Last month, we celebrated a big win in our fight for Medicare for All. 

My representative, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., signed on as a cosponsor of the bill (HR 1976). That may not seem like a big deal, but I hope you’ll keep reading, and let me explain why this win matters and how we got him to sign on. 

While Rep. Pallone is a Democrat, he did not sign on to Medicare for All in the last session of Congress. So a group of volunteers, myself included, got together in June 2019 and got to work. 

We knew that in order to convince him to support Medicare for All, we needed to get more supporters in our district involved and put visible pressure on Rep. Pallone. So, we showed up everywhere (and we mean everywhere). 

Together we:

• Held in-district community events including barnstorms and peoples assemblies with over 100 participants
• Built a coalition of groups and organized a meeting with Pallone’s office in January 2019
• Went door-to-door canvassing and gathered signatures from voters in the district 
• Hosted marches to his Long Branch and New Brunswick offices to deliver signatures and postcards
• Held rallies and set up tables outside the entrances to his campaign events with signs and speakers 
• Wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers
• Asked pointed questions to him directly at his campaign events (also known as bird-dogging) which were captured on video and shared widely on social media
• Organized car caravans in June 2020 around the district and delivered petition signatures

In essence, anywhere Rep. Pallone went – we were there. It was hard work, and we weren’t sure if we were making progress, but we didn’t give up. 

Then days before Rep. Pramila Jayapal introduced the bill, Rep. Pallone let her know that he would not only support the bill – but also agreed to hold a hearing in a key committee. 

This victory is even more significant for our movement due to the fact that Rep. Pallone is the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee – which has one of the broadest jurisdictions of any congressional committee. Getting a hearing in this committee is a huge step toward getting more support from other members and passing the bill. 

I share this story of the efforts in New Jersey’s 6th district because it proves that our consistent organizing in our district worked. 

We need your help to reach out to people who live in some of the highest priority districts in the country. 

NNU is looking for volunteers to get trained on how to host a virtual text bank to talk to people 1:1 in key districts. Will you sign up to join a training now?

Join a training »

It’s been so helpful to learn and grow this campaign with the help of NNU and other allied organizations, and I’m excited to see more campaigns like ours pop up across the country.

Together, I know we can win. 

Anna-Marta Visky
Regional Organizer
Our Revolution