Dear Friend,
It’s been an unbearable past week as we started the month of May: hearing as we did about what’s spelled out in the draft brief by Justice Alito on abortion rights, seeing Governor Hogan refuse to release state approved funds for the abortion care clinical training program, and learning in the past few days that we’ve reached the tragic milestone of a million COVID related deaths in this country and fifteen million deaths in the world. It’s hard to take in and absorb such devastating news. We hope you got to take a little break from it all yesterday on Mother’s Day as we paused to celebrate our family members and friends who are moms or all those we know who help the kids in their lives.
Now it’s time to raise some hell! Time to lift our voices, to organize, raise money, get in the streets, help elect candidates who pledge unwavering support to abortion rights, women’s health and healthcare for all. Please join us! Abortion is healthcare and we salute all the demonstrators across the country have been showing up to protest the possibility of a Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe, which has been upheld over and over again for the past fifty years! We can’t let a small group of extremist judges have the final say on Roe in their attempt to turn back the clock on women’s autonomy and women’s fundamental rights. Mark your calendars for this Saturday’s Bans Off Our Bodies events and stay tuned to Progressive Maryand’s social media accounts for actions and events this week and beyond, including the U.S. Senate vote this Wednesday on the Women’s Health Protection Act to guarantee abortion rights.
The devastating toll of the pandemic. We believe that the best way to honor all those we’ve lost to COVID and their loved ones is to demand a healthcare system that will make patients, patient care and public health the focus and priority of our healthcare system. It’s been reported that if we had had a single payer Medicare For All system in place during the pandemic we would have saved tens of thousands of lives and done a better job of supporting millions of healthcare workers.
See today’s memo on ways you can get in the fight. We need you at this crucial moment! Thank you and thanks for all that you do. In Solidarity,
The Progressive Maryland Team |
2022 Maryland Elections:
The statewide Primary Election is about 70 days away! Vote on Tuesday, July 19 for each and every office and ballot question that’s on the ballot, up and down the ticket. This is a good time to make your plan to vote! Here are some key dates to help you figure out how and when you can vote: -
Register to vote (if you are not yet registered or if you moved): Tuesday, June 28
- Early Voting: Thursday, July 7 – Thursday, July 14 Check your local Board of Elections website for locations and hours.
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Mail In Option: Request a ballot until July 12 Click here to learn how you can request a mail-in ballot.
- Tuesday, July 19: Primary Election Day Check your local Board of Elections website for locations and hours.
Please heed our call to action: Talk to voters this weekend! We’re knocking doors and running phone banks to reach voters across the state. We can be the difference for grassroots candidates who are running on a woman’s right to choose and the need to win healthcare for all. sign up today!
Visit pgmd.us/electionvolunteer to sign up to support candidates who are running on core progressive issues and values. We’ll provide the training and tools you need, so all levels of experience are welcome. If you have experience, we could use your help training new folks. Contact Yves.
Check out our Throwdown Thursday phonebank from 6–8pm. Click this link to let us know you’ll join! You’ll meet some great folks, and we’ll show you how it’s done. Special New Era PAC Anniversary Event
Join us Saturday, May 21 to celebrate the one year anniversary of our New Era PAC. We’re thrilled to announce that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8) will join us for the event. We’re looking forward to hearing from him about the fight to save and protect our democracy and our constitutional rights. We’re glad, too, to have an opportunity to offer him our support and gratitude for all that he’s doing. His progressive values and perseverance are an inspiration to us! This New Era PAC effort is inspiring more progressives to run for office and getting more of our members involved in elections. Join us to find out more about what’s happening this Primary Season and how we’re working to lift up the need for bold action out on the campaign trail. Get your ticket now to political power in the hands of working class people.
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Candidate Corner
Early May Events and News: Friday May 13 | 6:30pm | Jamila Woods for Delegate Campaign Kickoff!
