The resistance hit municipal elections in small towns around Illinois last week, and while the areas affected are small, the hope it offers for the future is more significant:
The city of Kankakee elected its first African-American, Democratic mayor. West Deerfield Township will be led entirely by Democrats for the first time. Elgin Township voted for “a complete changeover,” flipping to an all-Democratic board. Normal Township elected Democratic supervisors and trustees to run its board ― the first time in more than 100 years that a single Democrat has held a seat.
But it’s not just Trump-era progressive enthusiasm, Jennifer Bendery reports. There’s also organizing at work:
In the case of Illinois, a number of Democrats who just won got a boost from a program launched by Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) called Build The Bench. It’s an all-day boot camp that offers nuts-and-bolts details for running a successful campaign. Bustos came up with the idea last year when she noticed a dearth of new Democratic candidates for Congress, and decided the best way to help build up her party’s ranks was at the local level.
She’s held two boot camps in her district so far ― The Huffington Post attended one of them in March ― and she’s already seeing tremendous payoff. Twelve Build The Bench alumni ran for local seats in this election cycle, and eight of them won. A ninth alum, Rita Ali, is currently down by one vote in her race for Peoria City Council.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It is so important to see Democrats organizing locally—and winning this quickly is a sweet bonus, but local organizing is also the building material for bigger wins later.
We’ve got a shot at a couple more wins coming up, in Montana, Nebraska, and Georgia. But we’ve got to fight for them all. Sign up to make calls for Jon Ossoff in Georgia—his election is Tuesday.