Welcome to The Revolution Report — the weekly e-newsletter of our national grassroots organizing network!
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As 2020 draws to a close, the conservative movement is taking note of Our Revolution’s work to transform America. This year, we elected hundreds of progressive champions up and down the ballot from Congresspeople to county clerks, we passed bold progressive policies in states and cities - including expanding Medicaid in Missouri and raising the minimum wage in Florida; we worked to transform the Democratic party into a more progressive party by winning reforms like eliminating “superdelegates”; and we expanded our national network of progressive powerhouses from four state organizations to over 30 state-level hubs. What Fox News is starting to recognize is what we’ve been saying all along: When we organize, we win!
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Read below to learn how we’re already gearing up to ORGANIZE TO WIN in 2021!
Our Revolution is organizing to elect progressives up and down the ballot across the USA! Read more ...
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This week, former Bernie 2020 campaign co-chair Nina Turner announced she’s running for Congress in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District! Nina joined Our Revolution members during our final National Organize to Win Call of the year to talk about how she’s going to bring “passion, commitment, and a humanitarian spirit” to Congress and continue to push the political revolution forward. “Working class people deserve better than what they are getting - and I’m going to fight for them.”
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Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen rallied our members in Ohio - and nationwide - to get involved and organize to win against the political establishment. “Stop for five seconds and imagine Nina Turner in the U.S. Congress,” he said. “Imagine the pride that all of us will have if a leader of Our Revolution ends up in the House. We can make that a reality.”
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Immediately after Sen. Turner declared she’s running, leading progressive champions across the country - including Minnesota Attorney General & Our Revolution Board member Keith Ellison, California Rep. Ro Khanna, and Congresswoman-elect Cori Bush - lined-up to support her bid. Our Revolution also rolled-out our national endorsement, and Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese told Politico that our 16,000-strong army of supporters in Ohio's 11th Congressional District are “ready to do phone-banking, texting, and door-to-door canvassing” necessary to be a decisive force in the election.
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Our Revolution continues to score victories up and down the ballot. This month, Our Revolution Georgia helped Deborah Gonzalez win a run-off election to serve as the first Puerto Rican woman District Attorney in the nation! On our National Organize to Win Call, Deborah thanked our volunteers. “You were instrumental in phone-banking for me and in getting out the vote - it made a difference in my race.” Deborah, who will represent Athens, ran on a progressive platform of abolishing the death penalty, tackling systemic racism, and addressing her state’s excessive probation sentencing. Deborah is part of a new generation of progressive DAs endorsed by Our Revolution who are committed to reforming our broken criminal justice system.
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Our Revolution is already gearing up to win key 2021 local elections across the nation. This week, Our Revolution/New York Progressive Action Network, joined with Black Lives Matter, Indivisible and other groups to host a Manhattan Borough President Candidate Forum with all six candidates in the race. Local organizer Maria Ordonez said that “We need to elect a bold progressive to this office and our forum put the candidates on the record about where they stand” on critical issues like housing, healthcare, and police misconduct. Listen to the forum on WBAI New York radio.
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Our Revolution is mobilizing to win the two Georgia US Senate races that will decide control of Congress!
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Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon joined our National Organize to Win Call, where he explained what’s at stake in the Senate races in Georgia. “What happens in Georgia makes all the difference in the world. Executive action can be powerful, but so much more can be done if we have the House, Senate, and President working together, and Mitch McConnell isn’t able to block everything.” He also said that once we win the Senate, we also need to fight to change the Senate rules and end the filibuster, noting that the Founders explicitly called for a simple majority to pass legislation, not a supermajority, and “we have a responsibility to restore that.”
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Our Revolution is carrying out our strategic plan to win Georgia by mobilizing our grassroots volunteers to get-out-the-vote through canvassing, phone and text banking over 50,000 Our Revolution supporters in Georgia. Read more below about our ground game!
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On the first day of early voting in Georgia, Councilman khalid from South Fulton joined our National Organizing Call to update us on Our Revolution Georgia’s canvassing efforts. Our organizers are on the ground across the state leading teams of volunteers who are knocking on doors and mobilizing voters. “The door-knocking we’re doing right now is so important because 75% of voters in the presidential race voted early,” said khalid. In addition to the Senate races, he noted that we’re turning out the vote for important down ballot contests, including Daniel Blackman for Georgia Public Service Commissioner. Daniel is campaigning on bringing a Green New Deal to Georgia.
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In addition to our ground game, hundreds of Our Revolution volunteers from across the nation have been 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. Over the last month, we’ve called over 100,000 Georgians, and texted an additional 90,000 voters! Meet a few of our volunteers below!
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We’re in the home stretch - Join us and volunteer to help make Get-Out-the-Vote phone calls to Georgia!
SIGN UP HERE!
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DONATE NOW to help us ramp-up our ENDGAME phone bank and canvass operations in Georgia!
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Our Revolution is fighting to win progressive policies at every level of government. Read more below!
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On our Monday Organize to Win Call, California Congressman Ro Khanna laid out a list of 2021 legislative priorities for the nearly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which he is First Vice Chair. They include passing a $15 minimum wage, making defense spending cuts, expanding Medicare, reducing health insurance premiums, and making a $2 trillion investment over 10 years in clean technology as a downpayment for a Green New Deal. He decried the current defeatist attitude of the Democratic Party. “We shouldn’t compromise with ourselves. We need to pass bold progressive legislation in the House, then have a full court press to win over Senators.” On Nina Turner’s announcement and the prospect of her joining the CPC, he added, “I need Nina Turner in Congress. She will be a fighter.”
