Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight Action has launched what she is calling Hot Call Summer. In order to pass the For The People Act, she needs our help to make sure our Senators know how important this legislation is to you.
Call 888-453-3211 to be connected to your Senators now.
Stacey Abrams:
We can’t wait any longer for Congress to protect Americans’ freedom to vote, which is why we need Senators to pass the For The People Act (HR1/S1). With voting rights under attack in 48 out of 50 state legislatures across the country, the moment has never been more urgent, and it will take all of us to ensure that Congress passes the voting rights protections our country and democracy desperately need. No matter where you live—blue state, red state, or somewhere in between—we need to make sure that EVERY U.S. Senator is hearing from their constituents about the urgent need to pass HR1/S1.
Today I’m launching Hot Call Summer— because in order to pass the For The People Act, we need your help to make sure our Senators know how important this legislation is to you.
Here’s what you can do right now:
No matter where you live, no matter what your Senator has already said, I need you to call your US Senators every day in June to demand that Senators pass the For The People Act to protect our freedom to vote.
Call 888-453-3211 to be connected to your Senators now – and don’t be afraid to call them daily to keep the pressure on.
Join Fair Fight Action’s text bank days of action on June 11, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22 and 23 to ask voters in key states to call their Senators about the For The People Act. If you have not already attended Fair Fight’s text training on our new text platform, Impactive, sign up for a training here for everything you’ll need to join one of these text banks.
Join me and special guests throughout June for virtual events across the country to share the importance of passing the For The People Act.
Southern Town Hall
June 10, 8pm EST/7pm CST
With Congresswoman Nikema Williams and special guests
REGISTERNortheast and Midwest Town Hall
June 14, 8pm EST
With special guests TBA
REGISTERSouthwest Town Hall
June 17, 9pm EST, 6 pm MST, 6 pm PDT
With Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, Nevada Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson and special guests
REGISTERSign up, call, and share with your networks — together, we can ensure that the For The People Act is passed, and that voters across the country have their freedom to vote protected from Republican attacks.
Thank you for all that you do,
Stacey Abrams
Come on guys, let’s do this. Every single day.
If you call, you get to watch this beautiful video.
Open thread.
Update from dww44 in the comments:
According to Lauren Groh-Wargo on last night’s LOD show, Stacey’s former campaign manager and the CEO of Fair Fight Action, our calling is to counter the volume of anti We the People Act calls that all the Senators are receiving. To let our Senators know that we support passage of the bill.
trnc
Is calling better than faxing? I usually send by FaxZero so that the actual message is on record, not just a record of the call.
Omnes Omnibus
@trnc: I like calling the friendlies. I like to say thank you to the staffers.
H.E.Wolf
In case it’s helpful, here’s a list of phone numbers for the Washington DC offices of all current US Senators. (I checked my own Senators’ numbers and those are correct.)
https://contactsenators.com/senator-phone-numbers
Joy in FL
I just called and left voicemails for my two Republican Florida senators. I will do that every day. If Stacy Abrams asks me to jump, my reply is how high.
I’m signed up for the event at 8pm this evening for Fair Fight. It is the Southern Town Hall.
H.E.Wolf
Yes, so do I! They’re usually astounded by a kind word. :)
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf: Thanks for that information!
Also, if you click on Contact Your Elected Officials under Do Something! in the sidebar, there are other ways to contact them, say if your Senator’s voicemail says to use their website to contact them.
WaterGirl
@Joy in FL: Let us know how it goes at the Southern Town Hall,
The link to register for the Southern Town Hall is in the thread up top.
Another Scott
I like it. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
Be on the lookout for the Q & A with Voces de la Frontera Action – hopefully one evening next week, the exact date hasn’t been decided on yet.
They are Wisconsin’s leading state-wide immigrant rights organization, and the second boots-on-the-ground group that we have asked to come talk to us about how we can help.
The votes they turned out in 2020 were more than the margin of victory in Georgia.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I love that!
Or, alternatively, the bill could be called the “not one fucking Republican voted for this jobs bill”. And insist that the press make them use that.
