Welcome to The Revolution Report — the weekly e-newsletter of our national grassroots organizing network!
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Let’s Get Out the Vote for Down-Ballot Progressives!
Join our Weekly Organize to Win Meeting on Monday, October 5th at 8:30 PM ET featuring down-ballot progressives Fanon Rucker, candidate for Hamilton County Prosecutor in Ohio, and Lorenzo Sanchez, candidate for the Texas House of Representatives, District 67.
RSVP HERE
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As Americans across the nation start to vote, Our Revolution members are carrying out our 4-POINT PLAN to fight for a progressive future by #1) Defeating Trump; #2) Electing more progressives to Congress; #3) Building a down-ballot bench; and most critically, #4) Organizing a powerful grassroots movement to win transformative change after the election!
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#1 - We must go all out to defeat Donald Trump by winning back working-class voters in the Midwest.
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This week, The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell highlighted Our Revolution’s Midwest “Pivot County” Campaign to expose Trump’s lies to working-class voters in the swing areas of the industrial heartland.
“Our Revolution, the progressive political organization is seeking to flip blue again districts that went for Trump in 2016 but had previously voted for Barack Obama, partly by talking about Trump’s record on manufacturing jobs.”
Our Revolution leaders Dave Green and Chuckie Dension - both laid-off from the GM plant in Lordstown - spoke of Trump’s failure to save 5000 jobs at the plant despite promising to “revive the auto industry.” Green, the former union leader at the plant, told Rampbell, “They’ve betrayed the American worker, they’ve betrayed all those people who voted for them and supported them.”
READ THE WASHINGTON POST COLUMN
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On the campaign trail, Trump is claiming that he’s “fighting for the American worker” and “bringing back jobs to the USA.” That’s why - ahead of the first presidential debate in Cleveland - Our Revolution held a virtual town hall - “Exposing Trump’s Top Lies to Workers” - with laid-off workers who are calling out Trump for failing to deliver on his promise to stop plant closures.
Chuck Jones - the union leader who did battle with Trump on Twitter for “lying his ass off” about saving the jobs at the Carrier plant in Indiana - talked about Hillary Clinton’s failure to win over working class voters in the industrial heartland. “Union members are afraid of losing their jobs to foreign countries and Clinton and the Democrats failed to say they would stop it. We need to make sure Biden doesn’t ignore this issue and let Trump win the Midwest again.”
Chuckie Denison, who lost his job at the GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, said that Joe Biden “shouldn’t take the working class vote for granted. Biden needs to reassure workers hurt by bad trade deals that he’s going to stand up and fight us.” Chuckie and Our Revolution Ohio members have been travelling to Trump rallies in Dayton, Toledo, Zanesville to call-out the Administration’s failure to deliver on its vow to “save auto jobs.”
Shannon Mulcahy - an Obama-Biden voter who supported Trump in 2016 because she believed that he would save her job from moving to Mexico - talked about the importance of Our Revolution’s Midwest “Pivot County” Campaign. “There are alot of people like me who feel betrayed by Trump. We’re getting out there and making sure workers who used to be Democrats get out and vote against Trump.” Between now and Election Day, Our Revolution is zeroing in on organizing laid-off workers in critical “pivot counties” - counties which went for Obama-Biden twice, then flipped to Trump - as the cornerstone of our campaign to win pivotal states like Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Iowa.
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OVER 95,000 VOTER CONTACTS MADE!
In addition to the grassroots organizing in Midwestern battleground states, Our Revolution members are holding daily national “Dump Trump” phone banks. Between now and Election Day, we’re enlisting an army of volunteers to make calls to key swing states to get out the vote.
JOIN OUR GOTV PHONE BANK!
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Donate to our Midwestern “Pivot County” Campaign and help us win back working class voters betrayed by Trump’s false populism!
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#2 - We must elect more progressives to the US House and flip & fix the Senate to advance policies like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.
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This week, Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen moderated a Fix the Senate Town Hall with Senator Jeff Merkley, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and our allies in the progressive movement to build grassroots support to push for critical changes to Senate rules - like ending the filibuster - so that Democrats can actually pass laws and actually govern in 2021.
Larry noted that “even if Democrats sweep the White House, Senate, and the House — just 41 Republican Senators can use arcane rules — like the McConnell veto — to block any critical piece of legislation we need to pass to get America back on a path to progress in January 2021. That means it will be impossible to make progress on crucial issues like voting rights, systemic racism in policing, the climate crisis, workers rights, gun safety, immigration, healthcare, and jobs.”
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If we want to get the Senate working again, we must change the rules and end the filibuster!
Help Our Revolution Fix the Senate!
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FEATURED CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE!
