Category: Wins

We’re making a difference. In California’s 10th Congressional district, where SUSF has been canvassing since February, Democratic candidate Josh Harder appears to have won second place over a Republican by fewer than a thousand votes.

California’s top-two rule means that only the winner and second place finisher advance to the general election in November. We feared that we’d get locked out of key races for taking back the House. We’re still in the game – for now.

The narrow margins everywhere underscore the importance of our work in CA-10. Every vote counts.

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ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

Join the Blue Wave. There are many different ways to contribute:

• If you haven’t yet signed up for SwingLeft, do it now.
• Celebrate and raise money for our new candidate at a homebrew beer tasting in the Mission, tomorrow, Thursday June 7.
• Join the SUSF Tracy GO Team on Saturday, June 16.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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Stand Up SF General Meeting with special guest: NARAL Pro-Choice America
Sunday, June 10
2-3:30pm
Noe Valley Library, 451 Jersey St.
REGISTER NOW

Brown Bag Lunch with Feinstein Staff
Tuesday, June 19 – note new date!
10:30-11:30am
301 Mission Street, lobby area
REGISTER NOW

Fireside Chat with Pelosi Staff
Wednesday, June 27
6-7pm
Noe Valley Library Branch
REGISTER NOW

Thanks for all you do,

Rachel

As I write this, Democrat, ER doctor and mom Hiral Tipirneni has just conceded the special election in Arizona’s 8th Congressional district. Democrats should celebrate anyway. AZ-08 is a deep red district. The president won it by 21 points in 2016. Hiral Tipirneni’s campaign narrowed that margin to 5.

Here’s what the Washington Post had to say:

Democrats didn’t win in Arizona, but they didn’t need to. The 8th District is not the kind that Democrats need to win or even come close to winning to take back the House in November. About 147 GOP districts are more competitive than this one, according to a ranking by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

The New York Times put it this way:

Tuesday’s special election in Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District, in the conservative suburbs outside Phoenix, revealed the depth of Republicans’ political challenges in 2018.

And Fivethirtyeight said simply:

…the election represents another really bad data point for the GOP.

That said, as Californians, we face a special challenge in our local red district, CA-10. Our state’s top-two rule means that we could end up with two Republicans on the ballot in November.

Everything depends on the June 5 primary. We have to get out the vote.

 

ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

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Sign up for SwingLeft. Even if you’re not joining our monthly canvassing trips to Tracy there are many, many other ways to contribute to our efforts in CA-10. Every little bit helps:

• Phone banking
  Saturday, April 28, 1-5pm
  301 Grove Street, SF
• New voter registration
  Thursday, May 3, 10am
  Paramount Theater, Oakland
  (I will be one of the newly naturalized citizens!)
• Postcard party
  Saturday, May 5, 1pm
  1165 San Mateo Drive, Menlo Park

UPCOMING EVENTS

Senator Harris Office Action
Wednesday, May 2, 3-4pm
Note new location: 333 Bush Street, Suite 3325
REGISTER NOW

Fireside Chat with Pelosi Staff
Thursday, May 10, 6-7pm
Noe Valley Branch Library, 451 Jersey Street
REGISTER NOW

Brown Bag with Feinstein Staff
Friday, May 18, 12-1pm
Note new location: 301 Mission Street (lobby area)
REGISTER NOW

Stand Up SF General Meeting with special guest:
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Sunday, May 20, 2-4pm
Noe Valley Library, 451 Jersey Street
REGISTER NOW

Thanks, always, for all that you do,

Rachel

I’ve got to be honest with you. I was not expecting Conor Lamb to win the special election for PA-18. It wasn’t even supposed to be close. PA-18 is a deeply conservative district (Rick Santorum once held it), home to many coal mines, predominantly white and aging, and brutally gerrymandered. National GOP and conservative groups poured an estimated $10m into fighting Lamb. He won anyway.

