INDIVISIBLE Lambertville NJ / New Hope PA

Category: GOTV 2018

  • The Blue Wave Election Re-Cap and Update

    Contributed by Paige Barnett.

    The midterm elections were, to say the least, a real humdinger — a nail biter. They quite literally kept us on the edge of our seats.  “What ifs” come to mind: What if all the canvassing didn’t work? What if people didn’t get their postcards? What if people don’t care?  What if we don’t flip the House? What if? But…YOU DID IT! YOU REALLY DID IT! Door by door, post card by post card, voter by voter — you built the Blue Wave.  YOU showed up and YOU made it happen.

    So, how did it all go down on election night?  Initially, early returns on the night of November 6th seemed to indicate Democrats may have only gained a high tide, at best.  But then, one by one, as an increasing number of precincts reported, more blue ripples and streaks started turning up. Then – just like that, the Blue Wave surfaced with a might and glory that had not been seen in over 30 years.

    In New Jersey, only one Congressional District in the entire state remained red when all votes were counted. Tom Malinowski unseated Leonard Lance in District 7. Mikie Sherrill filled a seat in the 11th District that had been held by Republicans for more than 30 years. And, after an eight-day delay in a very tight race, Andy Kim unseated incumbent Tom MacArthur in District 3. And, Senator Bob Menendez clinched his bid for re-election, besting former pharma exec and Trump supporter, Bob Hugin.

    In Pennsylvania, the U.S. Senate seat was held by Bob Casey, and Tom Wolf won re-election for governor. Overall in the keystone state, Democrats held the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th and 18th districts and flipped the 5th, 6th, 7th and 17th districts for the House.¹

    We were saddened by some losses in hard-fought races, however.  Scott Wallace failed to unseat incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick for House of Representatives in Pennsylvania Congressional District 1.  While Helen Tai was successful in her bid in the May special election for the Pennsylvania General Assembly, she was unseated by Wendi Thomas for PA District 178 House of Representatives.  

    The governor’s races in Georgia and Florida were unfortunate losses for Democrats.  In a speech, Stacey Abrams refused to concede and called out the purging of the state’s voter rolls and suppression largely aimed at African-Americans.  Abrams has since filed a federal lawsuit.³ The Florida governor’s race found Andrew Gillum conceding 11 days after the election to the Republican candidate, Ron DeSantis.

    More recent election calls included Senate races in Florida and Arizona.  Republicans flipped the Florida seat, installing former governor Rick Scott, but Democrats flipped the Arizona seat by electing the first openly bi-sexual woman, Kyrsten Sinema.  The final Senate race was determined in a runoff MIssissippi on Nov. 27, with the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, holding her seat against her challenger Mike Espy, Democrat.  In addition, delayed election results saw more Blue waves roll in with six House seats gained in California and one each in New York, Maine and Utah.⁴ In total, the Blue Wave secured 40 seats for Democratic legislators.

    It’s important to note that even where Democrats lost, the margin of victory in traditionally Red states and districts was significantly narrower than previous elections. Further, the election smashed records for expanding representation from broader demographics, with most running on the Democratic ticket. For the first time, elected officials are looking more like the rest of America with:

    • The first Muslim women to run and be elected are Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashid Talib (D-MI).  
    • The first Native American women elected are Deb Haaland (D-NM) and Sharice Davids (D-KS).  Davids is also the first openly gay woman to be elected to congress.
    • Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is the first African American woman elected to Congress from her state.  
    • Jared Polis (D-CO) is the first openly gay and first Jewish man elected governor of his state.  
    • Chris Pappas (D-NH) is the first openly gay man elected to Congress for his state.  
    • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is the youngest woman elected to U.S. Congress.  
    • Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is the first female Senator to represent her state.
    • Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) is the first Latino female governor of New Mexico.  
    • Janet Mills (D-ME) is the first female governor of Maine.   
    • 107 women ran and won seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.⁶  

    To summarize, the hard work done by the Blue Wave saw the Democrats gain control of the House and flip seven governorships. Democrats saw a net gain in six state trifectas, meaning they control the state’s governorship, state senate and state house.  Currently, Democrats hold 14 state trifectas while Republicans still hold 23 and 13 states remain divided.⁵

    As a whole, the Blue Wave moved the entire country to the left. 317 out of 435 Congressional districts (73%) were more blue on Election Day than they were in 2016.  That is an amazing feat! Never underestimate the power of the people.

    That is progress.

  • Before, During and After: What Comes Next?

    Before, During and After: What Comes Next?

    Contributed by Cindi Sternfeld. 

