The U.S. Supreme Court has again threatened our freedom to vote, this time in Wisconsin. As part of their "shadow docket," the right-wing majority threw out a Wisconsin map that would have given Black voters the representation they deserve.
Now is the time to get angry, but to also build the groundwork to defend our democracy.
Wisconsin is the ultimate "tipping point" state. President Joe Biden won it by 21,000 votes in 2020, and in 2022 we have a key U.S. Senate race and an open House seat. With the state's restrictive voter ID laws designed to keep people of color, disabled people, rural populations, and older people from voting, community groups have a lot of work to do.
Your money will go far to help these groups more effectively engage their community—not just for this election, but year-round. In 2020, Daily Kos raised over $100,000 for six Wisconsin grassroots groups. In 2022, we are excited to expand this effort and support the following eight organizations that have good plans in place:
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Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) focuses on community-based organizing and face-to-face conversations to create change. Through coordinated political action and by empowering Black leaders with tools, training, and resources, BLOC works towards substantial and transformative change. Based in Milwaukee, BLOC has expanded its work to organize communities in Racine, Kenosha, and elsewhere.
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Citizen Action of Wisconsin is a membership organization dedicated to economic, racial, and environmental justice. They believe the pathway to progressive power in Wisconsin is multiracial organizing that bridges the urban, rural, and suburban divides. They have chapters across the whole state and a permanent field team that does deep canvassing.
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Hmong American Women's Association organizes Southeast Asian women, girls, and queer and trans people to champion gender justice and collective liberation in the Milwaukee area. They have expanded their work to also include civic engagement, helping to navigate Southeast Asian people through the citizenship process and voter outreach and mobilization.
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Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT) is a youth of color-led independent nonprofit. LIT engages in values-based issue and electoral organizing, direct action, advocacy for public policy, and leadership development. On campuses and communities in Milwaukee’s key geographies, they organize young people to build independent political power for social, racial, and economic justice.
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Progress North is a new organization (founded in 2020) that connects the people of northwestern Wisconsin to each other across the deep divisions of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and generation. The five counties where Progress North is active are rural, working-class parts of the state that have historically been very blue but have trended red, and where building progressive infrastructure can reverse this trend.
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Souls to the Polls Milwaukee is a coalition of 500 predominantly Black churches in the Milwaukee area to engage voter participation and advocate for issues important to the community. Founded and run by Rev. Greg Lewis, they have a plan to reach 200,000 people in this upcoming election who don't normally vote in midterm elections.
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Voces de la Frontera Action (VFLA) is a 25-year-old membership-based community group led by low-wage workers, immigrants, and youth with the mission to protect and expand civil rights and workers’ rights through leadership development, community organizing, and empowerment. Using proven methods of relational organizing, VLFA was so effective in 2020 that Republicans recently targeted them in a sham audit, but it was dropped after an outcry.
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Wisconsin Conservation Voices works to help Native American people in Wisconsin get proper representation so their voices can be heard and their land can be protected. Their Native Vote program organizes tribal communities. It significantly increased voter turnout in 2020 in the Red Cliff, Bad River, Mole Lake, Menominee, and Stockbridge communities.
Click to donate $1 to each of these Wisconsin organizations that are doing the hard work to engage front-line communities for this election and beyond.