Welcome to The Revolution Report — the weekly e-newsletter of our national grassroots organizing network!
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Join us on Monday, November 16th at 8:30 P.M. EST as we discuss our plan to win Georgia with Councilman khalid of South Fulton, GA and Georgia Public Service Commission candidate Daniel Blackman, as well as talk with newly elected San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan about her upset victory, and American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein about the #SaveThePostOffice Day of Action on Tuesday, November 17th!
RSVP HERE
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This week’s REVOLUTION REPORT features updates on flipping the Senate, new election victories, and results from our post-election members’ survey!
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Even though Our Revolution organized to defeat Trump, the control of the Senate is still at stake in Georgia. On our Weekly Organize to Win Call, Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen explained why the race are so critical - “The Georgia Senate runoffs are key, and everyone needs to realize what's at stake: President Biden’s Cabinet choices, agency appointments, and policy actions — at least 16 of our key agenda items are within reach right now. But we need a Democratic majority in the Senate so our bills can get on the floor. If Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win their elections, we can ditch Mitch and govern.”
That’s why Our Revolution is kicking-off our Georgia GOTV Ground Game - we must flip the Senate! Thanks to your incredible outpouring of donations, we have deployed our first team of organizers to Georgia to mobilize over 50,000 Our Revolution members in the state.
Donate to help us ramp up our GROUND GAME in GEORGIA so we can win the Senate!
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You can also volunteer to help make Get-Out-the-Vote phone calls to Georgia. We’ll be holding virtual phone banks from 6:30 - 8:30 P.M. EST on Thursdays and Sundays!
SIGN UP HERE!
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In the months leading up to Election Day, Our Revolution’s army of grassroots volunteers powered a massive “Get Out the Vote” campaign all across America. Over 650,000 people joined our rolling national and state virtual rallies, and together made more than 4 million one-on-one voter contacts.
Our people-powered GOTV campaign worked - not only did we defeat Trump, but our grassroots organizing helped elect 74% of our 450 endorsed progressive champions up and down the ballot!
And as mail ballots continue to be counted, our progressive champions are continuing to win - Read below for the latest victories!
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With all the mail ballots counted, Our Illinois Revolution helped Democratic challenger Eric Rinehart unseat a Republican incumbent in a tight race for State's Attorney. Eric is committed to “changing what hasn’t worked, making the system fair to underserved communities, and ending the culture and policies that have allowed criminal inequities to persist.”
Eric’s victory in Illinois is part of wave of progressive prosecutors we elected this cycle, including Jose Garza in Travis County, TX; Eli Savit in Washtenaw County, MI; Alexis King in Jefferson-Gilpin Counties, CO, and Monique Worrell in Orange County, FL - and top cops like Charmaine McGuffey, the new Sheriff in Hamilton County, OH. All our endorsed candidates are championing a progressive policy agenda - support for ending cash bail; stopping mass incarceration, treating substance abuse as a health crisis; and the pursuit of restorative justice.
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Overall, Our Revolution’s slate of criminal justice reform champions won 75% of their races!
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In California, Connie Chan, an immigrant from Hong Kong, won her ranked-choice-voting contest for San Francisco County Board of Supervisors by just 123 votes, proving that every vote matters! Connie beat back the Mayor’s establishment pick and her upset victory secures a progressive majority on the Board!
Connie’s win is another example of how Our Revolution is working to elect progressive city and county councils who put the interests of working families over those of real estate investors and corporate lobbyists. From DC’s newest Councilmember Janeese Lewis-George to Chad Albritton, a leader of Our Revolution Florida who won his race for Casselbury City Commissioner, to Holly Mitchell, who will be part of a historic all-women-led Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, we are continuing to fight for change from the bottom up!
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Across the nation, 57% of our candidates won their races for city and county positions.
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Our Revolution Oregon helped State Rep. Courtney Neron, a former public school teacher, fend off a Republican challenger to win her first re-election bid for House District 26, east of Portland. Two years ago, Courtney won her seat in a surprise victory against a Republican incumbent.
