We had our first annual @OnwardTogether members call yesterday. Thank you to the thousands of members who joined. We had a chance to hear from a few of our partner groups about the progress they're making to strengthen our democracy. I want to share some of it with you.
When @RunForSomething launched, they expected to find 100 people who wanted to run for local office. Instead, they've recruited 17,000 young candidates in all 50 states, built a network of 6,000 volunteers, and endorsed 308 candidates. Their new goal: recruit 50k candidates.
.@CollectivePAC recruits, trains, and funds progressive black candidates at every level of government. They've helped elect 23 officials so far and are doing a series of trainings for candidates and operatives with the goal of training 200 people by 2019 and 2020.
.@VotoLatino is working to engage Latinos in the civic process. They recently helped register 5,000 people in just one day at March For Our Lives events. Their goal: register 422,000 voters for the 2018 midterms and turn out 80% of those people.
Seventy years ago this December, 58 countries came together at the end of World War II to offer the world a roadmap for peace and prosperity strong enough to withstand the appeals of demagogues and the ravages of poverty and fear.
In the years since, in country after country, human rights have come to be seen not as a high-minded luxury but as a core national interest. But we have urgent work to do.
Now is the time to bring human rights out of the ivory tower and into what Eleanor Roosevelt called "small places close to home"—into neighborhoods and schools, offices, factories, and farms, and the hearts and daily interactions of men and women everywhere.
If you're angry and ready for change, there's a concrete way to fight back: help candidates with progressive values win their elections on November 6th.
Here are some excellent @runforsomething-endorsed candidates who deserve your support:
Merleyn Bell is a fifth-generation Oklahoman running for a seat in the state legislature’s House District 45. She wants to focus on funding public education, expanding access to affordable health care, and revitalizing the state’s infrastructure. bell4norman.com
Alex Brown is running for a seat on Chico, California's city council. She has worked in social services for most of her career and is particularly passionate about mental health, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and violence prevention. alexbrownforcouncil.com
In honor of National Voter Registration Day, I want to highlight some tools you can use to get registered to vote and register friends. With only six weeks before the election, it's all hands on deck.
First: Register to vote, or check your registration to make sure you're ready to vote. Then pass on the link to a friend: IWillVote.com
Then, find out when and where you'll vote. Depending on where you live, your state might make early voting available. Minnesota is already casting ballots! vote.org/polling-place-…
With a historic number of women running this year, we have a tremendous opportunity to make our government better reflect our country. We'd all be lucky to see these four extraordinary candidates win their races for Congress this fall:
.@LucyWins2018 is a businesswoman and activist running for Congress in the 6th district of Georgia. After her son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed, Lucy turned her grief into action by fighting for both gun safety and criminal justice reform. lucyforcongress.com
.@GinaOrtizJones is a veteran of the Iraq war, intelligence officer, and candidate for Congress in the 23rd district of Texas. She wants to create good-paying jobs and expand health care options for all Texans. ginaortizjones.com
I've written a new afterword for "What Happened" breaking down what we've learned since it was published, how we got here, and how we can heal our body politic. The new edition is available today: amazon.com/What-Happened-…
On the day after the election, I hoped my fears for our country's future were overblown.
They were not.
Donald Trump refuses to be subject to the law. The legitimacy of our elections is in doubt. The president is waging war on the truth. The administration is undermining the national unity that makes democracy possible. And then there's the breathtaking corruption.
Let's talk about Brett Kavanaugh's past rulings on guns. He's out of the mainstream, even among other conservative judges, in his willingness to strike down legislatures' public safety measures to prevent gun violence if they don't align with his politics.
Judge Kavanaugh dissented when the D.C. appeals court ruled in 2011 that the city could ban semiautomatic rifles and require handgun registration. He argued that courts shouldn't consider the public safety benefits of gun laws: "Our task is to apply the Constitution."
“Gun bans and gun regulations that are not longstanding or sufficiently rooted in the text, history and tradition are not consistent with the Second Amendment individual right," he added.