[Swing Left]([link removed])

Hi John,

It’s hard to believe, I know, but the 2022 midterms are less than a year away. Take a deep breath with me—we’ve got this!

As we dive into the next chapter of our work together, I wanted to give you a peek behind the curtain at some of the work you might not always see at Swing Left—the nuts and bolts of how we power our work from the inside.

 

STRENGTHENING OUR DEMOCRACY

Earlier this year, we shared [Swing Left’s 10-year plan to protect and expand democracy]([link removed]). With Trump out of office and Democrats holding unified control of the federal government, we knew this community needed a longer-term vision for our electoral work moving forward. The 2020 election was a crucial win for our country—it got Trump out of office and the GOP out of the Senate majority—but continued threats to our democracy like Trumpism, disinformation, racism, and relentless GOP attacks on voting rights and human rights at the state level still loom large, and will take continued work to address.

The first step in our plan was defending the Democratic trifecta in Virginia this year. While the results of those elections weren’t what we were all hoping for, we know how much that fight mattered as many of our target races were decided by hundreds of votes or single-digit margins. Even though we came up short, we saw a historic number of voters turn out for Democratic candidates—a clear signal of the persistence of grassroots energy from the last four years. We’re eager to harness that next year to protect every inch of progress we’ve won together.

 

LEADING WITH OUR VALUES

While working to protect and expand democracy, we’ve also been focusing on ways we can set up our staff and community for success by grounding our work in a set of core values that help us navigate the complex fights ahead. Swing Left is taking a values-based, people first approach to our work, and that ongoing work begins on the inside.

We introduced these updated core values to guide our internal team and wider Swing Left community as we move forward in our work together:

- Constructive action: We believe that action towards a goal is the antidote to anger and despair.
- Community: We value collaboration and effective teamwork. We know progress is more sustainable when the work is done with others, including our partners in the progressive space.
- Diversity, equity, and inclusivity: We work towards fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture and a greater sense of belonging.
- Effectiveness: We help people make better decisions about how to spend limited time, effort, and resources to help Democrats win.

Our mission is to build a lasting culture of grassroots participation in winning elections for the Left— and that is not easy! It requires constantly grounding ourselves in the why, what, and how of our mission. We have big tasks on the horizon, and these core values provide a compass for how to approach our work while caring for our people and servicing our community and the broader progressive ecosystem for the greater good.

 

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

One thing we know is clear: We can’t sustain our efforts without putting our people first. We're working to make Swing Left a home for people who want to achieve real change at scale while maintaining the ability to prioritize mental and physical health. This hard work can be high-burnout and take a real toll, and we want to do everything we can to make this work accessible for those doing it for the short and long term.

Whether it's promoting a “culture of rest" after big surge moments to help recharge, identifying ways to make our culture more inviting and inclusive, or thinking through how to streamline processes to ensure we’re utilizing our team’s time, hard work, and talents in the most efficient way, Swing Left is striving to be a home where our team and community can do impactful, meaningful work in the most sustainable way possible.

We also brought on an advisor to help train and coach our staff, and help codify our efforts to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion into our day-to-day work. From offering free leadership training to our staff and volunteer community, to improving the equity in our hiring and retention programs, to tackling dominant cultural norms to foster a more inclusive and collaborative work environment, we are striving to further develop a culture of belonging for both our team members and broader community.

We've outlined key benchmarks to improve in the short-, medium-, and long-term, and we'll continue measuring, assessing, and building on these efforts along the way. This work to create a more diverse, equitable culture is ongoing—it doesn’t have a finish line and requires daily, active effort from individual team members and volunteers to the organization itself as a whole. We hope our efforts this year lay the foundation for continuous learning and improvements in the years to come.

 

INTRODUCING OUR NEW BOARD

A key part of good organizational governance and health is having a strong external board to shepherd the organization’s financial health, accountability and transparency, and long-term strategic direction.

That’s why I am thrilled to announce that Swing Left has named its first board of directors to help guide our work. This is a step our team has been working toward behind the scenes for the past year, so I’m excited to be able to share it with you. This new board includes some of the best and brightest across politics, business, technology, and culture:

[Images of Swing Left board members]

- Paulette Aniskoff, Partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive
- Andrew McLaughlin, Founder and CEO at Higher Ground Labs and Obama White House Deputy CTO
- Justin Myers, Executive Director at Blue Leadership Collaborative
- Maria Salamanca, Partner at Unshackled Ventures and former COO of Swing Left
- Ethan Todras-Whitehill, President and Co-founder of Swing Left
- Catherine Vaughan, Founder of Flippable and former Co-executive Director of Swing Left

These board members are the trustees of Swing Left, charged with making sure the organization continues living up to its mission and staying relevant and responsive to the needs of our grassroots community, our Democratic candidates, and our progressive allies.

 

LOOKING AHEAD

As we look toward the future of Swing Left, I also have some bittersweet news to share: I will be transitioning out of my role as executive director at the end of this year. I feel so fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to tackle the exciting team development opportunities, the electoral challenges, and the historic wins with this community.

Thankfully, I’m leaving this work in very, very capable hands. Over the coming weeks, you’ll be hearing from some of the folks who lead our team day in and day out to create a place for this community to engage in sustained electoral work: Neisha Blandin, Head of Political Strategy; Ruby Anaya, Head of Tech and Product; and David Berrios, Head of Community. Each lead critical pieces of Swing Left’s work, and they’ll be sharing more about what our team is building for 2022.

I am, as always, so proud of the work this community accomplished this year, and you should be, too. Every call you made, door you knocked on, letter you wrote, and dollar you donated helped drive historic voter turnout in Virginia and resulted in many races that came down to a single percentage point. This work matters, especially in the closest races. Years from now, when people ask me what I was doing during some of the most consequential elections of my life, I’m proud I’ll get to say I was working alongside you.

See you out on the field.

Tori Taylor
Executive Director
Swing Left

 

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