RFS feel-good update (8/31): "As a Baby Boomer, I believe a Gen Z candidate will see things with fresh eyes."
Hi all -
Last week was one million years long. Here’s what you may have missed:
The RNC happened. If you didn’t watch, you didn’t miss much (just a bunch of law-breaking and COVID-spreading.) One thing to note for you: Much like at the DNC, most of the elected officials who spoke at the RNC got their start in local office. Republicans understand building the bench — we can’t let up the work.
We held our first Unapologetically Progressive: Texas event with state legislative candidates Akilah Bacy, Elizabeth Beck, Natali Hurtado, and Lorenzo Sanchez. Catch up if you missed it and get your ticket for the next UP event on September 15th, this time focusing on Arizona.
On Women’s Equality Day, we put out a beautiful video with 30 women/femme-identifying candidates asking other women to run for office. Watch it — it’ll give you goosebumps.
Our Armchair Chat series continued — we had a great conversation with Cortney Tunis from Supermajority/Pantsuit Nation about storytelling & persuasion. This Wednesday at 6pm ET, Ross will be chatting campaign management with Emmy Ruiz.
In RFS candidate & alumni news:
After the violence in Kenosha last week, a group of state legislature candidates including our own Francesca Hong, Nada Elmikashfi, and Kristina Shelton, put out a public statement, and encouraged community members to sign on: “As candidates for the Wisconsin State Legislature, we are calling on a multi-level, coordinated response to immediately address the plague of systemic and institutional violence perpetrated against BIPOC and other marginalized communities, and will hold accountable, through a coalition of common interests, those persons, entities, and institutional bodies that fail to move forward actionable solutions to aid the situation at this moment.”
Rep. Alma Hernandez, the youngest lawmaker in the Arizona legislature, is joining with other incredible women in AZ to encourage young people to get engaged, whether by voting or running themselves. This is what the new version of the “old boys club” looks like.
After more than two years of fighting, RFS alum Caitlin Clarkson Pereira won her fight with the state ethics commission; Connecticut candidates will now be able to use campaign funds to pay for childcare costs.
PA state senate candidate Michelle Siegel is fighting to close the tax loophole that is penalizing rural communities and letting corporations get away without paying their fair share.
“Many of us are tired of the same old same old and Mr. Colón offers real policy proposals, not just generic platitudes.
As a Baby Boomer, I believe a Gen Z candidate will see things with fresh eyes. As a young man of color who is a life-long Warwick resident, Mr. Colón will bring observations and solutions to the table that the current older, all-white City Council members do not comprehend.” - A letter to the editor in support of Zach Colón, candidate for Warwick City Council in RI.
RFS candidate Ukasha Dakane officially filed for a seat on the Edina City Council in MN — his big focuses would be empowering and engaging young people, and bringing more financial transparency and accountability to the city council.
OH state Senate candidate Crystal Lett gave a powerful interview on her platform, which includes expanding Medicaid, lowering prescription drug prices, and ending the opioid epidemic. Take a listen if you want to be inspired.
Nebraska State Senator Megan Hunt has a powerful op-ed in the Omaha World-Herald calling for a special session on COVID-19 and racial inequities — especially now, and especially after the regular legislative session (which ended two weeks ago) focused exclusively on restricting abortion, property taxes, and corporate tax giveaways.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo led on approving an expanded budget for the county’s election administration, including using the NBA arena in Houston as a polling location, mailing ballot applications to all registered voters, drive-thru voting locations, and a professional public outreach program.
“I heard on the phone was folks just had like never heard from a political candidate on the phone - like had never had someone like - essentially like at their disposal.
And so people really liked that part too - liked to be able to have someone that they could call, someone that called them and that they could ask any questions about if they had them.
When were were calling folks we made sure that we were connecting them to resources. If they had been furloughed, if they had been zero-houred laid off, if they just needed a place to get testing - like connecting them to resources around the state.
So that was also something that people really liked - knowing that it wasn’t just about like 'Hey can I get your vote?' but also like 'I’m here to connect you to any kind of resources that you need at this point in time.’” - Mauree Turner, candidate for OK state house, on campaigning during the pandemic.
Two odds & ends you might enjoy…
An absolute must-read cover story in the Nation: How the work to win state legislatures is going, (spoiler: well! but we can’t let our foot off the gss!) and how our recruitment efforts to contest more elections is a key part of the fight.
If you have 25 minutes to kill, Congressman Adam Schiff and I hopped on a video chat as part of the #TeamJoeTalks to shoot the shit about the 2020 election, vegan/gluten free cooking, how horrific the RNC was, why Congress has been dragging its feet on relief efforts, and the stakes this November.
We’ve got another big endorsement day later this week, and some big stuff coming in September. Stay tuned. So much more to come, all because of you. Thanks for making this possible.
- Amanda