Meet Joanna Cattanach, she’s a teacher, a mom, and a community advocate.
She’s also the Democrat ready to help win a new day for Team Blue in Texas.
In 2018 she narrowly lost to her Republican opponent in her East Dallas House District 108 that Beto O’Rourke carried by 15 points.
As reported in the Hill last May, in 2020 Cattanach and her fellow Democrats are aiming to change that outcome, and in doing so, make big change in the State of Texas.
You can help.
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I first learned about Joanna and her campaign via an organization called Sister District.
I’d highly recommend that you take a spin on that website.
You see, as election day draws near, there’s not much us small fry can do to impact the Presidential race or even the big U.S. Senate contests.
But our volunteer time and our small donations sure can make one hell of a difference when it comes to state legislatures.
And this year, in 2020, State Legislatures are exactly where it’s at.
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Redistricting power is at stake in the 2020 election.
With the 2020 Census and subsequent redistricting coming up in 2021, Democrats are in a nationwide battle to turn back Republican gerrymandering, vote suppression and general “Trump-loving insanity,” for the next decade.
And that battle is being waged in legislative district’s exactly like Joanna Cattanach’s East Dallas 108.
That’s where organizations like Sister District (and other great orgs and outfits I’ll introduce in future diaries) come in.
Across the country, grassroots activists of goodwill are coming together, realizing the stakes of what’s to come, and are pooling their energy and efforts to help defeat Republicans in the very state legislative districts which the GOP manipulated to get us into this Trump mess.
And it doesn’t take an overactive imagination to realize that $25, $50, or $100 goes a lot further when applied to local politics.
Having been there and done it myself, I can attest to the fact that your late, small dollar donations can move mountains in a hotly-contested state legislative race.
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Last week I shared that this is my focus for the rest of the election cycle.
It’s true.
That’s why I’ve set up an ActBlue page where we can pool our efforts and give to organizations like Sister District and directly to campaigns like Joanna Cattanach’s. (I’ll be adding more in the coming weeks.)
That’s why I’m going to keep blogging here and keep introducing stories like Joanna’s.
Let me tell you why.
We don’t have a dime, one second or one activist to lose.
And forty years of political experience that took me from Concord, New Hampshire to Omaha, Nebraska to West Oakland, California has taught me one thing clear as day.
When the chips are down, get local.
Local is at the core, the root of American politics.
And local is where everyday people, like you, like me, and like the people Joanna is fighting for in Texas House District 108 build the power to make change, one district at a time.
Please join me, and tell a friend while you’re at it.
