Did Trump’s latest outrage fire you up? And how much worse that it’s practically on the eve of King’s birthday and that he signed a proclamation in King’s honor the next day. Skin-crawlingly awful, but hardly a surprise in these days when the world is turned upside-down. Do you want to sublimate your rage to the good? Excellent. Register new voters. Help people update their registration or see whether they’ve been placed on an inactive list. Help get out the vote (GOTV). There can be no better way to honor King’s memory than to help empower people.
For GOTV, there’s no need to wait for the midterms. There’s a slew of special elections coming right up, four of them on January 16 — the day after MLK Day — with flippable seats. There’s another later in January that’s a hold, and others all the way through the spring and summer. Ready2Vote lists them in chronological order
Paying attention to local races….
and 90for90 has them organized by state. Neither list is comprehensive, but both are highly useful.
We need to pay attention to local races and not — like the national Democratic Party — focus on the federal ones, and then only certain of them. I live in Virginia, and our fantastic success this past go-round should be invigorating for all. Not only do we have some stupendous people on track to be making critical decisions, but some of them will probably end up playing in the majors. This is bench-building, and we have sucked at it for a long time. That has got to end. Plus, if we’d lost, that bench-building would be happening on the other side. Today’s Republican dog-catcher is tomorrow’s Republican Congressman. Have to block their plays.
So...see if you can help out these candidates in some way. If you live in or know people in the four “January states,” call them up and spread the word. Even if they don’t live in the particular district, they may know someone who does. The ripple effect. Follow them and their supporters on Twitter and Facebook (my Twitter handle is @henricoblue) and repost their stuff or post your own (a group of us is using #FlipItBlue and #AtTheStateHouseToo as hashtags. I’ve been adding #MLKDay to perhaps give the posts renewed life on January 15). And then of course, there’s donating money — always appropriate!
The four candidates running to #FlipItBlue are:
Cindy Boatwright, SC HD-99
Rita DeJong, Iowa HD-6
Dennis Degenhardt, WI AD-58
Patty Schachtner, WI SD-10
Running to hold a seat in a January 23rd Special Election is:
Austin Davis, PA HD-35
