Every month People’s Action shares the latest victories,
campaigns and events from our member groups
“Whose House? Our House!”
This rallying call may surprise you right now, at a moment when the GOP-led U.S. House of Representatives just voted to pass $880 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and food assistance that will deeply harm our families.
Yet all across the country, millions of people who will be affected by these cuts – with the help of People’s Action’s member groups – are stepping up to let our elected representatives know we expect them to do more than roll over as DOGE and Donald Trump gut lifesaving services and the agencies that protect our families, jobs, water and air.
On the heels of our successful DC Fly-in of People’s Action Institute members to meet with Members of Congress, all across the country our members and member groups made their voices heard during the Congressional Recess – from Bangor, Maine and Eau Claire, Wisconsin to Bakersfield, California and everywhere in between – about the harms these cuts will cause in our communities, and how we will hold lawmakers to account.
“Our representatives are voted into office by us,” said Mindy Holcomb, an organizer for West Virginia Citizen Action Group, at a protest WVCAG helped organize at the Morgantown offices of U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito. “They owe us and they work for us, so they owe us some accountability for their votes.”
Read on to learn more about the empty-chair Town Halls and rallies our members organized. And of course, when Representatives were willing to speak with constituents, we were there, too – as in Nevada, where PLAN hosted a Town Hall with U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (CD-4) and in Cincinnati, where CUFA hosted a conversation with U.S. Rep. John Landsman (CD-1).
There’s more good news – in Indiana, Hoosier Action scored a tremendous victory when they blocked a Far Right-funded effort to strip health coverage from 750,000 people. And in a small but seismic shift in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Democrat James Malone just flipped a State Senate seat in a deep-Red district which has been held by Republicans for a hundred and forty years. You read that right, a hundred and forty years.
“Malone stuck to the issues impacting our working families and reminded Lancaster of who we are: people who take care of our neighbors,” writes Pennsylvania Stands Up (PASU) organizer Hannah Henrichon. PASU has been doing deep, relational organizing to change hearts and minds in Lancaster for a decade. “This victory proves that organizing works, and we’re more determined than ever to keep pushing forward—through, between, and beyond elections—to secure lasting power for our communities.”
Yes, Hannah, organizing does work. And it matters, now more than ever – in this very moment, when our rights, neighbors, essential services like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and our essential dignity are all under attack.
Our organizing seems to be having an immediate effect. Trump just revoked his appointment of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik to become Ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik was all set to leave her House seat representing upstate New York to take on this position, which would have erased the GOP’s single-vote majority in Congress. Oh, and by the way, there are more seats in Congress and coming up for grabs in special elections in Florida and Ohio.
It sounds to me like your people power is working. And someone is getting nervous.
Which brings me back to my original question: Whose House is it, anyway?
Read on to hear more about this and more signs of hope from across our network!
In solidarity,
Amanda Weaver
Lead Story
People’s Action Members Hold Representatives’ Feet to the Fire in Congressional Recess
House Republicans’ efforts to hide from constituents during the March Recess did not keep People’s Action’s members from sounding the alarm about the deep cuts to health care and food aid Republicans are trying to force through Congress to fund tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. Read more
Organizing Stories
PLAN Nevada Meets U.S. Rep. Horsford, Rallies at Amodei’s Office
PLAN Nevada members were amongst the more than a thousand Nevadans who rallied outside the Reno offices of Republican U.S. Representative Mark Amodei on March 15, when he refused to meet with his constituents during the March Congressional Recess. Read more
CAWI Hosts “Hands Off Medicaid!” Town Halls Across Wisconsin, Leads Election Fights
Hundreds of Wisconsinites turned out to voice their concerns at the three “Hands Off Medicaid!” Town Halls organized by Citizen Action of Wisconsin (CAWI) in Eau Claire, La Crosse and Wausau during the March Congressional Recess. Read more
CCAG at U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes’ “Budget Breakdown Town Hall” and Rally to “Save Medicaid!”
Connecticut Citizen Action Group (CCAG) members were amongst the hundreds of concerned CT-05 constituents who attended U.S. Rep Jahana Hayes’ “Budget Breakdown Town Hall” in Avon on March 9. Read more
Citizen Action of New York Rallies to “Stop the Cuts!” and Hosts Empty-Chair Town Hall
New York Republican U.S. Representative Nicole Malliotakis seems not to have a lot to say to her constituents about the $880 billion in cuts her party plans to make to essential services like Medicaid, SNAP and Medicare. That won’t stop Citizen Action of New York (CANY) from sounding the alarm. Read more
Hundreds of Mainers Attend Bangor “Empty Chair” Town Hall in Golden’s District
An overflow crowd of nearly 400 Mainers attended an “empty chair” Town Hall at the Bangor Public Library in the district of U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, the only Democrat who voted with Republicans to keep the government open as the efforts to pass $880 billion in cuts to essential services continue. Read more
CUFA Meets with U.S. Rep Landsman at Ohio Town Hall
Members of Citizens United for Action (CUFA) in Ohio met with U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman at the Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati for a conversation about the nearly $2 trillion in cuts Republicans have proposed to essential services to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Read more
Recent Media
READ: “It’s Time to Turn Up the Heat on Monopoly Utilities”
Victoria Lee, a member of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), explains how for-profit investors and companies like Berkshire Hathaway Energy are driving up energy prices for households nationwide, and how you can join her and PLAN to take action and draw attention to this crisis.
LISTEN: “The Transformative Power of Deep Canvassing”
Sulma Arias speaks with Lynn Borton, the host of the Pacifica Radio and podcast show “Choose to Be Curious,” about how Deep Canvassing, the technique People’s Action volunteers use to help change hearts and minds around divisive issues, can transform our lives and nation. “The important thing in a deep canvass conversation is that you are affirming that person’s own life experience,” Arias explains. “begins with sharing your own vulnerabilities, but then it begins to dig deeper – into the why.”