Our state-level progressive champions aren’t just winning in tough races, they’re breaking barriers and building a more representative government. Dagmara “Dee” Avelar, longtime advocate for immigrant rights, became the first Latina to represent the 85th District in the Illinois House. Tarra Simmons [D-23] is the first former felon to serve in the Washington State Legislature, and hopes her victory will inspire other formerly incarcerated people to run for office. Nikil Saval, who was Philadelphia’s first Asian American Democratic ward leader, now becomes the first Asian American elected to the Pennsylvania Senate. In Puerto Rico, Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, a member of the Citizens’ Victory party, became the first lesbian woman of African descent elected to the Puerto Rican Senate. And in Illinois, Edgar Gonzalez - 23 year old son of working class immigrants - won his reelection to the State House!
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Nationwide, over 81% of Our Revolution’s candidates won in state-level races!
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While centrist Democrats lost ground in the Senate and the House, progressives won big on Election Day. We helped to send Squad members – Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) back to Congress — and grow the Squad with victories for Cori Bush in Missouri, Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones in New York, and Marie Newman in Illinois. Overall, 76% of our federal candidates won their races!
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Our Revolution Florida members organized to pass a statewide ballot measure to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Raising worker pay beat Trump and Biden by winning over 60% of the vote. On our Weekly Monday Organizing Call, Florida State Rep. Anna Eskamani said that while she’s celebrating the win, she’s disappointed by the Democratic party’s lukewarm support for the measure. “This progressive issue passed, its first time on the ballot, by a wide range of voters that included Trump supporters. Fight for $15 is a working people’s issue. For far too long, the Democratic party has sided with corporations, and it was a failure of the party not to anchor around it knowing how popular it is.”
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We didn’t just organize to elect progressive candidates, Our Revolution members also mobilized to pass progressive policies all across America. Whether it’s guaranteeing paid family leave and a living wage or ending the failed war on drugs, our members are tired of waiting for the establishment to act, and so we’re taking upon ourselves to fight for transformative change. Overall, Our Revolution endorsed 28 ballot measures, and 78% of them passed!
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Thanks to the work of Our Revolution Ohio and other groups in the area, Columbus voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 1, an "opt-out" green-energy electricity aggregation plan that promises to supply 100% of the city's power needs with renewable energy by 2023. Cathy Cowan Becker, an Our Revolution leader and chair of Ready for 100 in Ohio said the result in Columbus was not shocking. “I was thrilled but not entirely surprised because public opinion polling shows that people really like renewable energy — as close to a consensus issue as we get in our society.” Issue 10 in Grove City OH, a similar proposal that will allow the city to send out a request for proposals for utilities to supply residents and small businesses with electricity generated from a renewable-energy facility built in Ohio, was also approved by voters this election.
READ MORE ABOUT THE PROPOSALS HERE
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Voters narrowly approved a ballot initiative to reintroduce gray wolves in Colorado. Proposition 114 requires Colorado officials to restore and manage the population by the end of 2023. The animal’s historic range spans across most of North America including Colorado, where the native population was hunted to extinction by the 1940s. This marks the first time a state has voted to reintroduce an animal into its ecosystem. Congratulations to Our Revolution Colorado for the work they did to get wolves over the finish line!
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Just days after voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum to legalize marijuana, Our Revolution New Jersey organized to stop a bill being rushed through the state legislature that would use the tax revenue from marijuana sales to fund police and create pro-corporate licensing rules. Because of our rapid response, the bill has been delayed and negotiations are underway to ensure racial and social justice provisions are included!
READ MORE HERE
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In an interview with The Boston Herald, Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese said Biden, a longtime moderate who presented a more left-leaning platform as the Democratic standard-bearer, “owes his victory” to running on the issues of importance to the party’s energetic left wing — expanding access to health care and combating climate change — even if he didn’t adopt their policies outright. “Biden’s not going to be able to govern without a movement. Progressives need to be at the table, not just within the Democratic party, but within the Cabinet in order to make this work.”
