If there's a unifying theme of the past several weeks for me, it's that the world can be a heartbreaking and painful place.

And we need to be cleareyed that our country and world will become more dangerous—much more so—if Donald Trump wins a second term. Please know the stakes:

Trump's team is planning to be ready—on his first day in office—to deploy the military against protesters.¹ His team has identified this "as an immediate priority" in their preparations.²

His team also is "plotting revenge" against people who have "turned on him" and preparing executive orders that overturn core democratic principles to allow them to investigate and prosecute political opponents, including officials at the Department of Justice.³

John, it used to be Democrats vs. Republicans, liberals vs. conservatives, left vs. right. That is over. It's now democracy vs. authoritarianism.

The next U.S. presidential election is almost exactly one year from now. All of us have a moral duty to do everything we can—nonviolently—to ensure that our democracy endures.

And yet donations to organizations across the progressive movement have plummeted, causing organizations to scale back voter contact plans and lay off staff at a time when many of these same organizations typically grow their staffs ahead of a big election year.

I know from my friends at MoveOn that their fundraising has taken a big hit this year—and last year, too. And so today I have a request:

Will you join me in making a monthly gift of $5 to support and sustain MoveOn's work to energize and turn out voters to defeat Trump?

Already, voter contacts are way down across progressive organizations that do the critical work of connecting with voters, motivating them to vote, and then getting them out to vote—with organizations making just 4% to 35%, depending on the organization, of the voter contacts this year compared to two years ago.

In 2020, MoveOn collected 1 million pledges to vote, focused on the handful of battleground states that decided the election. In 2022, MoveOn increased voter turnout by 0.66 to 0.69 percentage points, resulting in 48,000 to 50,000 additional people turning out to vote in key states—at a time when the margin of victory in our closely divided nation is typically just a fraction of 1% of the votes cast. In other words, in many states, MoveOn's targeted efforts very well could have made the difference in the outcome of the election.

The MoveOn staff have shared their plans with me. And the plans are impressive and incredibly strategic. MoveOn has experimented with and honed data-driven tactics to turn voters out over two decades—and it shows in their results.

MoveOn's plans are to build off of their success in 2020 and 2022 identifying and turning out voters likely to make the most impact in battleground states. These "surge voters" are Democratic-leaning young voters, new voters, and voters who have not always shown up to the polls but who became energized to vote after the rise of Trump.

MoveOn's data shows that there are millions of surge voters in battleground districts and states across the country. And rigorous data analysis by elections experts shows that when surge voters show up to the polls in large numbers, Democrats win.⁴

That was what worked in 2020 and 2022, and it will work once again in 2024—if MoveOn has the resources and volunteers, starting now.

Winning is doable, but it won't be easy or cheap. And the polls show that losing is a strong possibility; in fact, Trump is now favored to win.⁵ That's exactly what happened in 2016, when donors and volunteers didn't show up in high enough numbers, early enough in the cycle, to tip the scales.

John, the danger Trump poses to our country, freedom, and the broader world cannot be overstated. He is a strongman who rejects democracy, as does the MAGA movement more broadly. We must come together, starting now, to save our democracy.

Please join me by donating $5 a month to help MoveOn have the resources to energize and turn out voters to defeat Trump and the MAGA movement.

Want to support MoveOn's work? Book bans have skyrocketed thanks to right-wing state laws which have forced teachers to remove books from their classrooms. In response, MoveOn is launching a "Banned Bookmobile," filling it with books that the far right has banned, and driving it around to hand out those books, for free, in highly trafficked areas that will attract media attention. To keep the Banned Bookmobile up and running into 2024, we need your help.

Will you start a monthly gift to power MoveOn's critical work?

Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

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