Nationwide organizing led to more than a million conversations with urban and rural voters, laying the groundwork for a progressive movement that will win big in 2020.
CHICAGO – A people’s wave rolled across the country on Election Day as voters elected bold, progressive candidates who share their values. People’s Action is a progressive, multiracial working-class network of 48 member organizations from Washington state to North Carolina. As of Monday night we had knocked on more than a million doors, made over 723,000 phone calls and sent 697,737 texts to move voters.
“With so much at stake, we couldn’t afford to do anything halfway,” said George Goehl, director of People’s Action. “We vastly scaled up our voter outreach, person-to-person engagement and social network contacts – and we will continue that work.
”The mass mobilization that People’s Action member organizations did was only possible because of our deep roots and deep relationships in our communities. Bold progressives must invest in long-term community organizing infrastructure, not election pushes that appear and disappear if we are going to keep winning the kind of change people truly need,” said Goehl.
People’s Action candidates ran on issues that matter deeply to voters, including Medicare for All, free college for all, immigration reform, clean water and air, living wages and clean energy. People’s Action efforts helped elect new governors, flip the United States House of Representatives, and shift governing power in state and local races across rural and urban communities.
“Clearly, for many voters this election, it was impossible to forget how elected officials stood by as families were torn apart at the border and allowed children to be caged in detention centers; denigrated sexual assault and abuse survivors in the rush to confirm a partisan extremist judge to the Supreme Court; and jeopardized our health care and retirement programs to enrich wealthy corporations and billionaires with the GOP tax scam,” said Laura Martin, executive director of PLAN Action in Nevada.
Grassroots energy fueled victories for fearless progressives and champions in Minnesota like Ilhan Omar (MN-5), Angela Conley (Hennepin County Commission), and Keith Ellison (Attorney General) who were all backed by TakeAction Minnesota; Tony Evers (WI Governor) Mandela Barnes (Wisconsin Lt. Gov.) backed by Citizen Action of Wisconsin; and Antonio Delgado (NY-19) and Anthony Brindisi (NY-22) backed by Citizen Action of New York. These are just a few of the election night victories with results are still coming.
“This people-power will get to work to make sure that we win on the issues and build momentum for 2019 local races and for 2020,” said Mehrdad Azemun, People’s Action senior strategist.
Groundwork that is being built now will be even stronger in 2020.
“People’s Action was here long before Election Day and we are ready on day one to start holding elected officials accountable and co-governing with our champions to put people and our planet before corporate profits,” said Ryan Greenwood, director of Movement Politics.
“Our members are demanding changes that shift the power from corporations and the wealthy few to everyday people. Our members demand that racial and gender justice be at the center of a power shift in our country,” he said.
“In every community, we heard increasing alarm about the hate and fear being stoked in our country,” said Laurel Wales, deputy director of Movement Politics for People’s Action. “For our members, leaders and staff, this election was deeply personal. We are united by issues and refuse to be divided by hate and fear mongering of the right.”
People’s Action is a progressive, multiracial, working-class network of more than a million people and 48 member organizations in 30 states. We fight for racial, gender, climate and economic justice.