As I write in “Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual,” so much changes once you see that we are in a battle over democracy itself, as opposed to a more simple battle over federal office.
Two important things that dramatically change are: 1) the map of that battle, and where you wage it; and 2) the timeframe of that battle, and when you wage it.
And when it comes to elections, what has generally been an every-two-year struggle in a narrow set of swing states becomes a far more continuous set of elections across far broader territory.
Watch the video above for more details on this. But to lay out the “democracy calendar” of the recent past, it looks like this:
August, 2023: Kansas special election
November, 2023 (beyond federal): Secretary of State and statehouse elections in numerous states
April, 2023: Wisconsin Supreme Court election
Now, what’s interesting is that when you look at this recent history, the democracy side is enjoying a nice little (and counter-cyclical) winning streak with enormous consequences.
Why?
Because pro-democracy champions around the country are starting to see that certain elections that aren’t federal elections—on dates and for offices and in places we have often overlooked—are critical for our democracy, and they’re getting more and more activated around these moments.
And there’s also a growing, bottom-up infrastructure that is playing a crucial role in channeling that new energy into direct support (volunteering, messaging, support) for these efforts. And it’s working…whether it’s statehouse pick-ups (Penn. or Michigan) or multiple defeats of election-denying Sec of State candidates in ‘22, or that momentous Wisconsin win in April. Those were national, pro-democracy victories!
Now our challenge is to keep scaling up that success as we hit the middle of ‘23 and start rolling into ‘24.
And what does that democracy calendar look like going forward? In the very near-term, it looks like this:
August, 2023: special election, Ohio
November, 2023: Virginia and other statehouses; Kentucky and other governor races; reproductive rights referendum, Ohio; school boards and local, etc
More broadly, as I lay out in the book, it looks like this:
Bottom line, not only is the democracy calendar the one we should be focused on, but recent history shows that if we do so, we can keep building on our pro-democracy win streak.
So, the next big battle on the calendar is Ohio’s Issue 1—a lawless attempt to further rig Ohio’s democracy against the majority and reforms that would protect abortion access and future anti-gerrymandering initiatives, among other things. We need to view this in the exact same way as the Wisconsin Court race and the Kansas special election.
Which means if you’re able to help the effort here in Ohio on Issue 1–joining many who already are helping—there are so many ways you can pitch in:
An organization I am part of, Forward Justice, will be using the dollars we raise to give directly to the “No on Issue 1” campaign. So you can give to that by giving here:
To make calls from anywhere, or knock on doors, you can sign up here:
To write postcards to Ohio voters, sign up here:
If you have other ways you can help, let me know. It all helps!
Then after we win this in Ohio and keep our winning streak alive, let’s roll into November and keep going.
I’ll provide ways to help there in future emails.
STAY ON OFFENSE.
The Democracy Calendar…