    October 21st

    It’s three weeks and two days before the midterm elections. I’m working at a canvass launch site and we’ve just sent out a bunch of canvassers to go knock on doors and spread the word about people who are running for office.  More than half of the people we’ve sent off this morning have never canvassed before, and if you’d asked them two years ago they might not have even known what the initials GOTV stood for. But today they know and they are reaching outside their comfort zone to do the work of Getting Out The Vote.  We train them, connect them with partners and send them out. They don’t need to know it all, they just need to be willing to learn some basics, spread their wings and see what happens. Show up, connect with others, learn what you need and take action. Pretty much what we have done all along.  It’s a rinse and repeat kind of thing.

    October 30th

    It’s one week before the midterms and days after the murders at Tree Of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.  My heart is broken. Many of us learned about the shootings when we were at a postcard/canvassing event.  In retrospect, I wish I had stopped, learned more and let everyone there have a moment to absorb this horrible news, but I felt I would have fallen into a puddle on the floor – and we had so much work to do.  In the last few days, I’ve been beating myself up because as a leader in this group, I believe it is my job to offer encouragement and hope, but also to offer a place for people to bring the hard stuff and feel it in the safety of our embracing community.  

    Today I realize that it would have been okay to let myself fall into a puddle of sadness if I needed to, because I know who we are.  I know what we are made of. I know what fuels us. It is the vast power of all that we love, it is our hope, our passion. And sometimes, it is also the sum of our sadness and grief as we bear witness to these senseless acts of hate and oppression.  We may not be able to prevent bad things from happening but I know we will be here to support each other when they do. The day after the tragic event, I connected with my Rabbi and friends, and showed up at the service in Richboro, PA, surrounded by Indivizzies and the larger community.  It was healing and helpful. There it was again. Show up, connect with others, learn what you need and take action.

    To the question at hand: What’s next?  I’m not going to lie. I don’t know what will happen next.  I do not know what will happen on Election Day. It feels as if we need to create an intricate decision tree: If we win the House but not the Senate; if we win nothing, if we win it all.  But what’s next is not about what happens on November 6th.  It’s WHO WE ARE that will determine what’s next.   

    After the election we will take a breath and rest for a few minutes.  Then we will be looking for you to step forward, identify the issues you care about and volunteer to work with others to learn and ultimately help the group to take the next steps.  While the issues we delve into and the answers to them might vary, the machinery of how we do it will stay the same. We will show up. We will connect with our community. We will figure out what we need to know and learn together, and we will take action that aligns with our values.

    So while I don’t know exactly what’s next, I promise you this, if you keep showing up, I’ll keep showing up.  Let’s show up together – for all of it, the days we feel like a puddle and the all more frequent days we can celebrate this fierce community and the democracy we love.  

  • VOTE on (or before) November 6: What’s At Stake

    Contributed by Action Groups.

    Artwork by Sarah Bush. Posters available. Donations welcome.

    Maybe we don’t have to give you more reasons to vote, but maybe we can encourage you to step up your efforts to get your family, friends and community to increase their efforts to GOTV. As of this writing, polls are saying that Republicans are narrowing the gap in the number of voters planning to head to the polls – so much so that the Blue Wave may not happen after all. Right now, all of our civil rights are being attacked and eroded. Here’s a small sampling of what’s at stake:

    • Vulnerable rights include Workers’ Rights, LGBTQ+ Rights, Women’s Rights, Prisoners’ Rights, Students’ Rights, First Amendment Rights, and Minority Rights.
    • The Right to Vote is on the line! Voters’ names are being purged from the rolls, and voting is being made less accessible for many poor, minority, and elderly voters. In NJ, people who are incarcerated, on probation, or on parole are denied the right to vote. Note: NJ denies the right to vote to 94,000 people with criminal convictions, and  three-fourths of those are on parole or probation, which means they are living in their communities. While 15% of NJ’s population is black, 50%of those denied the right to vote are black). Gerrymandering dilutes the power of individual votes.
    • Immigrants’ Rights are on the line! Nationally, we need to end family separations, end the detention of children, protect families, and protect individuals’ rights to due process! Locally, we need protections for all of our residents in our communities and protections for towns and cities who are identifying as Fair and Welcoming Communities or as Sanctuary Cities. We need to grant driver’s licenses to people without documentation.
    • The Federal Judiciary will be instrumental in interpreting voting laws that protect all citizens’ right to vote, gerrymandering challenges, and all civil rights! As the Trump administration packs federal judicial vacancies, our rights are weakened. All civil rights are at stake! Get out and vote to protect all of our rights!
    • The effectiveness of the 2020 census, which drives billions of dollars that come into communities from the federal government, and helps ensure accurate voting districts that foster true democratic representation in the electoral process. The effectiveness is currently compromised by inadequate oversight, including the necessary resources for outreach and cybersecurity.
    • Public safety with protection from gun violence and the protection of our natural resources, including clean land, air and water. What kind of world do you want to live in?