Woodrow/asim
@trnc: Faxing is more likely, in my experience, to get a response, but I doubt anyone wants to fax every damn day. :)
The point Abrams and others are making is to be consistent. How you shape that consistent engagement is your call.
trnc
@Woodrow/asim: I don’t care about a response. I mean that a phone call is logged and the staffer for my repub senators will say “Thanks for calling,” but my actual comment gets memory holed. The fax is a tangible record of what I said.
ETA: But I do get the consistency, as you mentioned.
WaterGirl
You can use this as an open thread, also. I just wanted to get the word out.
rikyrah
Thank you, Ms. Abrams.
cain
I will call my two awesome senators about this.
The Dangerman
Live in the Peoples Republic of California. We have sane Senators here. I’ll let their phone staff rest.
I would have gone with Apocolyptica and “Nothing Else Matters” but that’s just me.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman: They’ll be happy to hear voices of support.
UncleEbeneezer
I will signal boost this today/tomorrow when I’m back at computer.
Tom Levenson
I’m not going to call Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey every day. A) what would I say after day two or three and (b) see “a”.
I might check in every couple of weeks, but their staffs are busy and I want them to do what needs to be done.
Soprano2
She wants me to call Josh Hawley and Roy Blunt every day? Pardon me if I think that would be a waste of my time. I understand the idea, but whoo boy…..they’d probably start hanging up on me after the 3rd or 4th day. Caller ID, you know.
Alison Rose
I’m in California and thus have senators I can trust (well……………mostly, in the case of DiFi), but I’d be happy to call just to give them the nudge. Does anyone have a basic sample script that would work? I have a feeling if I called without one, I’d end up saying something like “We have to do this because fuck Mitch McConnell” and I don’t want to curse at the poor staffers.
AM in NC
I’ve been calling Burr and Tillis about this for months, but today I got an actual person in Burr’s local office. We got into a 10 minute-long shouting match about voting rights that ended with me telling the jackass on the other end of the line that we see exactly who they are and what they are doing.
He fucking tried to say that Democrats have also been against voting rights in the past, so it isn’t a Republican thing – at which point I said, yeah, Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmon, etc. who all became Republican as soon as LBJ got the Civil and Voting Rights acts through. Don’t try to gaslight me, you historically-ignorant authoritarian, racist, POS. Good lord, I hate these people.
Joy in FL
@WaterGirl: I will post tomorrow about tonight’s Southern Town Hall : )
WaterGirl
@Tom Levenson: @Soprano2:
You are the first two to say this, so this isn’t directed at you specifically, so consider his is my reply to anyone who might be having the same thought as you.
For what it’s worth, I think the request to call every day is to influence the senators who already support it in addition to influencing the ones that don’t.
If the good blue senators are getting calls every single day from supporters, the message is that this is super important to their constituents.
Let’s just say that 5,000 people are wiling to make calls because they support this.
There are 21 days left in June. If those let’s say those 5,000 people call a senator once a week, that’s 15,000 total calls to a good, blue senator. If those 5,000 people do as Stacey Abrams asked, and call every day, that’s 105,000 total calls.
You don’t think that 105,000 calls will light a fire under even the best blue senators?
Everyone makes their own decisions, but on this, I will defer to Stacey Abrams. She is not new to the game, and I believe that she knows more than I do in this arena. Without Stacey Abrams, we wouldn’t have Georgia. She thinks it will help – and if that’s what she thinks, I can make 42 phone calls in June.
To make up the time I spend, I can skip writing 42 comments on BJ about how this bill will never pass.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: Keep it short and sweet, so you don’t waste your time, or theirs. All they do is make a checkmark in a column, paper or virtual – who knows which.
I think all you need to say is the part that’s in bold/black:
I am calling to demand that Senators pass the For The People Act to protect our freedom to vote.
You can say more if you want, but it’s really that simple.
James E Powell
@trnc:
It’s very old school, but letters have the most impact because they require the most effort.
