so far - the TL;DR: “The group’s election official recruitment program has recruited nearly 300 people to run for local offices that oversee elections, with 200 of those candidates in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado and Nevada.”
That’s early data — more to come as primaries and filing data roll in over the next few months — but already it’s beyond our wildest expectations. (After all, no one has done anything like this before!) We’re so grateful to every person who’s contributed and made this urgent democracy-saving program possible.
There’s a lot of work still to do as we support 2022 candidates and begin recruitment for 2023, but we know with folks like all y’all in this with us, we’re going to get it done.
After all, this has never mattered more: “In a sign of things to come amid the party's baseless election fraud crusade … county officials in New Mexico, Nevada and Pennsylvania have tried to circumvent state laws and refused to sign off on primary results.”
We joined our partners at NowThis to chat about why local elections and elected officials are more important than ever. Watch & share!
In RFS community updates:
The Indiana state senate passed a horrific nearly-complete abortion ban — I’m so glad that Sen. Fady Qaddoura and Sen. J.D. Ford were there to vote against up and speak up forcefully against the legislation. Both were the only red-to-blue flips in the chamber of the last two cycles.
Dallas City Councilmember Adam Bazaldua is leading on legislation to mitigate the harm done by Texas’s statewide abortion ban, taking his cue from fellow RFS alum in Austin and other cities across the country.
FL Rep. Michele Rayner’s opponent for state house is a January 6th insurrectionist who is currently in jail awaiting trial. Seriously.
WA Sen. Emily Randall won her race by just 108 votes in 2018 — she’s not taking anything for granted against her anti-choice anti-democracy Republican opponent. She’s been knocking doors (more than 10,000 since March!), talking to voters, and delivering results for her community.
Jennifer O’Rourke, who got attacked by her GOP opponent last month after giving a speech at an abortion rights rally, is now dealing with the state party recruiting & actively supporting a conservative Democratic on the ballot — a man who’s a fan of Tucker Carlson and once wore blackface. Not great!
Justice Horn (MO), Joe Vogel (MD), and Nabeela Syed (IL) are all part of the wave of gen-Z candidates bringing their fresh voices to leadership.
RFS alum Dr. Dona Kim Murphey is helping lead the charge to get more doctors into politics, including RFS’s very own Dr. Megan Srinivas, candidate for IA state house.
RFS alum are leading in Cleveland — City Councilmember Rebecca Maurer put out a new report about how residents are calling their city councilmembers instead of using the city’s 311 phone line. So Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb is taking action and fulfilling his promise of creating a “modern, responsive, transparent city hall” with a bigger investment into the 311 call center.
NYC Councilmembers Tiffany Cabán and Sandy Nurse showed up unannounced at Rikers Island to inspect conditions and are calling out the the Dept of Corrections and the mayor for the “hellhole” state of the facilities.
Thanks to the leadership of PA Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, the first openly gay Black man in the statehouse, it’s no longer illegal to be gay in Pennsylvania.
Saraswati Singh has worked for 4 years as an assistant Ramsey County attorney, focusing on murder, domestic assault, and sexual assault cases — she’s ready to bring her unique experience and perspective to the Hennepin County attorney’s role.
Some related reading/listening: I joined The Guardian’s weekly podcast to talk about the gerontocracy and why it matters to help elect a new generation of leaders. If we want "young people to save us,” we have to make the space and let them.
Thanks for making all this possible. 99 days to the big November election day (and 1 day to the next RFS election day!) - let’s go go go!
- Amanda