Dear Friend,
Let’s band together to turn back the attacks on our fundamental rights and the attempts to roll back advances we’ve made when it comes to racial and environmental justice, progressive economic policies, and the need for a just and equitable response to the pandemic and healthcare disparities. We know it’s no small feat to take on growing corporate power on one hand and the rise of a white nationalist movement on the other. But it can and must be done!
By banding together, in communities across the country, we stand a good chance of stopping what those forces are doing. We know that the majority of Marylanders support our issues. We just need to build more grassroots progressive power in order to prevail. It’s not easy but it is fairly simple in many ways: each of us can organize or donate to support organizing; we can host a meeting or go to a meeting, we can vote and we can help voter turnout efforts for progressive candidates. We can write a letter to the editor, march, demonstrate, show up, and express our solidarity with one another. It’s a critical time to work together on many fronts, including the ongoing work to push for support for families and individuals who are dealing with the impact of COVID and the overdose crisis.
We know many of you are doing many things to respond to the crisis we’re in, but please do at least one of these things this week with your Progressive Maryland team! - Come hear Rep. Jamie Raskin speak at our event this Saturday!
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Join us for a special Texting Tuesday on protecting abortion services in Maryland.
- Sign up to knock on doors, drop lit, or make calls to voters–we are just two months away from the Primary.
- Express your support for funding for mental health and overdose prevention
See today’s memo for links to these actions and events, and to get updates on our campaigns including the ways to be involved. And stay tuned for training sessions on the fundamentals of organizing that we’ll be offering members in the coming months. Thank you and thanks for all that you do.
In Solidarity, The Progressive Maryland Team |
2022 Maryland Elections:
Vote Tuesday, July 19 for each and every office and ballot question that’s on the ballot, up and down the ticket. Don’t pass up the Primary! It’s the deciding contest in many jurisdictions around the state. Make your plan to vote! Vote by mail? Vote during Early Voting? Or on Primary Day? Key Dates to help you decide: -
Early Voting: Thursday, July 7 – Thursday, July 14 Check your local Board of Elections website for locations and hours.
- Mail In Option: Request a ballot until July 12 Click here to learn how you can request a mail-in ballot.
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Tuesday, July 19: Primary Election Day Check your local Board of Elections website for locations and hours.
There’s more! Help our voter outreach and get out the vote program! We’re knocking doors, dropping campaign lit, and running phone banks to reach voters! You can make the difference for candidates who are running on a platform that advocates a woman’s right to choose, the need for healthcare for all and a more progressive Maryland. Sign up today! Contact Yves for more information.
Check out our Throwdown Thursday phonebank thisThursday from 6–8pm. Click this link to let us know you’ll join! Special New Era PAC Anniversary Event |
Join Progressive Maryland and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8) this Saturday, May 21 at 11:00 a.m. for a special one year anniversary event marking the start of our New Era PAC. We’ll hear the latest from Rep. Raskin about the fight to save and protect our democracy and our constitutional rights. The gathering will also give us an opportunity to offer him our support and gratitude for his unwavering progressive values and his tireless leadership. Our 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 lifting up the need for bold action out on the campaign trail.
Get your ticket now!
Candidate Corner
Events and Opportunities: Tuesday May 17th, 7-8:30 PM. Community Vision for Takoma will hold a Montgomery County Council District 4 Candidate Forum.
All five Democratic candidates will participate, including PM’s endorsed candidate Kate Stewart. Click here to register to attend on Zoom or you may view the live stream on Facebook.
Saturday, June 4, Canvass Day of Action for Krystal Oriahda, Democratic Candidate for Prince George’s County Council District 7. Come out and meet Krystal and some amazing grassroots activists! We’ll provide training, snacks, the walk list, and other support. Join us for a fun day out in the community. Contact Devane for more information.
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Statewide & Federal Updates:
🩺 Medicare for All
Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced his Medicare For All bill on Thursday, May 12! He followed with a Budget Committee hearing on the need for Medicare for All featuring favorable testimony from a number of healthcare providers as well as staff from the Congressional Budget Office. Activists from Maryland and other states and the District of Columbia gathered for a short rally and to attend the hearing. Our national affiliate, People’s Action, has created a tool to use to contact our two Senators to urge them to co-sponsor the Sanders Bill. Use this email tool to urge Sen. Van Hollen and Sen. Cardin to join their four Maryland House colleagues who are cosponsors of the House Medicare For All Bill.
Please contact Patty to get involved in our Medicare For All Campaign.
😷COVID Advocacy
We need to 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 should continue allocating resources that will support the treatment and care people need now and over the long haul. The Senate is looking to take up the COVID relief package this week. |
Local Updates:
Progressive Harford Register now for tonight’s meeting (Monday, 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. Anne Arundel County Chapter
Progressive Maryland is leading a campaign on behalf of Fair Elections Maryland to win public financing for County Executive and County Council races in Anne Arundel. The first step in the process is a petition effort to collect the 10,000 signatures from registered county voters required to bring the question to the ballot in November.
Anne Arundel is one of the largest counties in Maryland with over half a million residents and holds special political significance as the home of our state capital, Annapolis. A strong win here will not only ensure that Anne Arundel residents have a county government that reflects everyday people over corporations, but will also add to the growing pressure to pass a similar system statewide for the General Assembly.
Progressive Montgomery Contact Patty for more information about our grassroots election efforts in Montgomery County.
Progressive Prince George’s
Car Rally for Police Accountability: Shout out to the organizers and participants of the event last Thursday. Watch the coverage of the the event and the issues people are raising on News Channel 4. Contact Devane for details about our issue and election campaigns in Prince George’s!
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State and National News:
In news you can use this week: Replace who? Working people of all identities have lots to stick together for -- to fight off the predatory corporations and banks and the right-wing politicians and media crazies they have bought and continue to support. But too many desperate people are vulnerable to conspiracy theories about “replacement” that goad them to find folks of a different hue, origin or identity to blame. And so, we have Buffalo, which will burn in our hearts. Until the next heartbreak.
We should be in solidarity against those big-money pundits, their corporate enablers and the gun culture that they always dangle in front of the desperate and vengeful. But the lure of rapidfire revenge steadily peels off the desperate and easily-duped and brings camo-clad tragedy, where real harm reduction (mental health aware-care, not militarized cops and easy gun purchases) could have brought a different outcome. Find it all in the News You Can Use blog post. |
Events From Progressive Maryland & Our Allies:
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.
Friday June 10 | Labor Night at the Nats
From Union City: This year’s Labor Night at the Nats is coming up; get your tickets now! The Washington Nationals play the Milwaukee Brewers and tickets are $17. The Community Services Agency gets $2.00 for each ticket. Click here to hit a home run for CSA’s Emergency Assistance Fund, or call Josh Grohs at 202-640-7714 or email [email protected]
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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Largo, MD 20792
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