Indivisibles,

Let’s talk (impeachment) numbers.

✔️ 435: On Thursday, the House will vote on a resolution that sets up the rules and procedures for the next phase of the impeachment inquiry already underway. This is good news! The vote will ensure transparency and determine how committees will ultimately give their information to the House Judiciary Committee to write and vote on eventual articles of impeachment. This week, we’ve got to really turn up the heat (and in some cases, say thank you!) on all 435 of our representatives. Make sure that Democrats know you’re with them. Demand Republicans uphold their oath and vote yes on an inquiry. 

✔️ 250,000: As of today, more than 500 Indivisible volunteers have officially made 250,000 Hubdialer calls to friendly voters in key states and connected them with their Republican senators on impeachment. We’re setting up to make more than 1 million calls -- and we’re well on our way thanks to you but we need more of you to pitch in an hour of your time and sign up for a shift this week.

✔️ 257: During the #impeachnow recess a couple of weeks ago, you planned and showed up to more than 257 events and town halls on your home turf to tell Democrats we’ve got their backs and to demand Republicans find their backbone. The November recess (November 2-11), we’re going to do it all over again and we want to beat this number. But we need you to step up and plan an event at a district office or RSVP to a town hall right now. No member of Congress should be able to escape the drumbeat of impeachment from their constituents right now.

✔️ 160+: When we joined with partners like Stand Up America and MoveOn to announce the Nobody is Above the Law mobilizations for the night before the House votes on articles of impeachment, y’all really stepped up. Right now, we’ve got more than 160 events on the map. If your city, town, or village isn’t yet represented, now’s the time to raise your hand as a host. We’ll drive folks to your event to ensure it’s a success.

Okay, okay. One last number -- and it’s not impeachment-related.

✔️ 7: Our book comes out in just seven days. That means just one more week to get in all your pre-orders for your group. Every preorder brings us a little closer to getting on The New York Times bestseller list (we need to get at least 5,000 preorders to make it!). Becoming a Times bestseller means we’ll get our book in front of more people. And that means our movement will grow. So, help spread the word by, well, spreading the words.

And now for the most important number of the week, your 6 weekly to-dos:

 Your 6 weekly to-dos 

1. Call your representative and ask them to vote in favor of the impeachment inquiry resolution on Thursday. The road to impeachment gets clearer every day, but your reps will only move if they feel constituent pressure. Dial 701-484-0521 and share the number on social to get this ball moving. Remind Democrats that you’ve got their backs. For Republicans, remind them that Trump's ambassador to Ukraine testified that Trump extorted Ukraine to interfere with our next election. Ask, “Do you oppose even an investigation?” 
2. Sign up to make some calls connecting voters to senators to demand a complete and fair impeachment trial. We've identified 13 senators who really need to hear from their constituents (folks who are vulnerable because they’re up for reelection next year and folks who are retiring and worrying a lot about their legacies). Now we're asking you to call voters in their states and ask those voters to turn up the pressure on their elected officials. It’s a simple four-part process:

• You call a progressive voter in a key state with one of these 13 Republicans. These folks are your friends—they attended the Women’s March and/or fight for progressive causes.
• You explain how they have power now. You’ll remind them why the continued fight for impeachment is so important—and why they have particular power in this moment.
• You ask them to use their power. Then, you’ll ask them to call their senator and make their voices heard on why we’re demanding courage in this moment.
• You push a button and connect them to their senator’s office. The call tool will allow you to automatically patch them through to the senator’s DC office.

 Other Hill Happenings 

With the House going into recess from November 2 through Veterans Day, November 11, we wanted to make sure you have all the information you need about what else is happening in Congress (in addition to impeachment) so you can keep the pressure up on your members of Congress. Here’s the latest:

• The House and Senate will have to vote to fund the government by November 21. In September, Congress voted to pass a short-term funding bill that ensured the government would stay open through November 21. It’s likely that with that deadline fast approaching, they’ll work to pass another short-term funding bill (known as a “continuing resolution,” or “CR”) that will last until December, January, or even later. We need to make sure Congress continues to hold strong against Trump's racist immigration agenda by working to Defund Hate — check out our resources here!

• The House is still working on its bill to bring down prescription drug prices. Originally, leadership wanted to vote on H.R. 3, the Lower Drugs Costs Now Act, before they left for recess, but now that timeline has slipped to mid-November. The bill would allow the government to negotiate lower prices for some prescription medications with drug corporations, but it has some key gaps that would result in too many people still being gouged at the pharmacy counter for the medicine they need. Call your member of Congress and tell them to improve H.R. 3, and use our leave-behind if you have a meeting with your member of Congress’s staff!

