| Friend,
I wanted to reach out and say thank you.
Over the past few months and culminating on Thursday, an extraordinary story has played out in Indiana. Despite intense, personal pressure from President Trump and national Republicans, the state’s legislature rejected a mid-cycle redistricting plan that would have rigged the Congressional districts so that every U.S. House race in the state would effectively be decided before a single vote was cast.
I went to Indiana in September to rally Hoosiers who were speaking out against that proposal. Roughly a thousand people filled the atrium of the Statehouse to say, plainly and publicly, that this wasn’t right. That show of civic resolve clearly had an effect.
It stood in sharp contrast to the president’s own attempts to manufacture momentum around the issue. Rallies to support the plan failed to draw more than a few dozen people, and the comparison between their rallies and ours made our case even clearer.
It shows that direct action matters, even or especially at this moment when many people have wondered whether we have any power at all. Donald Trump wants you to feel completely disempowered. He wants you to believe that pressure from the top always wins, and that ordinary people can’t change the outcome.
But that’s not what happened here.
People showed up at the Statehouse. They made phone calls. They organized in their communities and did the kind of old-fashioned civic work that some would consider old-fashioned. And the outcome shocked the White House and surprised the whole country.
As someone who grew up and served in Indiana, I can tell you that this is a tectonic development in a very conservative state. The Republican legislators didn’t stop being Republican, but they stood together, in a bipartisan and overwhelming majority, for what is right. We saw how democracy plays out not just in Washington, but closer to home – thanks to people willing to speak up and get engaged.
At Win the Era, we believe that action builds hope. This was a clear example of that truth. And if there’s anything I want you to take away from this moment, it’s this: Trump is not unstoppable. And you are not without power.
Thank you for showing up, for staying committed, and for helping protect the democratic values that make everything else in America possible.
Pete
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