Joan’s Cafe has been phone banking since the Georgia Senate races. They have great support for first-timers and also welcome those with experience.
Saturday S1 Phone-Bank, 7/24
4-6pm Eastern / 1-3pm Pacific
There will be two different S1 campaigns to choose from:
1. For the People Act (S1), WV: Call West Virginia voters to patch them through to the office of US Senator Manchin, to urge him to co-sponsor the For the People Act (as he did in 2019):
click here to prepare for West Virginia campaign
2. For the People Act (S1), AZ: Call Arizona voters to patch them through to the office of US Senator Sinema, to urge her to modify the filibuster so that the For the People Act can pass:
click here to prepare for Arizona campaign
To register for Saturday:
Step 1: Click here to register for Sat (via Mobilize)
Step 2: Please spread the word, e.g. post it on your Facebook page
Step 3: Look for a confirmation email from Mobilize, entitled:
You’re signed up! “Share Joan’s Democracy Cafe Phone-Bank”
Step 4: Look for “Add to Calendar” to add this event to your calendar
Step 5: You can join the Zoom meeting in two different ways:
The fight for S1 is on
Late June’s vote on S1 was the starting gun in a sprint. If you remember Manchin's op-ed from early June (when he said he wouldn’t support S1), you realize that this procedural vote was a success: all 50 Democrats voted in favor of S1. Now, the Senate is holding field hearings on S1 in Georgia, where they're taking testimony from people who will be disenfranchised by Georgia's new voter-suppression law. During the July recess (June 28th - July 10th), Indivisible held press-worthy events in more than 30 states, in a campaign called Deadline for Democracy. We need to keep up the pressure on Manchin and Sinema to "do what it takes” to get S1 passed.
Senator Jeff Merkley, who introduced S1 in the Senate, has said that it’s important to call all Senators, even the ones who have stated that they support changing the filibuster to enable passing S1. This way, more Senators will speak up in the Democratic caucus meetings, telling their colleagues that their phones are ringing off the hook for S1.
Ain’t it great that the Center for Common Ground created a campaign to do just that, and more: When you text DEMOCRACY to 33339, you’ll get daily texts to connect you to your senator’s office. Stacey Abrams tweeted about this campaign, and then pinned the tweet to the top of her profile, which triggered hundreds of new signups. When we call voters in Arizona and West Virginia, we’re now encouraging them to sign up for this service.
If Texas Democrats can flee their state on the turn of a dime to protect the right to vote, we can join a Zoom phone bank from the comfort of our own home and make calls to help pass the For the People Act. I mean really. Just sayin’.
So, you ask, why bother?? One of our new phone bankers reported this story: An intern in my Senator's office told me, "I'm telling you this as myself, not as an intern in this office but between you and me please, please, please keep calling and tell everyone you know to keep calling. The Senator has moved on filibuster reform based on all of the calls coming in about the urgency of voting rights."