READ THE STORY HERE
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In this week’s post-election survey, Our Revolution members overwhelmingly agree that President-elect Joe Biden must use executive actions to make key progressive changes — beginning on Day One. 88% of Our Revolution members said that Biden should bypass Congress - which may or may not swing to the Democrats - and sign executive orders to create policies that just can’t wait. From the moment he takes office, Biden should use the power of the pen to cancel billions of dollars in student debt, raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $15 per hour, declare the climate crisis a national emergency — and more.
In addition to leading with bold executive action, our members also want President Biden to turn his promises into policy on these Top 6 issues:
#1- Climate Crisis. The survey results show that Our Revolution members are deeply concerned about our planet’s future. Our members want Joe Biden to keep his promises to end federal government fossil fuel subsidies and push for a massive jobs bill that includes significant infrastructure investments as the foundation of a Green New Deal.
#2 - Health Care. While Medicare for All is the ultimate goal of Our Revolution, the survey shows our members want to hold Biden accountable for creating a public option, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60.
#3 - Corporate Power. Our members want Biden to lead on getting money out of politics and challenging corporate power. A key way President Biden can accomplish that is by reversing Reagan-era policies and strengthening antitrust enforcement against corporate monopolies.
#4 - Income and Wealth Inequality. Our survey showed that our members want Biden to fight against economic inequality by holding him accountable to enacting a $15 minimum wage, protecting the freedom of workers to form unions, and deliver immediate economic relief — similar to the HEROES Act — to struggling workers and their families.
#5 - Criminal Justice Reform. Our members want criminal justice reform to be a priority for the Biden Administration, and that means using his power to end private prisons, cash bail, mandatory-minimum sentencing and the death penalty.
#6 - Immigrant Rights. The survey also showed high support for President Biden to undo the damage done to immigrants and our values as a nation by four years of Donald Trump’s shameful policies - beginning with ending the caging and separation of families and creating a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
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Our Revolution joined with Demand Progress, Revolving Door Project and others to call on President-elect Biden to adopt restrictions on corporate lobbyists, executives and consultants from being appointed or nominated to prominent roles in his administration. As the New York Times notes, our coalition sent the letter after Biden released a list of advisors - including corporate executives from Amazon Web Services, Lyft and Airbnb, amongst others - to staff the Office of Management and the Budget, which oversees the $5 trillion and “shapes regulations on everything from labor standards to air pollution.”
READ THE STORY HERE
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Minnesota Attorney General and Our Revolution Board member Keith Ellison is a leading voice on the dangers of monopoly power and the need to limit it - something President-elect Biden could do on Day One with the stroke of a pen. On our Monday National Organizing Call, Attorney General Ellison described some of the ways monopoly power affects our lives. “Why are your wages stagnant? Why does big pharma charge you an arm and a leg for your insulin? Why is it so hard to start a small business? Why can't we get real action on climate? The answer is monopoly capitalism, and we’ve got to take it on.”
Sign our pledge to fight corporate power HERE
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Postal workers delivered for America in a big way on Election Day. But postal workers and communities are still being hurt by mail delays and service cuts. We need to stop Postmaster General's Dejoy's mail slowdowns and secure $25 billion in COVID relief funding to Save the US Post Office! That’s why - in solidarity with the American Postal Workers Union, Our Revolution members will be hosting Save the USPS Day of Actions across the country this Tuesday!
Join the action virtually on Facebook at 11 A.M. ET on Tuesday!
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Read more from Our Revolution Board Member Jim Hightower’s post-election message HERE.
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Thank you to our volunteers and donors for your solidarity and commitment as we fight for a progressive future. We especially want to give a special shout-out to our TOP 30 super volunteers below who helped power our National Phone Bank & Text Teams! Together, we are building a powerful independent political organization that is organizing to win in 2020, 2021 and beyond!
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Join Our Revolution Maryland Chair Bob Muehlenkamp and Sen. Nina Turner on Saturday, November 21st at 12 P.M. EST for a no-holds barred conversation on the harm that neoliberalism has wrought on the very fabric of our society and what we must do to reverse the damage.
RSVP HERE
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