Welcome to The Revolution Report — the weekly e-newsletter of our national grassroots organizing network!
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Join our Weekly National Organize to Win Call on Monday, December 7th at 8:30pm EST to learn about breaking progressive wins in Georgia and Illinois and get the latest update on what’s happening on Capitol Hill from Rep. Jamie Raskin!
RSVP HERE
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This week’s REVOLUTION REPORT features the latest from Georgia, how we’re holding Biden accountable, and recent victories in unexpected places.
Read more below!
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This week, The New York Times singled out Our Revolution’s Georgia GOTV campaign as an example of the “furious” efforts underway to flip two Senate seats in the state’s January 5th runoff: “Our Revolution is currently contacting its 50,000 member households in the state to encourage them to request mail ballots.” The article highlights the “political evolution” happening in Georgia as it is becoming “increasingly receptive to left-leaning ideas,” pointing to several local progressive down- ballot candidates who won their races in November. Get a deeper look at our Georgia organizing strategy below!
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ORGANIZING IS KEY
The Democratic establishment’s playbook to win Georgia is simple: Raise huge sums to pay for slick commercials and big social media ad buys that they hope will “persuade” voters. Our Revolution’s theory of winning is radically different. We believe that the only way to win is by organizing - talking one-on-one with people, building relationships, and moving them to take action on the issues that matter to them personally. That’s the cornerstone of our plan to win Georgia.
On our special Georgia Organize to Win Call this week, Sen. Nina Turner and “raptivist” Killer Mike fired up over 50,000 Our Revolution members to get out and organize to win in Georgia and beyond. Killer Mike - a Bernie surrogate in both 2016 and 2020 - said that “we should make sure that on a daily basis we’re doing something to organize. Whenever the polls are open, we need to be out there in numbers. And the day after the election, we should be plotting, planning, strategizing, organizing, and mobilizing — not only for the next election, but for the next neighborhood meeting and the next city council meeting — because at every step, we need to be pushing a progressive agenda.”
Senator Turner also talked about how our organizing must never stop - we organized to defeat Trump, we’re organizing to win the Georgia runoffs, and then we must organize to hold Democrats accountable in 2021. Organizing is a calling because "we are on a justice journey. Every generation is charged with advancing justice for the next, and it's our assignment to fight for justice in our time. The issues that we are standing for and fighting for lift humanity.”
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GEORGIA PLAN TO WIN
Our Revolution is carrying out our strategic plan to win Georgia. The map above represents the distribution of over 50,000 Our Revolution supporters in Georgia - between now and January 5th, our army of grassroots volunteers are focused on Getting-Out-The-Vote with progressives through our canvassing, phone and text banking operations. Read more below about our canvassing operation in Georgia!
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GEORGIA GROUND GAME
A key part of our Georgia organizing strategy is ground game. This week, The Washington Post wrote that “Democrats would have won bigger if they knocked on doors.” Our Revolution won’t let the political consultant class make the same mistake twice. That’s why Our Revolution onboarded experienced local organizers in Georgia to recruit teams of volunteers to conduct safe daily canvasses. We’re knocking on every door in targeted rural and urban areas to boost turnout to record levels. New polls show Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock - the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church - leading GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Jon Ossoff tied with Sen. David Perdue - so turnout will be critical to get them both over the finish line!
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Councilman khalid of South Fulton, GA, who’s helping to lead our ground game in the Atlanta area, also joined our Georgia Organize to Win Call to report that our activists knocked on over 700 doors in the first 10 days of canvassing. He noted that some of the most “challenging conversations” have been with Black men who feel it doesn’t matter who’s in office because they see “no material difference” in their lives or their circumstances. “It’s important for us to push Democrats to create economic benefits in the lives of people of color because we will keep losing their vote if we don’t give them a reason to stick with us.” Councilman khalid also emphasized the importance of winning upcoming local elections in Georgia by highlighting some of the bold policies his city of South Fulton has enacted in the past 3 years, including raising the minimum wage to $15, decriminalizing cannabis, and banning no-knock warrants. “The local level is the proving ground for all of our progressive policies. We are building a bridge to believing that progressive policies can work, and local elections are that bridge.”
