Welcome to The Revolution Report — the weekly e-newsletter of our national grassroots organizing network!
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We’re down to the wire. That’s why Our Revolution is launching Operation Endgame to make a final round of targeted phone calls into strategic areas where our work will be game changing. Volunteer to make calls TODAY!
OUR REVOLUTION NEEDS YOU! SIGN UP HERE
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CALL TO ACTION
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US Rep. Ayanna Pressley inspired over 70,000 Our Revolution members who joined our final National GOTV Rally by urging us to “stay uncomfortable” and do the “inconvenient work” of phone banking and texting our friends, neighbors and even strangers to get out the vote in the endgame. Every action we take matters - the future of the political revolution depends on what we do right now!
WATCH - INSPIRATION FROM REP. PRESSLEY!
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OUR THEORY OF CHANGE
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As America votes, 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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WHEN WE ORGANIZE … WE WIN!
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Our Revolution’s army of grassroots volunteers are powering our “Get Out the Vote” efforts in their local communities all across America. This month, over 600,000 people joined our rolling national and state virtual rallies, and we’ve made over 3.4 million one-on-one voter contacts through phone calls and texts!
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A New Era of Contactless Campaigning
CBS News interviewed Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese about how we scaled up our organizing in the midst of the pandemic: “The truth is that we are making significantly more voter contacts now than if we only relied on in-person rallies and door-to-door canvassing.” The broadcast story highlighted how Our Revolution made a strategic pivot once the lockdowns hit - from ramping up phone bank operations to hosting massive virtual get out the vote rallies.
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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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MIDWEST "PIVOT COUNTY" STRATEGY
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As Trump campaigns in Midwestern battleground states, he’s using the slogan “Promises Made, Promises Kept” to lie about his promise to deliver “more jobs and better wages” and “stop the offshoring” of manufacturing jobs abroad. That’s why Our Revolution is organizing laid-off workers to set the record straight - especially in the “pivot counties” that voted twice for Obama-Biden before going for Trump in 2016. Read below to learn more about the deep grassroots organizing our members are doing in key swing areas in swing states to expose Trump’s betrayal of working class voters!
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Michigan Congressman Andy Levin joined over 70,000 Our Revolution activists for our final National GOTV Virtual Rally before the election. He noted that the job losses that have hit Ohio and other Midwestern states happened in his district, which includes Macomb County - a critical “pivot county” that could decide Michigan. “Donald Trump sold people a bill of goods. He told Michigan auto workers there would be more jobs, but plants have closed here under his watch.”
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This week, Our Revolution activist Chuckie Denison directly confronted Donald Trump, Jr. about the President’s failure to save his job - and the jobs of over 5000 autoworkers - at the GM plant in Lordstown, OH. The video has been watched over 1 MILLION times on NowThis and was featured on the Randi Rhodes Show.
WATCH THE VIRAL VIDEO HERE!
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United Electrical Workers Union President Carl Rosen joined Our Revolution Pennsylvania’s Get Out the Vote Rally to talk about how the Trump administration has spent the past four years trying to divide the working class and install a pro-corporate government that aims to strip working people of our rights – and our jobs. Under Trump’s watch, Pennsylvania lost 8,100 manufacturing jobs in 2020 alone, including hundreds of UE members laid off from Erie’s locomotive plant.
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Trump Left Ohio Workers Behind
Our Revolution activist Dave Green, former leader at the GM plant in Lordstown, OH wrote a scathing opinion piece calling out Trump's betrayal of Ohio workers. “Trump’s lies feel like a punch in the gut to me and the 5,000 workers I used to represent at the General Motors Lordstown plant. Our 6.2-million-square-foot facility was shuttered last year, shattering what remained of the American Dream for thousands of working families. Trump has the worst jobs record of any president in modern history. Between 2016 and 2018, 1,800 factories closed and, since the pandemic began, our economy has lost nearly half of the 11.6 million jobs gained during the Obama-Biden years. And all Trump can do is lie about it.”
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Trump Claims Industrial Jobs Are “Booming” - Local Organizers Tell a Different Story
This week, journalists Sarah Jaffe & Michelle Chen interviewed Our Revolution activists Chuck Jones, the former union leader, and Shannon Mulcahy, a laid-off worker, to get the real story behind Trump’s bluster about “saving” the Carrier plant in Indianapolis and making Lordstown into a “booming town” after its GM plant closed.
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEWS HERE
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Along with 900 of his fellow workers, union leader Joe Baratta was laid off from the Electrolux factory in St. Cloud, MN. He joined Our Revolution Minnesota’s Get Out the Vote Rally to talk about how Trump failed to save their jobs. “We sent Trump hundreds of actual letters when we began to hear rumors of the plant closing, and we got no response. They don’t care. We couldn’t even get a tweet.” Now, Baratta is fighting to defeat Trump and elect progressive candidates up and down the ballot who will undo a corrupt political culture that favors corporations over working people.
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Help us make ONE FINAL PUSH in key Midwestern “Pivot Counties” and win back working-class voters betrayed by Trump’s false populism!
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#2 - We must elect more progressives to the U.S. House and flip the Senate to advance progressive policies.
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US Rep. Ilhan Omar joined Our Revolution Minnesota’s Get Out the Vote Rally to talk about why it’s so important to elect more progressives - like Cori Bush, Mike Siegel, Marie Newman and Jamaal Bowman - to Congress. In January, she noted that we will have a “new cohort of progressives” who will be ready to fight for the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and other progressive priorities when Biden takes office. Rep. Omar also spoke about efforts to make the Congressional Progressive Caucus a more powerful force on Capitol Hill. This story in The Intercept goes deeper on details on how the CPC is getting ready for 2021!
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Donate NOW to help us get BOLD PROGRESSIVES over the finish line & into the House!