Jamila is running in District 26 in Prince George’s County. She’s on the PM Slate and is a well known community leader and advocate. Event takes place at 5620 Saint Barnabas Road in Marlow Heights. |
Statewide & Federal Updates: 🩺 Medicare for All
Get ready! Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will introduce his Medicare For All bill in the Senate Thursday, May 12, and will hold a hearing on the need for Medicare for All at 11:00 that same morning. Watch the livestream on the Senate Budget Committee website. Some of us will be there in person to express our support of the bill! Please contact Patty if you want to go to the hearing. Then on Friday please join our phone bank from 5:00pm to 7:00pm to help us let our supporters know about the bill and what they can do to help us win. Shout out to our PM Task Force for all of its work and to the Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition for the organizing they’re doing!
In the meantime, the House Medicare For All Bill (H.R. 1976) has gained ground with more than 120 Democratic Members of Congress signed on to sponsor, including Maryland House Members Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. John Sarbanes, Rep. Anthony Brown, and Rep. Kweisi Mfume! Let’s push the other Democratic Members to get on board, too. Take a minute now to email them urging them to join their Maryland colleagues in sponsoring this bill at https://pgmd.us/m4anow.
😷COVID Advocacy
We will keep pressing our lawmakers to study and research the effects of Long COVID, which is affecting the health and well being of thousands of Marylanders.The state and federal government need to allocate the resources and support for the treatment people will need on the immediate front and over the long haul. Here’s an update on that front: Biden Administration Details New Research Plan on ‘Long COVID’ Illness – which notes that long-term effects could afflict up to 30 percent of Maryland’s nearly 1 million COVID survivors. We also need to keep up the drumbear for other kinds of investments in COVID relief and recovery and for creating healthier, better ventilated schools and office buildings.
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Local Updates: Progressive Harford
Register now for our next meeting on May 16. The chapter will cover where we are in our endorsement process and the next steps for supporting our endorsed candidates. Contact Zack to learn more. Progressive Montgomery Contact Patty for more information about our grassroots election efforts in Montgomery County.
Progressive Prince George’s Contact Devane for details about our candidate campaigns! |
State and National News:
In news you can use this week: Hogan is backfilling his GOP credentials for a prez run by withholding appropriated funds to train workers for reproductive health clinics. Also: One commentator argues that slow-thinking Democrats have allowed the threat to democracy to deepen. Long Covid may afflict up to 300,000 Marylanders. Prince George's plays it straight down the fairway, despite dodgy resignation ploy. Plus what's going on (or not) in DC in a big week for health care. Find it all in the News You Can Use blog post.
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Events From Progressive Maryland & Our Allies:
Saturday, May 14| 12:00pm (War Memorial Plaza, Baltimore) Abortion providers, abortion advocates, and reproductive justice organizations are partnering to declare ‘Bans Off Our Bodies’ on Saturday, May 14, from 12-2 at War Memorial Plaza in Baltimore, as part of a 50-state response to last week’s leak from the Supreme Court.” Saturday, May 14| (Washington, DC) Bans Off Our Bodies: May 14th National Bans Off Our Bodies Mobilization
Monday, May 16 | New Deal Cafe (Greenbelt, MD) How did Red State laws get so bad? Find out at Reel & Meal at the New Deal’s showing of the film The United States of ALEC, which shows how ALEC, a secretive Koch-funded body, helps corporate America propose and even draft legislation for states across the country. Movie at 7:00, hybrid or in person at the New Deal Café, Roosevelt Center in Greenbelt, MD, or via Zoom. Virtual attendance requires registration. Film is free but $13 vegan meal available in cafe.
Saturday, June 18 | 10 AM (Washington, DC) — We’re still a few weeks out but the Poor People’s Campaign is organizing a Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington & to the Polls in June! This event will be a declaration of the power of poor and low-wealth people to say this system is killing us, and it’s time to change it. Learn more and RSVP here.
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Progressive Maryland
P.O. Box 6988
Largo, MD 20792
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