JoyceH
Okay, I’m taking the open thread option here, because something is bugging me. There’s news stories about Wray refusing to say whether the FBI is or is not investigating Trump for inciting the Jan 6 riot. And that reminded me of something that’s seemed hinky to me since that day.
On Jan 6, like just about everybody, I was glued to the television. And I distinctly remember, while the insurrectionists were still in control of the building, a reporter doing one of those live standups in front of the White House and saying something like, “My sources in the White House are telling me that the protesters are planning to spend the night in the Capitol building.” And I thought, ‘Say WHAT?’
And then the police retook the building and the story moved on, and I’ve never heard that mentioned again. Which is weird, because that sure sounded to me like someone in the White House was in some form of communications with at least some of the people who’d stormed the Capitol and were currently inside. Wouldn’t that be a story worth following up?
Did anyone else hear that ‘sources in the White House’ mention? Did I dream it?
karen marie
@H.E.Wolf: I have mine on speed dial.
Calling Sinema’s office is infuriating because you can’t speak to a staffer, you get dumped straight into voicemail, and half the time it’s full.
I called and left her a message about the For The People Act today, and I also called Mark Kelly’s office about it.
Suzanne
Why the fuck are COVID cases going up in Texas, Montana, Washington?!
Gin & Tonic
My dear wife likes to have CNN on as background noise. I could have sworn I just heard “Jeffrey Toobin is up next.” Isn’t he the jerk-off-on-live-video guy? Rehabilitated already?
Minstrel Michael
I’m a Masshole, so my senators are Warren and Markey, and like Tom Levenson I believe I can trust them to do the right thing. If Abrams is on a first-name basis with Ed and can assure me that his is a spine that needs straightening, then okay, I’ll call.
What could really help, in my extremely naive opinion, is 25,000 people of voting age from Cambridge and Newton and Provincetown very visibly moving to Wyoming. Or maybe West Virginia.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: I often confuse Jeff Toobin and Jonathan Turley. Not that Turley is much better.
Another Scott
@JoyceH: I remember tweet(s) like that. Jim Acosta at CNN 4:22 PM on 1/6:
“potential disruption” Wow.
And such brave anonymous sources, aids, and advisers!!
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
MisterForkbeard
Since it’s an OT… my 19 year old cat Thule is checking out today.
She’s been sick the past few days. Mostly stopped eating last night. This morning she had barely touched her water and had gotten her back all wet from something. I made an appointment with the vet and am taking her in to ease her suffering in a couple hours.
I don’t know what else to say. She doesn’t have any energy and never was that affectionate, but she saw me bawling as I was making the appointment and came over to snuggle me and help me feel better. Can’t do much more than just sit with her now and wait, giving her as many scritches as she wants.
I just needed to tell someone and I feel like this place of all places would understand.
JoyceH
@Minstrel Michael:
What would really help would be for manufacturers of electric car batteries and wind turbine blades to open plants in the red states, stick wind farms up on the heights of the Appalachians. The disgruntled coal miners might not turn into environmentalists, but their kids would. Why pine away for dirty dangerous jobs deep down in a hole when you can make as much money working above-ground like civilized people?
James E Powell
@Minstrel Michael:
It’s good to be confident that your senators are with you on Issue.
It’s even better to let your senators know that Issue X is important to you.
We want them saying, “I’d like to get moving on other things, but my constituents are hammering me every day on the For the People Act.”
JoyceH
@MisterForkbeard:
When they stop eating, they’re ready to go. I lost two 18-year old brothers last year to kidney failure. When I took one in to the vet, the vet tech took one look at him and said, “He wants to die.” Doesn’t make it easier, of course…
Baud
@MisterForkbeard: I’m sorry.
Another Scott
@MisterForkbeard: It’s hard. :-(
Condolences to you and to all who love her.
Best wishes,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: I am pretty sure you didn’t dream that! I never heard anything like that on 1/6, but I was watching online rather than on TV, I think.
WaterGirl
@karen marie: Thank you for making the calls.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Maybe he wrote “I will not jerk off on zoom or live TV, 500 times, and they figure he is all good now.
