Welcome back to the Data for Progress newsletter, your weekly update on our research, blog posts, and memes.

Bernie Sanders for the DFP Blog: We Need Masks for All
Sen. Bernie Sanders has a new bill to give everyone masks, and he’s using the DFP blog to build support.

That’s right — our newest blog contributor is none other than U.S. Senator and absolute progressive hero Bernard Sanders.



On Tuesday, Sanders explained on our blog why the U.S. government should send three reusable masks to every American, as well as require the production of N95 masks for healthcare providers. Our surveys found that 70 percent of voters support sending everyone three masks, and the same percentage of voters support investing $5 billion to make it happen.

"Wearing a mask saves lives and is the quickest, simplest, and most effective way to begin to contain this pandemic,” Sanders wrote. “Making it easier to wear a mask is our greatest chance to finally get this virus under control, restart the economy, reopen schools and keep Americans alive.”


Voters Support Eliminating the Filibuster
One of the biggest — and most under-discussed — roadblocks to passing progressive bills is the filibuster, a Jim Crow era rule that allows a minority of Senators to block voting on proposed legislation unless 60 or more Senators vote to end debate.

Do Americans support the filibuster, or are they open to striking it down to pass new voting rights legislation? In a new poll, we show that a majority — 53 percent — of Americans support replacing the filibuster with a simple majority requirement for passing legislation in the Senate. Just 25 percent oppose.

That’s HUGE.




Way to Win + DFP: The Beyond Trump Report
Political parties have always been pushed by outside institutions — but the right has done this far more successfully than the left. To create real progressive change, we need to replace the neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party with progressives that are fighting for universal economic and social rights.

This week, we teamed up with Way to Win to release the Beyond Trump report, which lays out a blueprint for how we can do exactly that.



The report explains that although American politics is often viewed as conflict between parties, major historical shifts — such as the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement — have often been caused by conflict within parties. The report combines original analysis with DFP research to explain why the progressive wing lacks control of the Democratic Party, and how we can build the progressive infrastructure to make the party work for the people.

The Republican Party has been working for the conservative movement for decades — it’s time to make the Democratic Party work for the progressive movement.

Read the full report here!


Data Bytes

• This Chart Shows How Much Turnout Could Matter In November: If turnout is low this November, it would be really harmful for Joe Biden’s campaign.
  
  In the chart below, we show that turnout of 70 percent of registered voters this November (which would be abnormally low turnout for a presidential election) would make the race a tossup between Biden and Trump. On the other hand, if turnout reaches the heights it did in 2008, our analysis shows that Biden would have a fairly hefty 9 percent edge.
  
  
   

• Voters Support Stopping Business Mergers During the Pandemic: Predatory mergers could make life even harder for small businesses, which are already struggling due to the pandemic. New DFP polling, shared by Newsweek, shows that 54 percent of voters support Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to pause big mergers and acquisitions for the duration of the pandemic.
  
  Also interestingly, we found majority support for breaking up large telecommunications and cable companies, big agriculture companies like Bayer/Monsanto and Tyson, and big tech companies like Facebook and Instagram.
   

• DFP in Vox — Battleground Voters Support Aggressive Pharma Reform: In new polling with Be a Hero, we found that a clear majority of voters in four key battleground states — Arizona, Iowa, Maine, and North Carolina — said they’d be more likely to vote for a candidate if they supported key aspects of the progressive pharmaceutical agenda, such as generic drug manufacturing and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Thanks to Vox for sharing these findings.

 

From The Blog
Masks for All Isn’t a Radical Idea
This Chart Shows How Much Turnout Could Matter in November
Democrats: Fight the Drug Companies to Win Back the Senate
Voters Support Eliminating The Filibuster


Memos
Memo: The Need for a Pandemic Merger Moratorium
Memo: From Civilian Input to Civilian Control - The Principles of Effective Police Oversight
Memo: Voters in Key States Support the Progressive Pharmaceutical Agenda
Memo: Voters in Key States Support Expanded Unemployment Insurance


Media Hits
Beyond Trump: A Theory of Political Transition @Way to Win
The Covid-19 pandemic could be the last straw for high drug costs @Vox
The Hill's 12:30 Report: Biden, Harris's first day as running mates @The Hill
New report finds majority of Americans support merger moratorium @The Hill
Julian Brave NoiseCat on Chris Hayes @MSNBC
A Novel Way to Fund a Green Economy @The New Republic


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