Taking Back Senate

If you were not a Taking Back Sunday fan, I apologize for the tortured grammar of the title of this week's newsletter

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

When polls close tomorrow in New York, Maryland, South Carolina, and Utah, approximately 75% of states across the country will have chosen their Democratic and Republican candidates for the upcoming midterms. And with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence less than two weeks away - what better way to celebrate than by picking some Democratic candidates to get behind in the fight for our future.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “I thought a birthday party for an ancient, decaying wannabe king featuring racist transphobia and a giant UFC fight on the White House lawn was the best way to celebrate the birthday of the United States of America.” Understandable, as that’s how our current regime chose to celebrate. But our democracy was founded on the idea that we all have a say in our future, and that the future is better and brighter when we work together to achieve it. When something isn’t working for us, when we are led by a president who actively chooses to make our lives worse, we have the right and the responsibility to check his power and do something differently.

This means we need to take back Congress in the upcoming midterms - both the House, and the Senate. But it also means that we need Democratic controlled state legislatures that can push back on Republican political and racial gerrymandering. It means we need to identify local races where we can elect smart, progressive young people to keep building a deep Democratic bench that will filter up through future elections.

To that end, I’m going to take a few posts over the summer to identify some critical states and races that I hope you’ll pay attention to and get involved in (if, of course, you haven’t picked your races already). If you find this useful, please pass it along to friends and family who might also, and let me know where you get involved and how!

This week, we’ll start with two states that are key for taking back the Senate, but that also have critical state legislature races. Remember, you can help whether you live in these states or not. I’ll try to specify how best to help for in-state and out of state folks, but I also trust y’all to sort through it yourself.

(In the past I’ve created extensive google docs to help people figure out how to get involved in upcoming elections. If you've used one of them before, or you think that version would be more helpful, let me know that too.)

---

Texas

Texas is Lucy with the football for Democrats. We want it, we feel like we should be able to win it, and every election it feels more and more possible. And yet, in every election it doesn’t happen. But because of the changing demographics of the country and the way the Senate and the Electoral College distribute power, there’s no future for Democrats that doesn’t involve us figuring out how to win in Texas (and Iowa and Florida and Alaska and, and, and, but that’s a future post).

Democratic state legislators in Texas have also had to literally flee the state five times in the last 25 years to try and prevent the passage of restrictive voting rights and redistricting legislation. If we can get more Democrats into the state legislature there, we can prevent Republicans in Texas from attacking voting rights and possibly even work on passing actual pro-voting rights legislation. So here’s how you can help:

1. For everyone: follow Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico on the preferred social media platform of your choice - Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, Instagram, YouTube. Go ahead and repost something right now, and then commit to reposting something at least once a week. Or in the case of YouTube, go like and subscribe and comment on videos to boost the algorithm.

2. If you live in Texas, figure out which of these state legislative candidates are closest to you. You can figure out your state districts here. Then follow them on socials, share a post, and commit to sharing one post a week. Set a reminder in your phone if you need to!
   
   Of note here, I pulled candidates with Run for Something and DLCC crossover. Run for Something and DLCC both have more candidates listed, so if none of these fit the bill, you can pick one from their bigger lists. Run for Something in particular has also endorsed local and judicial candidates.

   1. Tyler Smith - House District 138

   2. Allison Mitchell - House District 108

   3. Brittany Black - House District 61

   4. Julio Salinas - House District 41

   5. Kristian Carranza - House District 118

   6. Taylor Rehmet - Senate District 9

3. Set up a recurring donation! I used to have one to the Texas Democrats specifically because I appreciate that they are willing to flee the state to deny quorum for anti-voting rights bills. But even just $5 a month to any of the above candidates will make a huge difference, if you can do it. It helps candidates plan ahead, and use money strategically instead of on huge ad dumps at the end of the campaign.

4. Sign up for a Texas Together phone bank and help campaign for Texas candidates up and down the ballot.

   ---

North Carolina

North Carolina also has a critical Senate race for taking back the U.S. Senate - an opportunity to prevent Trump from appointing any more Supreme Court Justices, to force Republicans to negotiate with Democrats when it comes to appropriations bills and other legislation, and to check Trump’s use of power by issuing subpoenas, investigating corruption, and controlling hearings.

But North Carolina is also one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. Even though Democrats are routinely elected to statewide office, Republicans hold a super majority in the State Senate and are close to achieving one in the State House. But by electing just one more Democrat in the Senate and protecting the seats they hold in the House, Democrats can push back against Republican majorities and build power for the future. Here’s how:

1. For everyone: follow Roy Cooper on Instagram (or your preferred social media platform of choice: Tiktok, Facebook, Twitter, or one of the others listed at the bottom of his website), and share one post right now. Then commit to sharing one post a week at least. Set a reminder in your phone if you need one.

2. If you live in North Carolina, figure out which of these state legislative candidates are closest to you. You can figure out your district here. Then follow them on socials, share a post, and commit to sharing one post a week. Set a reminder in your phone if you need to.
   
   Of note, I picked a few state legislative candidates based on candidates endorsed by Run for Something, States Win (formerly Sister District), and the DLCC. And where possible I linked to their States Winn page which has lots of information about how to support the candidates. If none of these thrill, I recommend taking a look at the organizations themselves to see their full range of candidates in North Carolina and elsewhere.

   1. Evonne Hopkins - District 35

   2. Dante Pittman - District 24

   3. Winn Decker - District 37

   4. Woodson Bradley - District 42

   5. Lindsay Prather - District 115

3. Set up a recurring donation to any one of the candidates listed above. Even $5 a month helps if you can. Candidates need money now to engage in creative organizing, rather than in October, when it mostly goes towards ads. The more candidates can plan for earlier, the more deeply they can engage with the community they are asking to vote for them.

4. Sign up for a Carolina Federation phone bank (they start in July) or find a phone banking or canvassing opportunity near you.