JoyceH
@WaterGirl:
I’m pretty sure it was a female reporter. If I could just remember who it was, I’d e-mail them and ask, “WTF?”
Old School
@MisterForkbeard: My condolences. It’s always tough.
We need more posts about people getting new pets. There have been too many sad pet posts lately.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: I don’t have twitter, but maybe you could get someone with twitter to tweet at a reporter from that station. Do you know if you would have been watching CNN or MSNBC?
Pretty sure it wasn’t FOX!
Soprano2
@MisterForkbeard: I’m so sorry, that’s tough. I had a cat who wasn’t that affectionate – he might lay next to you on the couch, and even put his head on your thigh, but he didn’t want to be in your lap. He was the coolest cat, but he went outside because I couldn’t keep him in; when he died I was devastated. It’s so hard to do, but when they get that sick the best we can do is ease their suffering by not prolonging it. {{{hugs}}} to you.
JoyceH
@WaterGirl: I kept switching between CNN and MSNBC. So not sure which station I was on.
WaterGirl
@Minstrel Michael: If you are interested, my take on that is at #24.
Maybe I’m just cranky today, but it surprises me that so many people think they know better than Stacey Abrams on this. :-)
There’s a reason Stacey Abrams wrote this part:
Betty
@JoyceH: And miss out on Black Lung Disease.
Cermet
wow, a lighting bolt hit very near our house and my girlfriend saw balled lighting. She was ‘shocked’ having never heard of it. The phenomena really rocked the house.
Once, many years ago I and a group of people witnessed balled lighting. When it ends, it is very loud.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tom Levenson: I usually call Baldwin no more than once a week. She’s a good ‘un so I don’t want to be a pain, but do want let her know that it matters. Johnson, fuck him, I’ll annoy his staff everyday.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Your way of spelling cowards is much more polite than mine.
WaterGirl
@MisterForkbeard: So sorry to hear that.
It sounds like you think this is the end of the road, but they can tell a lot from blood tests, so hopefully they can figure out what’s up while you are there.
It might not be the end of the road. Either way, it’s so hard.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: Unless they have a tummy upset going on. My Tucker didn’t want to eat much for 3 days, and then he was fine.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: Another Scott finds the answer, once again!
WaterGirl
@Cermet: I have never heard of that, and I have certainly never seen it. Sounds scary.
karen marie
@MisterForkbeard: You have my sincere sympathy. It’s a hard decision to make, and the empty house afterward is a difficult place.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: Got it, thanks
Alison Rose
@MisterForkbeard: I’m so sorry. This is very similar to my kitty Zoe last October. When they stop wanting to eat or drink, I think that’s their way of telling us they’re ready. But it definitely doesn’t mean WE will ever be ready. It’s the hardest thing ever, but know that you are doing the right thing for her <3
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: No, its the end. She’s been trending downward for awhile but we’d hoped to keep her happy for another 6 months or so. its not a surprise, at least.
Thank all of you for your compassion. I’m feeling a little Better. Letting Thule rest for a bit and talking to my young kids about it. Its… oddly gratifying that the girls are so upset. Thule knows she’s loved. The other cat is also upset – for all that he’s a jerk to her sometimes he knows what’s coming too. Lots of (gentle) hugs and scritches now. Many hugs from me to you folks here.
Brachiator
@MisterForkbeard:
Very sad news.
My condolences to you and your family.
WaterGirl
@MisterForkbeard: I’m so sorry, MisterForkbeard. It’s so hard.
Tears.
Gin & Tonic
@MisterForkbeard: Good you’re there for it. When it was time for our last cat to go, we were something like 6,000 miles away.
TomatoQueen
I am so sorry that Thule is saying goodbye. It is wonderful, though, to think of bringing a cat to the age of 19. That’s a good long life. Soft scritches to her.
Thule on the Bridge!
Omnes Omnibus
I just called a couple of Baldwin’s numbers and got voicemail at each one. That is unusual. This campaign might be working.