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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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2020 POLITICAL TOPLINES: This election cycle, Our Revolution HQ - in partnership with our state and local organizations - endorsed 450 progressive champions - and most importantly, over 88% are running in down-ballot races! Between now and Election Day, our members are mobilizing to elect them to serve on local water commissions, school boards, city councils, and county commissions.
CHECK OUT OUR ENDORSEMENTS ON OUR WEBSITE!
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Our Revolution Minnesota’s Get Out the Vote Rally featured several down-ballot candidates and elected officials. Minnesota House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler talked about the promise of a progressive wave electing a state Senate majority. After the election, he plans to lead the fight to pass transformative policies to defend workers’ rights, protect the climate, and expand health care. St. Paul City Councilor Nelsie Yang - an Our Revolution member - said that the grassroots organizing our local groups are doing is critical to electing progressives to down-ballot positions of power.
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Our Revolution Missouri featured several down ballot progressive champions on their Statewide GOTV Rally. Derrick Nowlin, candidate for state rep. in District 134, said a key priority for him is getting money out of politics. “All of the issues I'm running on stem from the fact that our government is largely bought and paid for by the big-donor class. Our representatives don't represent us, our government doesn't work for us, and that’s why I'm running for office.” Kimberly-Ann Collins, candidate for state rep. in the 77th District, is a public health professional who says her heart is with the homeless. When a St. Louis shelter closed, she helped organize pop-up shelters all over the city to care for the unhoused. “Housing is a right, period — and we cannot move forward as a city, state, or country until we help our most vulnerable.”
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Texas Voter Turnout Hotter than Any Texas BBQ
This article featured Our Revolution GOTV Organizer Kevin Patterson, who’s working to turn TEXAS blue - “Patterson, a student at UT Dallas, and Our Revolution Texas is focused on flipping the nine state House seats Democrats need to take the majority, including one in the Dallas area with Lorenzo Sanchez, the son of Mexican immigrants. “Our goal is to tell people to vote down-ballot and not just the top,” said Patterson, who exudes more energy than a Texas refinery gas flare. “We are organizing phone banks, zoom meetings, text banking, and sending postcards.”
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Your support will help us BUILD A BENCH of progressive candidates and policies up and down the ballot!
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BALLOT MEASURES
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In addition to supporting down ballot candidates, Our Revolution is organizing to win down ballot initiatives to advance our progressive public policy agenda!
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Florida ranks second in the nation for income inequality. That’s why Our Revolution Florida is organizing support for Amendment 2: the $15 Minimum Wage Initiative. If the measure passes, Florida will be the second most populous state to raise the minimum wage - and will show the next President and Congress that passing a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour should be a DAY 1 priority.
As Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese told The Huffington Post this week, “If $15 passes in Florida, it will send a clear message to the incoming Biden administration that raising the minimum wage is not just good policy but also good politics.”
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Nearly 40% of America’s jobs are now “gig” jobs. Workers in these positions are denied minimum wage and other basic labor protections because companies like Uber and Lyft exploit long-standing legal loopholes. California recently passed model legislation to fix the problem - and now gig companies are trying to roll-back worker rights with Proposition 22. Uber and Lyft have spent $200 million on their campaign — making it the costliest ballot measure in the state’s history. This week, Our Revolution’s National Phone Bank Team made a final push to get Californians to Vote NO on Prop 22!
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Four out of five Coloradans don’t have access to paid family and medical leave, and the pandemic has made this need even more urgent. That’s why Our Revolution Colorado is organizing to pass Prop 118: Colorado Families First, which would give 2.6 million workers up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. Passing this measure in the Rocky Mountain state will make it the 9th state to pass such a measure, creating more pressure for a new President and Congress to take action.
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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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Trump’s remarks that he may lose the November election yet dismiss the results or refuse to relinquish his power are so concerning that Our Revolution HQ is partnering with a coalition of progressive organizations to Protect the Results of the Nov. 3rd election. We are getting ready to mobilize if Trump tries to undermine our democracy!
LEARN MORE HERE
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HOLDING BIDEN ACCOUNTABLE
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Progressives Push for Warren at Treasury, Signaling Bigger Ideological Battle If Biden Wins
Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen spoke with NBC News about the possibility of Sen. Elizabeth Warren becoming Treasury Secretary in a Biden Administration. “There's a huge gap between Sen. Warren and any other likely candidate. She understands finance capital and is prepared to wrangle with it. Some of the other candidates I've heard about are not prepared to wrangle with it.”
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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Unions Hope For Turnaround Under Biden
Workers’ rights advocates are getting ready to push a potential Biden administration to take bold action on DAY 1 to help workers by leveling the playing field on federal procurement rules and other labor regulations that has been tilted in favor of corporations for far too long. Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese talked about how Biden should issue pro-worker executive orders immediately to avoid repeating Obama/Biden’s first term mistakes. “Biden does not have to wait for Congress to act. We don’t have to fix the filibuster for him to be bold on this issue.”
READ MORE HERE
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VOLUNTEER!
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We’re down to the wire. That’s why Our Revolution is launching Operation Endgame to make a final round of targeted phone calls into strategic areas where our work will be game changing. Volunteer to make calls TODAY!
OUR REVOLUTION NEEDS YOU! SIGN UP HERE
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LIVE FROM THE FIELD!
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On Election Day, Our Revolution members around the USA will be broadcasting LIVE from the polls with our endorsed candidates and posting updates on progressive victories. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! And if your local group is out on Election Day, fill out this form to send us pictures so we can share them on social media!
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Our Revolution’s work is powered by YOU — our members, volunteers, and donors.
Thank you for your solidarity and commitment!
Together, we are building a powerful independent political organization that is organizing to win a progressive America in 2020 and beyond!
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