100 Days Until Midterms

Actually, as you're reading this it's only 99...

Photo by Mirah Curzer on Unsplash

That’s 99 days to elect a Democratic majority in the House and Senate who can investigate ICE for the murders they’ve committed, including, most recently, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. 99 days to kick Senator Susan Collins of Maine out of the Senate - Susan Collins who was the deciding vote to send billions of dollars to the ICE agents who murdered one of her constituents, who was a deciding vote to confirm both Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have since voted to overturn abortion rights, give Trump immunity for his many crimes, gut the Voting Rights Act, and make it harder to fight climate change.

If Republicans keep control of the Senate, there’s a very good chance that some of the conservative Supreme Court justices will retire, letting Trump replace them with 25 year old manosphere podcasters if he’d like - making it so much harder for us to change the balance of the court and potentially locking us out of power for a generation. If we want to fight climate change, if we want to protect our rights and our bodies, if we want a democracy that works, we need to take back the Senate and keep Trump from nominating any more Supreme Court Justices.

If we want to investigate Trump’s corruption, to make it clear that it has been facilitated and enabled by Republicans in Congress ahead of our next presidential election, we need to take back Congress this year. If we want to keep Trump from spending billions more of our tax dollars to bomb Iran (or Mali or whatever other country he decides we should fail at regime change in next) we need to take back Congress this year. If we want Congress to investigate DOGE, and the many, many ways Trump and Republicans let Elon Musk steal our data, gut the programs we voted to fund, and let unqualified assholes run rampant through the halls of our government, we need to take back Congress this year.

We have 99 days to elect the governors and state legislators across the country who will be in place during the 2028 election, who will be in charge of running elections, protecting voting machines, and certifying our elections. The members of Congress we elect this year will be in place if Trump tries to overturn our free and fair elections, either by deceit or by force.

We have no option but to be ruthlessly political and ruthlessly committed to electing Democrats across the country. Whatever disagreements we have, whatever significant and serious disagreements we have about policy, there is no version of our future that is better with Republicans in power, no version of our government that gets better with Republicans in power. People’s lives depend on us. Our lives depend on us.

Here’s how you can help:

1. Sign up for Vote Save America to get critical insight on innovative ways to make a difference in this election. There’s no kinder, smarter, more generous group of nerds in the business, and you have the added benefit of hanging out with me! In fact, if you’d like to hang out with me, attend a Q&A with Ben Wikler, the incredible organizer who led the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and read his excellent book This is the Plan, come to VSA book club! In spite of the serious stakes of this election, VSA book club is always, always, always a delight.

2. Follow Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, on all his platforms. Donate to his campaign, share his content, sign up to volunteer. You can also check out Kiernan Majerus-Collins, running for State Legislature, and Matt Dunlap, running for Congress in Maine’s second district.

3. Follow Sherrod Brown who is running for the Senate in Ohio, on all his platforms. Brown was a fantastic Senator when we had him, and we’d be very lucky to get him back in the Senate. You can also check out these Run for Something endorsed candidates for city and state office in Ohio, as well as Greg Landsman and Brian Poindexter, who are running for the House in the first and seventh Congressional districts respectively.

4. Share this post! Forward it as an email to friends and family and say something like “can you believe we’re only 99 days out?? I’m going to start volunteering for [CANDIDATE’S NAME] - want to join me?” or “only 100 days until midterms! Check your voter registration here. Also I’m really excited about [CANDIDATE’S NAME]...if I send you some stuff can you share it on your socials?” And then you know, actually send them some stuff.

We’ve done this before friends. In 2018 we dealt the first Trump regime a crippling blow by taking back the House. In 2020 we got control of the Senate. We have a chance to do the same thing this year. The stakes are high, yes, but there’s nothing like our passion and commitment to making this country better, to the sometimes slow but always powerful work of moving democracy forward, and using all the levers at our disposal to fight for our future. This year is no different. Let’s get to work.