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Our Revolution Maryland is leading the fight to reform criminal justice in the “Free State” by leading a campaign to repeal the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights. The campaign urges state lawmakers to revoke special privileges - including the ability to delay interrogations - afforded police accused of crimes including excessive force and brutality. Marylanders can join the campaign here!
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On Friday, Joseph Marchica, an organizer with Our Revolution Mercer County, NJ testified before the NJ Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee about the so-called "Economic Recovery Act," which in fact is a giant, $11.5 Billion tax giveaway to corporations.
"The Legislature needs to do the right thing: prioritize New Jersey residents over corporate profits and subsidies by rejecting this bill or holding it in committee. Don't siphon public funds away from the public good. Scrap this bill and focus instead on individual stimulus payments, programs for small businesses, and other policies with a proven track-record. Corporate subsidies do none of this."
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Our Revolution Oregon’s Emma Easley Darden testified before the Oregon Legislature this week to urge action on implementing real campaign finance reform. Our Revolution Oregon was part of a consortium of organizations that passed a campaign finance ballot measure requiring the legislature to create statewide limits on donations, taglines to reveal donors and other measures. Prior to the passage of our ballot initiative, there were no statewide finance limits in Oregon, making it one of five states in which progressives struggle to compete against the corporate-backed political establishment.
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Our Revolution is holding Biden and the Democratic establishment accountable to progressive priorities!
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Over the past month, Our Revolution members sent thousands of letters to Joe Biden in support of Rep. Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior - and this week she was named to the post! If confirmed, Deb will be the first Native American to serve in the cabinet and she will bring a strong commitment to protecting both Indigenous rights and the rights of the earth. As vice-chair House Natural Resources Committee, Deb advocated for a Green New Deal and a ban on fracking.
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While Our Revolution celebrates Deb Haaland’s historic nomination, we continue to push back against Biden’s centrist picks. Nominees like Neera Tanden, Rep. Cedric Richmond and former pharmaceutical lobbyist Steve Richetti are raising serious concerns among progressives about how Biden intends to govern. As Our Revolution’s Campaigns and Communications Director Paco Fabian told the Wall Street Journal: “There’s a lot of known quantities, and if Biden is going to have an Obama term three, if that’s what it’s going to be, that’s going to be insufficient to meet the moment we’re in.”
READ MORE HERE
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Our Revolution is joining with Sen. Jeff Merkley to call on Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and marshall the full power of the US Government to combat the crisis. As Sen. Merkley told our members this week, “If Trump can call building a wall an emergency, then certainly the desecration of our planet is an emergency. If we don’t pivot fast under Biden, we will fail. And we can’t fail.”
TELL BIDEN: DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY!
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With one month to go until Biden takes the oath of office, Our Revolution is joining with Demand Progress and other groups to call on Biden’s Inaugural Committee to ban all corporate donations and keep big money out of politics. As CBS News reports, the committee just sent a solicitation email offering perks for big donors, including an invitation for a virtual event with Biden and Kamala Harris for individual donors who give $500,000 or organizations that give $1 million.
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Our Revolution is organizing to make the Democratic party a progressive party - read about our work below!
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Our Wisconsin Revolution held a Statewide Organizing Call featuring Bill Hogseth, a member of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and Chair of the Dunn County Democrats, who wrote an opinion piece in Politico about why Democrats keep losing rural voters. “There is significant economic pain in rural Wisconsin,” he said. “And I don’t see the Democratic Party at the national level telling a story about what is causing this economic pain. That leaves a huge vacuum for other stories to prevail in the minds of voters. This has been a failure for decades.” Our Wisconsin Revolution Organizer Andre Walton also joined the call to discuss his recent election to the Sheboygan County Democratic Party Board. “I’m really excited to do this. I get to bring some of the values that I support working with Our Wisconsin Revolution directly to Sheboygan County,” he said.
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Our Revolution Florida leaders are taking on corporate lobbyists to win real power in state and local Democratic parties. Our Revolution Volusia members won big at the Volusia County Democratic Party Reorganization Meeting - Dr. Richard Thripp will be the new Chair, and Valerie Duhl and Evans Smith will represent our movement on the state committee. Other Our Revolution leaders elected to Dem Party posts in the Sunshine state include: Larry Douglas Snider (State Committee Member, Duval County); Nadia B. Ahmad (Party Secretary, Seminole County); Sanjay Patel and Stacey Patel (State Committee Members, Brevard County); Ricky Ly (State Committee Member, Orange County); and William Bryant (State Committee Member, Miami-Dade County).
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Our Revolution is building a national network of progressive state and local organizations fighting for change from the bottom up - Read more below!
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Building on 2020’s successful organizing efforts, Our Revolution New Jersey (ORNJ) created a new State Organizing Committee to lead statewide issue campaigns and coordinate efforts in upcoming state legislature elections. The committee includes representatives from 13 local county-based chapters as well as four at-large members: Patricia Campos Medina, Derel Stroud, Barry Brendel, and Peter Jacob. “All counties need a voice” at the state level, said Neeharika Thuravil, chair of Our Revolution Hunterdon County. “As ORNJ reaches more counties, we secure a more united front as a movement. Supporting each other moving forward is how we achieve change!”
READ MORE HERE
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Thank you to all our volunteers and donors for making 2020 a breakthrough year for Our Revolution! We look forward to working together in the New Year to bring liberty and justice to all in 2021. Be well & enjoy the holidays!
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