Let’s see what the statistics nerds at FiveThirtyEight have to say about this result (emphasis mine):

If Democrats can win districts like Pennsylvania 18, they won’t need to stretch and scrape together a House majority. According to FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean measure, 118 Republican-held districts nationwide are less red than the Pennsylvania 18th is. Of course, the entire country is unlikely to shift 22 points to the left in November the way the 18th did — and the country may not even shift the full 17 points implied by the aggregate of special-election results — but Republicans should still be very worried.

As I write this, Lamb’s victory comes down to a 627-vote lead. Everything came down to voter turnout. Every vote counts. There is no more effective strategy to resist Trump’s agenda today than getting out the vote.

ONE THING YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

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Support our partners at SwingLeft by:

• Donating to District Funds. Everyone worries that brutal primaries in districts like CA-10 will weaken the eventual nominee. SwingLeft’s brilliant innovation is a war chest waiting for whichever candidate wins the primaries, to set them up for a challenging general election campaign.
• Signing up for the Grassroots Organizing Team in Tracy this Saturday.
• Following SwingLeft on Facebook, and sharing their posts – ESPECIALLY if you have friends and family in red districts.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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Fireside chat with Congresswoman Pelosi staff
Thursday, March 15, 6pm – 7pm
Noe Valley Library, 451 Jersey St.
REGISTER NOW

Tracy Grassroots Organizing (GO) Team
Saturday, March 17, 11am – 3pm
902 N. Central Ave. Suite 201, Tracy CA
REGISTER NOW

Stand Up SF February Meeting
Sunday, March 18, 2pm – 4pm
Noe Valley Library
REGISTER NOW

Brown bag lunch with Senator Feinstein staff
Friday, April 20, 12noon – 1pm
NEW VENUE: 301 Mission Street (lobby area)
REGISTER NOW

It’s a remarkable experience, sifting through the memories of 2017, as we take stock of what a year’s worth of resistance has taught us. Sometimes it’s seemed like Donald Trump has been intentionally working to desensitize us to bad news, generating it as he does on a daily basis.That’s why it’s crucial right now, while renewing and strengthening our resolve to continue the fight, to recognize:
There was a lot of very good news in 2017.

Here’s just some of what I mean:

• Trump’s approval rating continues to reach historic lows — even amongst those who voted for him.
• The day after the inauguration, the Women’s March on Washington demonstrated, in the largest single-day demonstration in American history (over 4 million people), that Trump’s agenda is unacceptable to the American people.
• The U.S. Senate voted down a repeal of the Affordable Care Act — not once or twice, but three times — as a direct result of constituent pressure like yours. 
• Last year’s elections yielded breathtaking wins in repudiation of the Trump agenda: Alabama’s first Democratic senator in over 25 years; governors in New Jersey and Virginia; erasing a 32-note GOP majority in the Virginia House of Delegates; Democratic wins in races in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, Montana, and Tennessee.
• Current electoral signs point to a blue wave this November!
• One week ago, a federal judge in Washington state blocked parts of the Trump administration’s travel ban that limits entry into the United States by refugees from several majority Muslim nations.
• Three of Trump’s judicial nominees withdrew their names for consideration in December after it became clear that they were not remotely qualified.
  
• Voters in Maine approved an expansion of Medicaid, in a rebuke of extreme-right Governor Paul LePage.
  
• The country is having a long-overdue conversation around the unacceptability of sexual harassment — and perpetrators are now facing the consequences of their actions. Even the GOP-held Congress and Supreme Court are taking stock of their own workings to address these abuses of power.
• The Mueller investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government is escalating — stay tuned.

Oh, and there’s one more to mention:

• The Indivisible movement and other grassroots citizen action groups have changed the face of American politics. We, the people, have claimed a stronger voice than ever before in the nation’s progress.

The tide is turning, and America is catching on and turning against the Trump con. 

We’ll need all of you to help win back Congress in 2018. As your New Year’s Resolution, pledge to step up your involvement in Stand Up San Francisco. Commit today to volunteer.

2018 promises to be a watershed year, and I’m proud to be working with you on the right side of history. We’ll be able to say that not only were we there — we were part of the solution.

Best to you and yours in the new year,
Paul