    What’s important to you and at risk? Use it to have the conversations to drive awareness and personal responsibility to ensure those who are given the power to govern actually deserve it.

  • Out and About – Adventures From the GOTV Road

    Contributed by Amara Willey.

    Many of our members have been canvassing door-to-door in support of our endorsed candidates. Sometimes, however, the road to voter turnout is a little rocky, albeit rewarding in opportunity to connect with potential voters and make a difference. Here a few stories from the trenches — quite literally:

    Olga Vannucci, a self-labeled “klutz,” had been telling her canvass partner that she is very careful about all the various steps leading up to people’s front doors. At one house she took a shortcut through a corner between the driveway and the walk to the front door.

    “I didn’t see that there was a single small mud puddle right there. My shoe slipped, and I went flying,” Olga reported.

    Although it was a small mud puddle, her whole right side was filthy. Instead of going home, however, the intrepid Olga took some plastic grocery bags put them on the car seat, took a short break and a few deep breaths and kept right on going door-to-door.

    On another occasion, Elaine Clisham had a meet-up with the resident dog.

    “I was about to go back down the steps when this little dog came running around the side of the house and up the steps, barking like crazy. It was just big enough for me to take it seriously, and I could tell it was extremely serious about getting me off that porch, so I went back down the steps very slowly, one step at a time,” Elaine explained. “I got to the bottom when the dog’s human came around the other side of the house and yelled at the dog, prompting it to jump up and bite me on the outside of my leg!”

    The human and his daughter, who had also come around the side of the house, were kind and apologetic, and administered first aid. But, before she left, the stalwart Elaine extracted a promise from the pair to vote for Tom Malinowski.

    Zoe Langdon noted, “The most gratifying moments are when we engage Dems that historically don’t vote in midterms or some Republicans who say, We’re fed up. I’m voting for sure.” Amara Willey had a lengthy conversation about policy with a Republican who was leaning towards voting for Tom Malinowski through his frustration with the current administration’s “shenanigans” in Washington. But what happens when Leonard Lance’s 12th grade Latin teacher answers the door? Cindi Sternfeld marked her down as “strong Lance” supporter.

    One of our members canvassed with a 16-year-old high school student whose guidance counselor had suggested she intern for the Malinowski campaign.  The student memorized the script along the way and by the end of the day, she was talking and engaging with the potential voters. Susan Shapiro said, “People were very patient with her and impressed that she was volunteering to do this work!”

    Susan as well as others who have been on the road say they believe in canvassing 100%.

    “It is very rewarding to see that you are getting through to people about the importance of voting, about needing checks and balances, and educating Democrats about the candidates,” Susan said. “Many don’t know [a candidate’s] positions and they appreciate me showing up to fill them in.”

  • Indivisible LNH and Bucks Together to Host Ezra Levin at Candidate Endorsement Meeting

    Indivisible LNH and Bucks Together to Host Ezra Levin at Candidate Endorsement Meeting

    Indivisible Lambertville New Hope and Bucks Together to Host Ezra Levin, Co-founder of Indivisible.org at Candidate Endorsement Meeting
    Lambertville, NJ & New Hope, Pennsylvania – Wednesday, September 12, 2018 – Indivisible Lambertville-New Hope and Bucks Together have joined forces to host Ezra Levin, co-founder of the national Indivisible organization and co-author of the Indivisible Guide. The event will be held at the Cornerstone Event Center at the Eagle Firehouse, 46 Sugan Road, New Hope, PA on Sunday, September 16, 2018.

     

    The event will celebrate the endorsement of a number of candidates at the national, state and county levels by local Indivisible organizations for the 2018 elections. The Pennsylvania candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, Scott Wallace, along with other endorsed candidates will also be in attendance.

     

    “According to the Washington Post 43% of eligible voters did not vote in 2016, and the outcome has been devastating,” said Cynthia Sternfeld, director, Indivisible Lambertville New Hope. “If we want things to change, we must get people to the voting booth. Indivisible stands as thousands of local groups inspired by Ezra Levin and the original founders, who are actively working to strengthen our Democracy, preserve civil liberties and get out the vote.”

     

    For the full list of candidates endorsed by Indivisible Lambertville-New Hope, please go here.

     

    Indivisible Lambertville New Hope is a local, grass roots volunteer organization focused on educating and uniting citizens in actions that support its core values of democracy, equality, inclusiveness, honesty and respect. The organization was founded in January, 2016 and currently has more than 1000 members.