A quick 🧵 on what's going on w/r/t to school boards & what you can do to help (spoiler: Run for office at or chip in at https://t.co/Wwnck6vwXj) /1runforwhat.net
runforsomething.net/donate In the last few decades + especially last 3 years, the GOP has invested big to win school & library board elections – "grassroots" orgs like Moms for Liberty & 1776 PAC along w/ establishments like Leadership Institute are recruiting & supporting candidates, all funded by mega$.

Joe Biden should absolutely be re-elected - and I’m ready to go all-in for him! Finish the job!

However: His victory alone won’t solve all our problems, and Democrats can’t pretend otherwise. A quick-ish ~thread~ on what I mean: To save democracy, build sustainable power, and make people’s lives better, fighting for & winning the presidency is necessary, but it’s also simply not enough.

It feels like a good day to invest in state & local candidates -- so real quick, a thread with 5 different groups of @runforsomething leaders you can support with one quick donation each... @runforsomething (1) We've got 27 amazing @runforsomething candidates running for school board & education-related offices across the country. The right is doing everything they can to take over these critical offices & shape what kids learn (or don't learn). Chip in now. secure.actblue.com/donate/edu2022…

Saying it again and again and again: It will only take a handful of anti-democracy county commissioners or clerks to lay the groundwork to undermine the entire election. cnn.com/2022/05/31/pol…

https://twitter.com/amandalitman/status/1531953811413028864

If you want to support Clerk Work, @runforsomething’s effort to save democracy one local office at a time, chip in. Every single dollar matters. secure.actblue.com/donate/clerkwo…

Today @runforsomething is announcing Clerk Work, our $80 million 3-year plan to save democracy from the ground up by recruiting & supporting 5,000+ candidates for local offices in charge of election administration.

@ec_schneider has the details:
politico.com/news/2022/04/1… @runforsomething @ec_schneider If that’s all you need to hear and you’re ready to help, you can sign up to run at runforwhat.net

And/or make a donation to help grow this program: runforsomething.net/donate

(If you need more, buckle in. Per usual, I've got more!)

With the failure of federal voting rights legislation, it will be tempting to say "welp, democracy's fucked, I'm out." I get it! I'm furious too!

But there's still a path to saving this thing. Bear with me for a ~thread~. /1 TL;DR: We need *thousands* of people who care about democracy to run for local election administrator jobs. Filing deadlines start hitting in March. @runforsomething will help you figure it all out.

Sign up: runforwhat.net
Help us recruit: runforsomething.net/donate
/2

I get it - the VA results are rough & NJ being so close just feels bad. But some good things happened yesterday, too! A quick thread on a few of the 115 (& counting!) @runforsomething winners to brighten your mood... @runforsomething Cleveland overwhelmingly elected 34-year old non-profit exec @BibbForCLE as its next mayor in the first open mayoral election in decades. Justin didn't just win -- he won big. cleveland.com/cityhall/2021/…

This week there are 271 @runforsomething-endorsed candidates on the ballot, including folks in CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, IA, KS, MA, MI, MN, MS, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, PA, SC, TX, VA, & WA. rfsfeelgoodupdates.substack.com/p/rfs-feel-goo… @runforsomething Of the 271 @runforsomething candidates running tmrw: 50% are women; 6 are non-binary. 50% are BIPOC. 33% identify as LGBTQIA+. 11% are running for education jobs, 4% for state leg, 1% for legal positions, & 81% are running for municipal offices. rfsfeelgoodupdates.substack.com/p/rfs-feel-goo…

Republican investment in school boards is surging, proof point #3:

https://twitter.com/theferocity/status/1455149604471717888?s=21

https://twitter.com/amandalitman/status/1453805327233822728

Republican investment in school boards races is surging, proof point #4.

roanoke.com/news/local/edu…

Our @runforsomething regional directors are on the road this week supporting candidates with the final GOTV push. Whatever they need, we’re there to help. 💪

https://twitter.com/dillongherna/status/1453479194453848070

An update from PA:

https://twitter.com/mannyfornh/status/1453458433835929605?s=21

Next week, 271 @runforsomething candidates are on the ballot. Help build sustainable progressive power from the ground up -- a quick ~thread~ on how you can volunteer for a few of these amazing campaigns no matter where you live... @runforsomething In Virginia: @JK4Delegate is running to bring affordable health care & broadband internet to her rural community. Make calls now: mobilize.us/jenniferkitche…

If Dems focus all the $$ & attention on federal elections & issues, we'll miss what's happening in plain sight: The worst parts of the GOP are running for & could win local office, destroy public education (among many other things), & build a credible bench for the future. These folks are going to run in places Democrats don't have strong infrastructure; they're going to be in deep red communities that might not be in top-of-ticket battleground states.