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This week, Michele Sanchez and a team of Our Revolution Georgia volunteers were canvassing and distributing personal protective equipment to workers outside a poultry plant in rural Georgia as they clocked in for work. In addition to handing out PPE, Michele said her team “spoke to workers about the election and how to register to vote. The workers were grateful - one told us ‘I’ll be sure to get both my kids to vote. Thank you so much for what you are doing. God bless you all.’”
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GEORGIA GOTV PHONE BANK
In addition to our ground game, hundreds of Our Revolution volunteers are hitting the phones to have deep organizing conversations with Georgia voters about issues that matter to them and help them register to vote, request absentee ballots, and educate them about the voting process. In just two weeks, we’ve talked to over 30,000 Georgians!
Read the stories from our
Georgia GOTV Phone Bank Team below.
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WHEN WE ORGANIZE, WE WIN!
Our work in Georgia goes beyond flipping the Senate — we’re also organizing to win local races. This week, Our Revolution Georgia helped to elect Deborah Gonzalez — Georgia’s first Latina District Attorney, the first woman DA in the Western Judicial Circuit, and the first Puerto Rican woman DA in the nation! Deborah, who will represent the city of Athens and part of its suburbs, ran on a progressive platform of ending cash bail for low-level crime, abolishing the death penalty, and tackling racism in the criminal justice system. “This is The People’s vote and The People have made it clear they want change.”
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More than control of the Senate is at stake in Georgia’s January 5 runoff. There are also important down ballot contests, including Daniel Blackman’s bid for the Georgia Public Service Commissioner. Daniel spoke on our Organize to Win National Call about how he’s running to bring a Green New Deal to Georgia and lower energy costs for ratepayers. “Georgia has the 5th highest utility bills in the country, while 1.9 million of its residents are living at or below the poverty line. We must treat environmental issues as social justice issues.”
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Help us flip the Senate and elect down-ballot progressives in Georgia! Volunteer to help make Get-Out-the-Vote phone calls! We hold our virtual phone bank on Thursdays and Sundays from 6:30 - 8:30pm EST!
SIGN UP HERE!
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You can also donate to help us ramp up our GROUND GAME in GEORGIA during the FINAL 30 DAYS! Your gift will help us arm our volunteers with what they need to succeed - from masks to transportation stipends to door hangers - so we can maximize our outreach.
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Our Revolution joined with our allies - Roots Action, The Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) to demand Biden pick a Defense Secretary who is committed to stopping endless wars. “We urge President-Elect Joe Biden and U.S. Senators to choose a Secretary of Defense who is unencumbered by a history of advocating for bellicose military policies and is free of financial ties to the weapons industry,” our statement said. “Michèle Flournoy does not meet those qualifications and is ill-suited to serve as Secretary of Defense.”
READ MORE HERE
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This week, The Guardian covered Our Revolution’s campaign to get President-elect Biden to appoint progressive champion Deb Haaland to be Secretary of the Interior. Deb is a true champion for the people. She physically stood with other Indigenous Peoples at Standing Rock protesting the illegal and immoral acts the Trump Administration inflicted on peaceful protestors on behalf of the greed of the fossil fuel industry. We need an Interior Secretary like Deb who understands the importance of defending the land from corporate monopolies, protecting our water and righting the wrongs inflicted on indigenous communities.
READ MORE HERE
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When President Lincoln created the USDA in 1862, he called it “the people’s department” — but in recent years it’s become the department of Big Ag interests. In a just published op-ed, Our Revolution board members Jim Hightower, Jane Kleeb, and Deborah Parker called on Joe Biden to restore fairness and opportunity to rural America and make a “solid progressive choice” for Secretary of Agriculture. Among the candidates being considered, we endorse Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio as the best choice to lead this important public agency and break the corporate stranglehold on our food system.”
