Dear fellow MoveOn member,
I cannot say this with more concern: Donald Trump's anti-democracy movement has been making astounding progress.
Trump is effectively on the ballot in the midterm elections, less than four weeks from today. He's laying the groundwork for a coup in 2024.
A full 60% of us will have an election denier on our ballot, most of them endorsed by Trump himself.1 In key battleground states, Republicans who embrace Trump's Big Lie are running for positions, including secretary of state, that will have direct control over future elections.2
Those top election officials were the very people who were the last line of defense for our fragile democracy in the 2020 presidential election, upholding Joe Biden's win despite incredible pressure from Trump and his allies.
And that's precisely why Trump and Trump's lieutenants, including Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, are trying to fill these positions with Big Liars.
Rest assured: If we don't turn out in full force against these candidates, we can kiss what's left of our democracy goodbye. If any of these MAGA secretary of state candidates win their election this fall—and right now it looks like several may—that could be enough to tip the balance in a tight presidential election.
John, that's why I'm writing to you today. MoveOn has a long track record of turning out voters, and I've been so impressed by their focus on these secretary of state races. They understood early on that these races, while much lower profile than other races, are absolutely critical to stopping the Republicans' next coup. But I heard from the MoveOn team that their fundraising is behind in these critical final weeks before Election Day.
Will you chip in $3 a week to MoveOn right now to defeat Trump's Big Lie candidates for secretary of state and elect honest Democrats who will uphold and strengthen our democracy? (MoveOn will bill your weekly donation to your credit card once a month starting today and will contact you shortly after the election to see if you want to modify or cancel your weekly donation.)
No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in weekly.
If you thought Donald Trump's first attempted coup was bad, just wait until 2024. These are the stakes this November:
Michigan's GOP candidate for secretary of state is Kristina Karamo, who rose to prominence in conservative circles after falsely claiming to have witnessed election fraud as a pollster. Karamo has claimed that Trump won the 2020 election and that antifa was behind the January 6 insurrection.
Arizona's GOP candidate for secretary of state is Mark Finchem, a QAnon-supporting member of the white supremacist Oath Keepers militia, who participated in the January 6 insurrection. He cruised to victory in the GOP primary by claiming that Trump won the 2020 election.
Nevada's GOP candidate for secretary of state is Jim Marchant, who won his Republican primary by making Trump's baseless claims of election fraud a cornerstone of his campaign. He also falsely claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud and wants to eliminate it altogether (despite the fact that he has voted by mail many times over the years).
I don't know about you, but all these Big Liars terrify me. If any one of them wins in a state that's likely to be a battleground in 2024, they could tip the balance to Trump in a tight presidential election. What terrifies me even more is that they could tip America away from democracy to authoritarianism.
And because the mainstream media is giving these down-ballot races so little attention, too many voters won't have any idea who these candidates are when they head to the polls.
MoveOn is laser-focused on stopping these Big Lie secretary of state candidates and electing honest Democrats who will count every vote and protect our democracy.
But MoveOn is a grassroots organization, powered by people like you and me, and they need our help right now. Will you chip in $3 a week—or whatever you can afford—to defeat Trump-backed secretary of state candidates and protect our democracy? (MoveOn will bill your weekly donation to your credit card once a month starting today and will contact you shortly after the election to see if you want to modify or cancel your weekly donation.)
No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in weekly.
Thanks for all you do.
–Robert Reich
Sources:
1. "60 Percent Of Americans Will Have An Election Denier On The Ballot This Fall," FiveThirtyEight, October 12, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/168404?t=6&akid=335744%2E40999114%2E23okzD
2. "Campaigning to Oversee Elections, While Denying the Last One," The New York Times, January 30, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/160255?t=8&akid=335744%2E40999114%2E23okzD
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Want to support MoveOn's work? MAGA Republicans are trying to subvert our democracy and ban abortion nationwide. To stop them, MoveOn is investing $30 million in the largest midterm election campaign in our history. But we need your help to make it a success.
Will you chip in weekly to power our campaign to defeat the MAGA GOP this November? (MoveOn will bill your weekly donation to your credit card once a month starting today and will contact you shortly after the election to see if you want to modify or cancel your weekly donation.)
No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in weekly.
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