Dear John,

I’m writing to you from my home in Pennsylvania—one of the top states where the turnout of young people could decide the Presidential election. For months now, Sunrise hubs across PA have been using this election as an opportunity to grow our movement to defeat Trump. We’ve been calling and texting our classmates, workmates, cousins, and friends, making sure they are ready to vote and take to the streets, and training them to reach out to their communities too.

It has been so rewarding but I know we could be doing more. That’s why we’ve started promoting videos on Instagram and Youtube, to reach young people outside our movement and invite them to do this work with us. Already we are starting to see results but our budget is holding us back.

Can you donate now to help us reach more young people in my state? If we raise $10,000 dollars this week, we could send a personal video to another 350,000 young people, who we could train to organize their friends and classmates to turn out at the polls and in the streets.

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I have been organizing with Sunrise in my home county of Berks, Pennsylvania for two years now. We often get stereotyped as a conservative state that loves fracking, but young people from Philadelphia to coal country and everywhere in between are stepping up to do everything we can to defeat Trump in November.

We know that one on one outreach to people we know is the most effective method of getting out the vote, not to mention the main way we can grow our movement. But we also know that it’s nerve wracking to talk politics with your friends, and hard to grow this kind of organizing. That’s why, for months now, Sunrisers in swing states have been holding weekly friend-to-friend organizing parties over Zoom, gathering together in the hundreds to be in community while we call everyone we know—from the people who worked the same shift as us at our last job, to peers we worked on a group project with, and even our exes or long lost friends.

I’ve seen a high school senior organize his frisbee team to show up and recruit their friends and families. I’ve seen people reconnect with old college classmates. I’ve even seen someone who lives in Oregon now reach back out to all her old Pennsylvania connections.

Honestly, sometimes these conversations are tough. Our friends aren’t excited to vote for Joe Biden. But they are excited to do their part in a movement that is helping progressive champions win up and down the ballot, and preparing to mobilize no matter the outcome of the election.

Run of the mill political ads and traditional methods of voter outreach don’t speak to my generation. That’s why I need you to donate, to boost our social media videos in swing states that speak to our peers and give them a tangible and fun way to get involved. Click here to pitch in.

Every single person we train this week could each inspire about 60 more young people to join the movement. That’s potentially thousands more ballots to help defeat Trump and thousands more people taking to the streets with us the moment he tries to claim false victory. On November 4th, when Sunrisers in PA are mobilizing by the thousands to defend the results we just helped deliver, I know you’re going to be glad you supported us.

Thank you,

Troy

PS — If you can’t donate, can you invite a friend that lives in Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin to our next swing state organizing party?