Election Day countdown: 186 days
The lowdown
The take: Vice President Biden’s poll numbers have shot up during the pandemic, but at the same point in the 2016 cycle, Secretary Clinton’s had a greater lead in the polls. She, similarly, led in all swing states. The times might be different, but the message is the same: we can’t let up until November.
What you can do: Sign up three friends or relatives who you think could use a nudge to request an absentee ballot, complete the Census, or register to vote and we’ll take care of the rest! We need everyone to be counted by the Census and have their voices heard in this election.
Candidate of the Week
About the candidate: Cal Cunningham is a North Carolina native running for Senate. He became the youngest state legislator when he first ran for office in 2000. Later, he served in both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He now leads an environmental services and waste reduction company.
About this contested election: North Carolina has the most at stake this cycle, with more key elections up and down the ballot than any state. This is a toss-up race that could help determine who wins the presidency, as well as the balance of power in the state and both houses of Congress.
You can support him here. Learn more on his website.
Check out other races and organizations that you can support here.
Shout outs
Amanda Finney is joining Sidewalk Labs.
Anastasia Golovashkina is continuing her work as Elizabeth Warren’s social media director and recently helped launch Warren Democrats.
Briana Megid is a new team member at NextGen America.
Kelsey Donohue helped release the The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy Schools’ Spring 2020 Youth Poll last week.
Liliana Bakhtiari is leading Homeless COVID19 Emergency Response at Partners for Home in Atlanta, Georgia.
Manny Yekutiel and his San Francisco civic cafe Manny’s (our SF events partner!) just completed a month-long Super Civic Cyber Conversations including Stacey Abrams, Cory Booker, Dolores Huerta and many, many more. You can become a sponsor of this powerful small business here.
Sarah Grucza is helping coordinate The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ COVID-19 Local Response Initiative to support mayors nationwide in their response to our current crisis.
The Next 50 is hosting Congresswoman Lauren Underwood tonight.
Zak Malamed (hello) is moderating a panel (virtually) on May 3rd at the 92nd Street Y’s XYZ Summit, Pandemic: Getting to the New Normal with Abdul El-Sayed, Alexis Glick, Eric Feigl-Ding, and Sean Ramweswaram.
Are we missing any political work that you are up to that you’d like to share? Let us know!
What we are reading
Stimulus 2.0: “Democrats are emphasizing aid to struggling state governments, so that states (many of which must balance their budgets, by law) don’t have to slash funds for public services, like police, emergency departments, public school teachers, and other public workers.” (Vox)
National nightmare: “Across the political spectrum, faith in the democratic process disintegrates as Americans question both the validity of the election and the ability of the government to respond to challenges it should have seen coming.” (Politico)
Gates’ only focus: “We’ve taken an organisation that was focused on HIV and malaria and polio eradication, and almost entirely shifted it to work on this. This has the foundation’s total attention. Even our non-health related work, like higher education and K-12 [schools], is completely switched around to look at how you facilitate online learning.” (The Financial Times)
Seattle > New York?: “Today, New York City has the same social-distancing policies and business-closure rules as Seattle. But because New York’s recommendations came later than Seattle’s—and because communication was less consistent—it took longer to influence how people behaved....More than fifteen thousand people in New York are believed to have died from covid-19. Last week in Washington State, the estimate was fewer than seven hundred people.” (The New Yorker)
Grave injustice: “Social distancing in prisons is nearly impossible. The size of the inmate population in federal prisons exceeds their rated capacity by 12 to 19 percent, according to a report this year from the Justice Department...A report from the American Civil Liberties Union predicted that an explosion of cases in jails could cause the total death count in the United States to double.” (The New York Times)
Stay safe,
Zak
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