A ~thread~ on some of the ways @runforsomething alum across the country have been pushing back & calling out the bullshit as the GOP has tried to control & whitewash what kids are learning...

https://twitter.com/amandalitman/status/1404813765787406336

@runforsomething In GA, Gwinnett School Board chair
@evertonblairjr notes: "What we have seen so far is I think an attempt to make a bogeyman out of a theory that is both not being taught & at best would allow us to introspect & figure out what stories are not being told." fox5atlanta.com/news/whats-nex…

~74% of all local elections in Nov. 2020 were uncontested.

Broken down by type of office:
-66% of county leg races
-74% of county sheriff races
-59% of city council races
-64% of mayor/city exec races
-62% of school board races
-84% of judicial races

civicengine.com/blog/nothing-t… Two-thirds of the uncontested elections were in partisan races.

Of those partisan elections, 74% of the candidates going unopposed were Republicans.

This is (one of many reasons) why @runforsomething exists.

civicengine.com/blog/nothing-t…

The Democratic Party's failure to meaningfully invest in state & local elections at the same level as federal elections over the last decade is wrecking us.

We can make a come back, but it'll be hard, take time, & requires starting the work NOW. politico.com/news/2021/05/1… I am as sick of repeating myself as you are of seeing it in your timeline. But the calls I've had over the last few months in which (a) folks are still resting from 2020 or (b) they want to focus on federal issues has got me losing my damn mind. This can't wait!

Help me prove something to @RossMoRock, perpetual doubter — how much can we raise on Twitter today to build sustainable power for Democrats? Every donation before midnight gets doubled. secure.actblue.com/donate/rfs?ref…

https://twitter.com/runforsomething/status/1355908055075057664

He thinks on a snowy Sunday, we can only raise $500 - but I know you’re all amped about the 5,000+ ppl who’ve signed up to @runforsomething in 2021 alone & the nearly 500 ppl (mostly women & BIPOC leaders) we’ve elected. Make @RossMoRock look silly. 😜 secure.actblue.com/donate/rfs?ref…

We're keeping track of state & local elected officials who participated in the insurrection. If you want to run against them (or if they resign -- as they should! -- & there's a special election), @runforsomething will help you. runforwhat.net

A thread.../1 West Virginia: Derrick Evans, who has already resigned from the WV House of Delegates. /2 nytimes.com/2021/01/09/us/…

Ossoff is going be the first millennial Senator, joining a chamber with “an average age of 63 and five octogenarians—it will be seven later this year.” fortune.com/2021/01/06/jon… It’s worth flagging that the next youngest senator is absolute piece of shit Josh Hawley. He (and Madison Cawthorn, etc) are the kind of young talent the GOP is cultivate. They’re the bench.

A Democratic government is going to have less than two years to deliver huge meaningful progress that people can feel.

There is no such thing as limited capital here: Do as many good things as possible, then talk about it around the clock. Rebuild the brand of “government.” Important to note this is a two-part mandate: It won’t be enough to just do good!

Democrats have to do good AND take credit for the good. All the time. Endlessly. Until it’s boring for those of us On Here. That’s when we know it’ll break through.

In the last @runforsomething feel-good update of 2020, I lay out a few of this year's (many!) accomplishments that I'm particularly proud of... /1 rfsfeelgoodupdates.substack.com/p/rfs-feel-goo… The @runforsomething candidate pipeline grew from 45,000 at the beginning of the year to now 65,000+ young people who’ve said they want to run for office (and 2000+ of those folks have signed up since Election Day 2020!!!) /2

Just an idea: If you were an organizer on a campaign this year, you should consider running for local office. Organizers have the skills, network, and work ethic to make for great candidates. @runforsomething will help you. runforwhat.net Ditto for all volunteers, whether you were working IRL or on a distributed team. And ditto anyone who organized their friends into doing calls/texts, or ran a giving circle, or stood up a mutual aid program. You should all consider running. We’ll help you: runforwhat.net