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Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen was a guest on C-SPAN’s popular morning program, Washington Journal, where he discussed a range of topics, including Joe Biden’s platform, Bernie’s possible role in the new administration, and the future of progressive policies like the Green New Deal. When asked about bridging the divide between left and right, Larry said, “Our job is talking to people about issues.” Pointing to the successful effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Florida as an example of a crossover issue, he called it a “starting point” in bringing us together.
WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE
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This week, Biden named establishment insider Neera Tanden to head the White House Office of Management & Budget. Paco Fabián, campaigns and communications director for Our Revolution, told Politico that Tanden is “certainly not a unity pick” and “it’s not a secret that progressives and Neera Tanden haven’t gotten along over the last few years on several issues.” He added that she tends to “punch left, instead of focusing on the real adversary here, which is the Republican Party and money in politics.”
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Will County Progressives - a local group that’s part of Our Illinois Revolution - pulled off a stunning upset against a 28-year Democratic incumbent by nominating a slate of progressives to lead Joliet Township. Despite the shenanigans of the incumbent slate - including keeping the caucus date and location secret until right before the caucus - our volunteers were able to turn out 3 times more people than than the establishment machine and win over 60% of the vote. Our Revolution members nominated for office include Angel Contreras (Joliet Township supervisor), Alicia Morales, (township clerk); Vincent Alessio (Township highway commissioner) and Ranisah Brown, Cesar Escutia, Karl Ferrell and Suzanna Ibarra (Township trustees). “The truth is that ‘When We Organize, We Win!’ is not just a snappy chant that we use at the end of our virtual meetings,” said Ibarra, who also serves as co-chair of Our Illinois Revolution. “We made that real. We beat the establishment in the Township. If we can do it here, we can do it at the county and state level too.”
READ MORE HERE
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Centrists have been blaming progressives for their losses in the House and their failure to retake the Senate. “The knives are out for the left,” writes Washington Post Digital Opinions Editor James Downie. While party leaders warned against running on Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and other bold solutions to our multiple crises, those policies have actually been growing in popularity: a majority of Americans support Medicare for All, a near-majority of voters in swing districts supported the Green New Deal, and every swing-district House Democrat who co-sponsored Medicare for All kept their seat.
In Florida, where centrist Democrats up and down the ticket fell flat, voters passed a $15 minimum wage. In Colorado, paid leave won more votes than Joe Biden. And drug decriminalization measures got more votes than the top of the ticket in states like Arizona and Montana. Not one progressive House incumbent lost - in fact, we doubled the Squad with candidates who ran on bold policies. As Downie opines, “If a candidate couldn’t manage to tie their GOP opponent to almost a quarter of a million covid-19 deaths, a tanked economy, or a dozen other policy fiascos, that’s the candidate’s fault.”
READ MORE
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The centrist blame-game also fails to be convincing when we look at results in non-federal races. Bloomberg’s City Lab writes that while a “blue wave” didn’t sweep over the national elections, progressives scored big wins in down ballot contests. The article quotes University of Virginia Prof. Richard Schragger on his take on the 2020 election - “There’s a dramatic progressive turn taking place on the local level.” We totally agree. During the 2020 election cycle, Our Revolution endorsed 450 progressive champions - 88% of in down ballot races - and over 74% prevailed!
We analyzed our strong win rate and identified our Top 3 Takeaways from the 2020 elections that demonstrate that the progressive movement has momentum.
Takeaway #1 is that progressives are beating Democratic establishment picks in tight races. In San Francisco, for example, Our Revolution: San Francisco Berniecrats volunteers helped Connie Chan win her race against the mayor’s machine candidate by just 123 votes, and Our Revolution in Contra Costa CA powered Ellie Householder’s bid to take out an 8-year incumbent to become the next Antioch City Clerk with only 29 votes to spare. These tight margins indicate that when it comes to taking on corporate-backed candidates, our grassroots organizing plays a decisive role.
