John,

Saturday was a historic day for Women’s March, the movement that kicked off the resistance to Trump on his first day of office. In the face of hate and division, women spent the last four years marching, training, and organizing. Together, we built a movement and we won.

This weekend, the power of women, especially women of color, prevailed, slamming the door on Trump’s ugly and dangerous presidency and ushering in a new era of American politics. Take a moment to recognize that you were instrumental in setting this country on another path by getting rid of Trump and his administration. Together, we voted our values for a different future.

In the month before the election, Women’s Marchers sent over 12 million text messages to women voters, engaged over 25,000 volunteers, made more than 30,000 phone calls, trained over 650 women to combat disinformation online, and organized a march for tens of thousands with nearly 450 sister marches across the country. We have been an on ramp for new activists – millions of women who were angry, fed-up, and ready to demand change.

Here’s the big question now: what’s next for our movement?

We are still getting more insight into this election, but we wanted to send some preliminary thoughts to help ground you in the days to come. This email is longer than usual but it is critical you read to the end to understand the important work that’s still ahead of us.

FAST FACTS:

This was a historic election in terms of turnout. At least 160 million people voted which is two thirds of Americans eligible to vote. This is a 22 million increase since 2016 — making this the largest election turnout in the history of our country. We also saw a large spike in voter registration over the summer during the weeks of mass protests for racial justice.

We won many races. We removed the most dangerous President in modern history from the White House. We made history by electing the first woman of color as Vice President, the daughter of immigrants. In addition, we flipped US Senate seats in Arizona and Colorado and key states including Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania away from the Republicans.

We won because of women and women of color. While final data is forthcoming, we know that women cast over 37 million votes in this election. Women of color led the organizing work that allowed us to remove Trump from office. For example, Georgia’s mobilization was led by grassroots leaders like Nse Ufot of New Georgia Project and LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter, who spent years organizing and transforming the political possibilities.

The news is not all good; we also lost races. Democrats were unable to flip statehouses in our favor. This means that the GOP will have an advantage in drawing congressional and state legislative maps for up to a decade. This makes it harder for us to gain and maintain seats in statehouses and in the House of Representatives.

It will take time to understand the full outcome of this election because the polling data is not reliable. The number of Americans in general, and white women in particular, who voted for Trump was far too high. We do not have adequate data yet to completely understand exactly how people voted, but what is clear is that this race was way too close. Millions of people voted for Trump, many of them against their own economic and health interests. We must not underestimate the power of our opponents, and our continued organizing must reflect that understanding.

WHAT THIS MEANS:

We owe this victory to the movement: Candidates alone do not win campaigns, people-powered movements do. This win was driven by movement-based organizations and groups that put heart and soul into transforming communities, building power, and getting out the vote.

All of the states that were won for Democrats were places where grassroots organizations have been working for a decade or more. These are places that have transformed because of the organizers that live there, many of them women, people of color, and LGBTQ people. There are too many organizations and leaders to name, and we know that some of them will never be seen or thanked. They will not be on TV, they will not be listed as activists to follow, and they will not be clamoring to claim this victory as theirs. These women represent the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who won this election for all of us. On behalf of the nation, we thank them.

We need all hands on deck in Georgia: Control of the Senate will be decided by two Senate runoffs in Georgia. We need to come together, and pool our resources and organizing expertise to ensure Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are elected to the US Senate.

We have to continue to push Biden on a progressive agenda: We have to be uncompromising about holding the Biden Administration accountable to the debt they owe our movement. This includes nominating progressive women of color to be appointed to cabinet positions, centering the concerns and issues of people in communities on the outskirts, ensuring meaningful COVID relief, economic stimulus, action on the BREATHE Act, protections of reproductive health, rights, and justice, action on the childcare crisis, and legislation on court reform.

We cannot mistake the symptom for the root cause: While the announcement of the results saw the country breathing a collective sigh of relief, we cannot stop short of defeating Trumpism, just because Trump himself is leaving office. Trump’s presidency made visible some of the decay in our democracy, a rot rooted in racism, and one that is harmful to all Americans.

Women’s March is committed to expanding our multi-racial movement to tip the scales towards a more progressive future that serves everyone across race, place, and difference.

Thank you for fighting with us. The future is feminist, and our movement is just getting started.

Rachel