Election Day countdown: 145 days
Hi friends,
In just 50 days since these weekly notes began, we’ve become a community of over 1,000, hosted nine virtual events, including three sitting members of Congress and one U.S. Senator, and already helped win our first election! While our community shows much promise, our elections do not – a theme of many letters I’ve written to you so far.
This week, even LeBron James spoke out about the horrific voter suppression in Georgia. Now he’s taking action. We must, also, support the local organizing that builds power to address our country’s systemic injustices. Today, we introduce you to the first of those groups.
Learn and act
Monday, June 15th @ 8pm ET: Introducing Candidate of the Week Desiree Tims for Congress (OH-10)! More on her below.
Tuesday, June 16th @ 8pm ET: Come meet Elizabeth Warren for President’s Social Media Director Anastasia Golovashkina, learn about the campaign, and hear her incredibly inspiring story.
Thursday, June 18th @ 8pm ET: Founder of the Black Male Voter Project Mondale Robinson will join us to discuss the fight for racial justice and fair elections in Georgia.
Shout outs
Jamie Engel and Sarah Grucza of The Next 50 Boston for hosting the first Massachusetts Democratic Primary candidates for U.S. Senate Rep. Joe Kennedy.
Matt Scheckner and Advertising Week are hosting a “Town Hall for Change” today at noon ET, featuring Ndaba Mandela, T.I., and Mayor of Atlanta (and top VP contender!) Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Max Rose and New Sheriffs for Trusting Communities has a goal of raising $30,000 this week to help defeat one of the more egregious sheriffs in the country. They’re $5,000 away. Can you help here?
Sam Skardon won his primary for the SC State Senate! We’ve already contributed 1% of his budget. Let’s get to 2% and help flip the seat.
The Next 50 hosted a virtual solidarity and voter registration event last weekend. Reply if you want to be a part of future events!
Are we missing any political work that you are up to that you’d like to share? Reply and let us know!
Candidate of the Week
About the candidate: Desiree is a 32-year-old, first-time candidate for Congress and native of Dayton, OH. She's the granddaughter of a sharecropper from the deep south, and first in her family to graduate from a four-year college. She interned in the White House with President Obama, and had jobs in the Senate with Kirstin Gillibrand and Sherrod Brown. In the Senate, she was President of the Senate Black Legislative Staff Caucus.
About this contested election: The district is winnable. It's rated R+4, but Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) won it by 6 points in 2018. Desiree won her primary with 70% of the vote. With Obama running in 2012, the African American electorate was 73.4%. But in 2016 it was 59.9%. Desiree can inspire a big increase in this number again and help us take back Ohio!
What we are reading
Fair elections in peril: “The only hope for a fair election in November will rest with people at the local level, who will have to do their best to fight for what the Voting Rights Act once delivered.” (The New Yorker)
The last second wave: “Yet a second round of restrictions put in place to stem a second wave of the [1918 influenza] was so hated that dissenters in San Francisco formed a 2,000-person Anti-Mask League and some mayors openly violated public health orders.” (Mother Jones)
Minneapolis was the breaking point: “The activists who make up the core of the movement desire to create, for the first time in our nation’s history, a reality in which black people aren’t routinely robbed of their livelihoods and lives by armed government agents.” (The Atlantic)
Stay safe,
Zak
P.S. If you liked what you read, recommend a friend and provide feedback here.