RFS feel-good update (8/21): "Authentic and empathetic at the same time."

Plus: Why we came to Arkansas

Hi all -

You gotta see this: Last week we hosted our first Unapologetically Progressive event in Arkansas, partnering with Progressive Arkansas Women and Emerge Arkansas. It was standing room only and truly an incredible crowd.

Why are we in Arkansas, you may ask? Because we’ve seen amazing young leaders run and win for municipal office — there is incredible hunger for new leadership in the state. (Check out the news this week about how school districts in Arkansas are pushing back on the state’s order to take AP African American Studies out of schools.)

We’re bringing this series to New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Arizona, and Indiana. Stay tuned.

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In RFS community updates:

• In 2018, we endorsed Eric Williams for Omaha Public Power District - now as a director on the board, he’s pushing to provide more energy and reduce carbon emissions. Local elections with big climate impacts: We love to see it.

• In CO, Lauren Simpson could be the first woman elected mayor of Arvada: “She gave a personal and compelling stump speech that would put some of the top politicos in the state to shame. She was at her best when she expressed how the unhoused epidemic had personally affected her life through a family member. She was authentic and empathetic at the same time.”

• Worcester, MA, city councilor Etel Haxhiaj has been proving herself on issue after issue - inclusionary zoning ordinances, community safety upgrades, housing, and personally dealing with hundreds of requests and contacts from constituents - while also dealing with some egregious harassment of her supporters.

• After leading the passage of a conversion therapy ban earlier this spring, Waterloo, IA, councilmember Jonathan Grieder is fighting to keep it in place as some conservatives are attempting to repeal it. Trash.

• This is the kind of shit our folks have to deal with every day.

• Former Jefferson County Clerk & Recorder George Stern explains why federal funding for election administration matters — even after leaving office, he’s continued his fierce advocacy for democracy.

• A must-read/listen interview with NY Sen. Zellnor Myrie - he covers his childhood in Brooklyn, the state budget, the housing crisis, and what it was like to be pepper-sprayed during the 2020 BLM protests (among other things).

• This just made me smile. 😊

• MI Rep. Laurie Pohutsky is sponsoring key legislation to make it easier for LGBTQ+ Michiganders to change their names — right now, Michigan has the highest percentage in any state in the U.S. of trans adults without a form of ID that has the correct gender.

• NY Sen. Andrew Gounardes is pushing to reduce the number of mandated lockdown drills in schools and create a more standardized approach for potentially traumatizing experiences.

Keeping an eye on book bans and education issues as school starts up again:

• A must-read in the LA Times: “In a state where Republicans have almost no political power at the Capitol — they haven’t won a statewide office since 2006 and hold fewer than a quarter of the seats in the Legislature — conservative efforts to shape school boards are now bearing fruit.”

• The Fort Worth school system has closed all libraries — for 86,000+ students! — while they examine and censor the book catalog.

• In one rural county in Washington state, the county is voting on whether or not to close the libraries entirely after a yearlong fight over books.

• “It turns out that most people don’t want someone else’s parents or some outside group telling their kids what they can read or what ideas they can consider.”

• Moms for Liberty is trying to kill sex ed in schools.

And in related reading:

• Gen Z can’t pay the rent (one of many reasons why we need to elect! more! renters!)

• Teen Vogue explains: What is a gerontocracy?

• The way to win the big elections is to win the small ones: “An obscure race for county commissioner underway here in a suburb outside of Philadelphia could tell us a lot about who will win the presidential election in 2024.”

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Thanks for making this work possible. We’re so grateful for your continued support.

- Amanda