• The Senate will vote later this week to undo Trump’s decision to allow junk health insurance plans on the market. Under the Congressional Review Act, the minority party in the Senate can force a vote to undo new regulations. This week, the Senate will use this law to try to undo a damaging regulation Trump issued last year that allows insurers to sell low-quality, often deceptive insurance plans to people. Call your senators and tell them to support S. J. Res. 52 this week to fight back against Trump’s health care sabotage!

 2020 Update 

We have a brief break in primary events this week before we head into a very busy November. That makes it a good time to step back and look at some of the major policy plans that were released by campaigns last week:

• Mayor Pete fills out his policy platform with plans for women’s empowerment and criminal justice reform. On criminal justice reform in particular, his handling of police abuse cases in South Bend have been an area of concern throughout the campaign—this plan devotes special attention to policing, likely in an effort to address those concerns. 
• Senator Sanders released his weed legalization plan (at 4:20 on Thursday). Bernie’s plan is aimed at keeping the industry localized and diverse, while supporting communities that have been devastated by the failed War on Drugs.
• Senator Harris released a tribal sovereignty plan last week.Her plan is focused on rebuilding respect for tribal sovereignty in U.S. government, restoring tribal lands, and supporting Native communities with investment and resources.
• Sec. Castro rolled out a policing plan aimed at reducing police harm in Black and brown communities. This makes him the only candidate so far to release a plan exclusively on policing. Castro has been the leader in the field when it comes to acknowledging the victims of police violence, and this plan is reflective of his commitment to those communities.
• Rep. Beto O’Rourke announced his plan to fight mass incarceration today. His plan includes repeal of parts of the 1994 crime bill and guaranteeing reenfranchizement to formerly incarcerated felons.

 Find an IndivisiEvent near you 

 We Are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump 

Every week we’ve shared excerpts from the book with our movement -- and now we’re a week away from the official release day. We ended last week’s preview talking about how this problem isn’t just about Trump -- it’s about what came before him and what will remain after he is defeated or imprisoned or both. So here goes…

It’s not exactly provocative anymore to say that America’s political system is broken or rigged. We’re not here to convince you of that. You probably feel it in your bones. You probably know the system doesn’t respond to the people’s will. You know that big donors and corporations extract from the political system the way strip miners extract from a mountaintop. You probably know that the whole mess—from campaigns, to the courts, to officeholders, to ex-officeholder lobbyists—is a colossal revolving door of privilege and greed.

The point of this chapter isn’t to convince you of this; it’s to disentangle the various strands of dysfunction and shine a light on the forces behind the breakdown. This can all seem convoluted and overwhelming and impossible to grasp at first, but we think it can actually be understood as a relatively simple story with two parts: our democracy is buckling, and our democracy is rigged.

To Be Continued…

It’s your last chance to pre-order your book before it comes out next week. It’s SO important for us to hit our pre-order goal in order to try and make the New York Times’s Best Seller List and get this book in as many hands as possible. But, we’re running out of time. 

Luckily, we’re still running our Indivisible Book Contest! Y’all can win an exclusive swag bag and a 30-minute conversation with Leah or Ezra -- all you have to do is pre-order, take a photo of the receipt, and tag us on Twitter or Instagram with #IndivisiBookClub.

PS -- Click here to see the full rules of the contest. And don't forget to block out any personally identifiable information from the receipt!

 Help us put our impeachment strategy into action 

Our big strategy on impeachment boils down to this: we need to build an unprecedented amount of pressure on Congress, because we know it’s the only way to get them to do their jobs and hold Trump accountable for his crimes. 

That’s why we’ve got a multi-pronged strategy to build the grassroots power we need to get it done. A massive ad campaign, regularly updated guides and resources, on-the-ground organizing and nationwide rapid-response efforts, Impeachment Daily and all our news roundups -- we’re doing all this work and more to make sure our members of Congress take their jobs seriously and hold Trump accountable.

But building all those resources takes a ton of work from organizers, policy experts, and creative team members. We want our work to represent you, the people, which means we need our funding to come from the people too. Can you pitch in $10 to keep our impeachment strategy and all our work moving?

 IndivisiWin of the Week 

Trump came to Chicago today for the first time since winning in 2016 and Chicago Indivisibles were out in force to make it his last visit. Chicagoans from all ages, races and backgrounds came together to make their opposition to the Trump administration heard.

This week just got a lot more scary for the Trump administration (and we’re not talking the 'boos' during the World Series). But one thing is clear: our calls for impeachment are now echoing in the halls of Congress and if he keep pressure up, we’ll be one step closer to holding Trump and his administration accountable for their unrelenting abuse of power.

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team