Dear John,

Midterms are Tuesday! 

Make a plan to vote and make your voice heard. 

View your sample ballot, check your registration and find your polling place via our Busy Voter’s Guide. Then, text 10 friends about their plans to vote, and squeeze in one last phone bank shift before polls close at 8:00pm on Tuesday. 

It’s been a full election season, and on Tuesday night, we plan to celebrate the people power that we’ve built together. Join us at our election results watch party at Dual Citizen brewery in St. Paul. 

There’s a lot on the line this year, and together, we can do anything. Make your voice heard at the ballot box on Tuesday. We got this. 

Here's what we're reading, watching, and listening to this week:

1. Midterms are about Who Controls Your Body

“No matter who we are or where we live, we all traverse this earth in the sack of bones and blood we call a body—our first and forever possession, the vessel we must inhabit until we die,” Christina Cauterucci writes in Slate. Read how “the basic terms of that ownership are being rapidly, one-sidedly renegotiated” in the United States.

2. Keith Ellison

In the Minnesota Reformer, Deena Winter outlines everything the People’s Lawyer has done for us in his first term, and what’s at stake in the race for Attorney General. 

3. Mary Moriarty

Listen to this podcast interview with Defense Attorney Joe Friedberg. Joe has decades of experience in Hennepin County, including litigating with or in front of Mary’s opponent in the Hennepin County Attorney race. 

4. GOP Election Deniers

Nearly one in four Republican candidates for the Minnesota Legislature have rejected or questioned the outcome of the 2020 election, according to an analysis by MPR. 

5. Lula

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated far-right Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s run-off election this weekend. While you’re out on the doors this weekend, take a listen to this soundtrack from Lula’s historic campaign for a little Get Out the Vote inspo!  

6. Nurses March on Banks

Hundreds of nurses rallied at banks in downtown Minneapolis this week to demand higher staffing levels, following their three-day strike in September over similar issues. This time, their message wasn't just for hospital executives. The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) says bank executives, who serve on hospital boards, are failing to hold hospital CEOs accountable. 

7. Amazon Workers Walk Out

Amazon workers and supporters walked out at an Eagan warehouse, protesting the planned layoffs of 30 employees. As Amazon proposes a dramatic expansion in Minnesota, we’re following the growing movement of workers organizing for job security and safe working conditions – as well as broader demands impacting our community.  

8. Why Everyone is Sick Right Now

It’s not just you or your kids. Read why cold and flu season is off to a particularly nasty start across the United States.  

9. U of M Gig Workers

This fall, U of M employees have been fighting for fair pay in the face of intense under-staffing and are optimistic about the new contract they fought for. Still, Minnesota Reformer reporter Max Nesterak downloaded an app and, in about 20 minutes, became a cook earning more than the woman who trained him. 

10. "I Voted" Monster Drives Turnout

Remember this amazing “I voted” sticker designed by a 14-year-old in New York? An elections inspector said that early voting over the weekend was well above “his expectations of a few hundred people each day” and credited the fact that “many were excited about getting the stickers featuring [the] spider.”

And that’s a wrap!

Send us what you’re reading, watching, and listening to.

Until next time,

Katie Blanchard (she/her)
Basebuilding Director

Jessica Zimmerman (she/her)
Development Director