In addition to flipping and fixing the Senate, Our Revolution is organizing to grow “The Squad” in Congress by supporting candidates like Dana Balter. Balter is running to flip a Repubican House seat - held by Rep. John Katko - in upstate New York by running as a bold progressive who supports Medicare for All. "I know what it's like to go without health insurance, to almost go bankrupt from health care bills, to be labeled with a preexisting condition the rest of my life." Balter and Katko are locked in a competitive contest. Most polls show that the candidates are either in a dead heat or within a few points of each other.
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#3 - We must build a bench of down-ballot progressive elected officials and policies to fight for change from the bottom up.
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FEATURED DOWN-BALLOT PROGRESSIVE CHAMPIONS!
While Trump barks about “Law and Order,” Our Revolution Ohio members are fighting to reform our broken criminal justice system by supporting Fanon Rucker to be Hamilton County (Cincinnati) prosecutor. Rucker is a former civil rights attorney and municipal judge who is running against long-time and well-funded incumbent. Rucker is running on an unmistakably progressive and reform platform including: No cash bail for non-violent crimes, creating a “conviction integrity unit” to review convictions and establishing a “reentry court” to help citizens as they move back into the community after being incarcerated.
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Our Revolution Texas is organizing to turn the Texas State House blue by supporting candidates like Lorenzo Sanchez, a first-generation Mexican American and small business owner. If elected, Lorenzo will be the only openly LGBTQ+ man in the Texas Legislature and the first Latino from Collin County (Plano area) ever elected to the state legislature.
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Help us build a bench of progressive candidates and policies up and down the ballot!
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#4 - We must build a movement in the streets and inside the halls of power to win progressive change.
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The Next American Revolution: Defeating Corporate Monopolies!
If we want to reclaim our democracy, we must not only defeat Trump, we must also get ready to defeat corporate goliaths like Amazon. That’s why Our Revolution hosted a virtual town hall on The Next American Revolution: Defeating Corporate Monopolies with Minnesota Attorney General and Our Revolution Board Member Keith Ellison, Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout, and Open Markets Institute’s Executive Director Barry Lynn to lay the groundwork for pressuring Democrats to reverse Reagan-era antitrust policy and break-up the large corporations that dominate nearly every sector of our economy. As Lynn - who wrote a new book about monopolies released this week - noted, “When the power of government is fused to that of the private corporation, it’s bad for all of us.”
Sign-up below to join our new campaign to call on the Biden Administration to fight corporate power on Day 1.
SIGN UP HERE
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Our Revolution Florida members are energizing progressive voters to get out and vote to support a statewide initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 bucks an hour. As Bernie said, the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 is a “starvation wage” and must be changed!
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Our Revolution Florida leader Kira Willig was quoted in Politico on the importance of organizing to register new voters and to get out the vote - especially since the Republicans are ramping up their ground game in her state. “With Biden, there’s a feeling that the ground game is not important. And I think that’s a miscalculation where I hope I’m wrong. Registration is part of the ground game,” said Willig, who leads the progressive group Our Revolution Miami.
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This week, Our Revolution Nashville & Middle Tennessee members were out and about encouraging people to register and get out and vote!
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Ahead of Election Day, Our Revolution HQ is holding “Get Out the Vote” Rallies across the country to organize to win at the local, state and national levels.
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UPCOMING “GET OUT THE VOTE” RALLIES!
Join U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Bernie 2020 co-chair Nina Turner as we roll-out our slate of endorsed candidates and build progressive power at all levels of government in California.
RSVP HERE
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Michigan is a critical battleground state and our members are rallying to get out the vote with special guests U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, former UAW President Bob King and others!
RSVP HERE
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Join Our Revolution / New York Progressive Action Network for our pre-election rally featuring Jumaane Williams, Jessica Ramos, Mondaire Jones, Dana Balter and others to talk about what’s next for the political revolution in the Empire State!
RSVP HERE
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Our Revolution Colorado is fighting to make the Rocky Mountain state more progressive by electing our endorsed candidates to District Attorney, City Council and State House positions. Join Joe Salazar, Alexis King, State Rep. Emily Sirota and others for our pre-election rally!
RSVP HERE
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Join Our Revolution Board member Jim Hightower and an all-star cast of Connecticut progressives as we rally to get out the vote!
RSVP HERE
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Our Revolution Texas is organizing to turn Texas blue in November by running a slate of progressives to serve as justices of the peace, drainage commissioners, district attorneys, and state representatives. Our Texas rally will be a “cattle call” of our endorsed candidates!
RSVP HERE
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PHONEBANK TO WIN! Between now and November 3rd, We are calling every day across the country to defeat Trump, flip the Senate, and support our nationally-endorsed candidates up and down the ballot. JOIN US!
RSVP HERE
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