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Takeaway #2 is that our progressive candidates are beating Republicans at the local level. For example, Our Revolution Maine helped 28-year-old Chloe Maxim defeat a two-term Republican incumbent in a rural state senate district, and Our Illinois Revolution helped Eric Rhinehardt beat the sitting Republican State’s Attorney in Lake County. In addition, progressives who flipped GOP districts in 2018 - like State Rep. Courtney Neron in Oregon and State Rep. Anne Stava-Murray in Illinois - held on to their seats in 2020 with comfortable margins.
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And Takeaway #3 is that our progressive policies are more popular than ever, even in states that went red this election cycle. In Florida, for example, even though Trump carried the state with 51% of the vote, a measure raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour passed with 61% of the vote; in Colorado, paid leave won more votes than Biden; and drug decriminalization measures also proved to be more popular than presidential candidates in places like Arizona and Montana.
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Thanks to the pandemic, Amazon is now a trillion dollar monopoly, with CEO Jeff Bezos becoming the first person in history to amass $200 billion in personal wealth. Meanwhile, Amazon’s essential workers are risking their lives and facing threats for demanding fair wages.
In a recent survey, our members named fighting corporate power as a top issue priority for 2021. That’s why Our Revolution joined #MakeAmazonPay - a global coalition of over 50 trade unions and advocacy organizations that coordinated worldwide protests, strikes, and actions on Black Friday. Our #MakeAmazonPay coalition also enlisted over 400 global lawmakers - including Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ro Khanna; and MN Attorney General and Our Revolution Board member Keith Ellison - to sign onto a letter to Bezos urging him to "act decisively to change your policies and priorities to do right by your workers, their communities, and our planet." The lawmakers pledged to use their power to “support the movement that is growing around the world to Make Amazon Pay.”
You can read our list of demands and learn more about our global campaign HERE. And join our call to Joe Biden to break up corporate monopolies like Amazon HERE.
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President-elect Biden recently released a list of advisors - including corporate executives from Amazon Web Services - to staff the Office of Management and the Budget, which oversees the $5 trillion budget and “shapes regulations on everything from labor standards to air pollution.” We don’t believe lobbyists from Amazon - which profits from billions of dollars’ worth of lucrative federal contracts - should be running the office that runs our government. That’s why Our Revolution joined with Demand Progress, Revolving Door Project and others to pressure Biden to adopt restrictions on corporate lobbyists, executives and consultants from serving in his administration.
READ THE STORY HERE
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Our Revolution New Jersey continues to put in the grassroots work to transform our broken, for-profit healthcare system. Our members passed three Medicare for All Resolutions in the state, including one in Maplewood, where Deputy Mayor Dean Dafis introduced it in August with the support of Our Revolution Essex County NJ. Backed by Our Revolution, Dean was recently re-elected to Maplewood Township Committee. On December 3, he joined Public Citizen’s Medicare for All Resolutions Webinar to discuss his local government’s desperate need for Medicare for All. “Medicare for All is the only way we can ensure justice and equity in healthcare.” In addition to featuring Dean Dafis and our New Jersey efforts, the webinar also featured Our Revolution-endorsed Rep.-elect Mondaire Jones (D-NY) who got elected on a strong Medicare for All platform, and Our Revolution Wisconsin organizer and physician Richard McGowan who talked about Medicare for All organizing in Dane and Milwaukee counties.
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On Friday, Congress took a major step to end the racist War on Drugs and reform our broken criminal justice system by voting to decriminalize marjuana at the federal level. In the run-up to the vote, Our Revolution members partnered with NORML and others to organize a grassroots petition campaign to get the US House to pass The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act which would decriminalize marijuana by removing it from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act and by eliminating criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes, or possesses marijuana. The act also begins the process of expunging federal marijuana convictions and removes penalties for those with such convictions, including the denial of student loans and other federal benefits.
Our Revolution will be mobilizing to pass the bill in the Senate - where Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris was an original co-sponsor on the bill - and holding President Biden accountable to his promise to decriminalize marijuana and end the racist War on Drugs.
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We are thankful this season for all our volunteers and donors for your solidarity and commitment to transformational movement building. Together, we are building a powerful independent political organization that is organizing to win in 2021 and beyond!
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