If I had gotten through, I was going to mention Stacey Abrams and calling every day and say that I was perfectly willing to do that if need be. I would expect that the mere threat of multiple calls from me would stiffen even the weakest spine. As it was, I left a message about the importance of passing the FTPA and asking that she use any influence she might have with any recalcitrant senators.
Now Johnson.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you, Omnes!
Kathleen
@MisterForkbeard: I am so sorry. {{{{{}}}}}} Holding you in light.
Raven
@MisterForkbeard: Hang in there, you’re doing a good thing.
Kathleen
I called Rob Portman’s DC office yesterday and today and talked to a staffer both times. I also said I would be calling every day. I emailed Sherrod Brown to ask him his perspective about passage of this bill and told him I don’t trust that beltway political media’s take is truthful. I requested a follow up email.
Delk
And another shooting.
Elizabelle
@MisterForkbeard: Go easily, Thule. She is telling you “thanks for all the fish.”
My condolences. You have had Thule a long time.
Elizabelle
@Delk: ???
Jinchi
Congratulations to Zahid Quraishi, but how is it possible that we’ve never had a Muslim American federal judge before today?
Mike in NC
@MisterForkbeard: Condolences about you little friend.
Delk
@Elizabelle: publix in Florida. 3 dead. 2 victims and the shooter.
Steeplejack
@MisterForkbeard:
So sorry to hear this. You have my condolences.
Elizabelle
@Delk: Just found that. Meh. Thursday in America. Sad. Wholly expected, alas.
Also at top of the CNN website: yes, they have allowed Jeffrey Toobin back on the air.
Elizabelle
@Delk: Royal Palm Beach, FL. Inside the Publix.
Chances are it was not the child (a toddler) … domestic violence? We will know soon enough.
Joy in FL
@MisterForkbeard: I am so sorry. You have to do it, but it’s so hard. Maybe you will feel her relief as her pain ends.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MisterForkbeard: I’ve been through this twice in the last four months, it’s never easy.
Cameron
@Elizabelle: Wow. Last I heard he had a reality show, “Tubin’ with Toobin,” on…what’s that wingnut station? ONAN?
Omnes Omnibus
Called Johnson. Had a polite interaction with the staffer. Ended up with me saying I strongly disagreed with the Senator and would be working and raising money to make sure he was not re-elected. Then we both politely said goodbye.
Soprano2
I would bet you $100 on this. I would be at least $50 that it will be “estranged” somehow. It’s a way too common pattern – if he can’t have her, no one else can either.
dww44
@WaterGirl:
Thanks for this. If one has to miss the Southern call, do you know if one can register for one of the others, even if it is out of one’s geographical area?
dww44
@WaterGirl:
According to Lauren Groh-Wargo on last night’s LOD show, Stacey’s former campaign manager and at the top of the Fair Fight Action group, our calling is to counter the volume of anti We the People Act calls that all the Senators are receiving. To let our Senators know that we support passage of the bill.
Kay
@AM in NC:
Ask him why the 2006 Senate vote to reauthorize the VRA was 98-0 and now we can’t even get 10 GOP Senators to support the John Lewis voting rights bill.
The entire Republican Party has gone aggressively and completely anti voting rights and the public deserves an explanation as to why that is.
The John Lewis bill restores the federal protections their radical activist justices, legislating from the bench, gutted. That’s all it does. None of them will support it.
Madeleine
I just called both Senators Gillibrand and Schumer to say that I think it’s urgent, really crucial, that the Senate pass the FTPA. For the first time in ages, I got a person at Gillibrand’s office & could thank them. Schumer’s local voicemail was full but available in DC.
WaterGirl
@dww44: I don’t actually know, but it’s all virtual, so I don’t know why not. When I looked back at the info up top, I noticed this detail:
…If you have not already attended Fair Fight’s text training on our new text platform, Impactive, sign up for a training here for everything you’ll need to join one of these text banks.
So maybe click the link and see what happens? I am guessing that would give you a connection to someone who could answer your questions.
WaterGirl
@dww44: That’s super helpful. I added that information as an update to the post itself.
WaterGirl
Thanks to everyone who is making calls. Keep it up! This fight is for everything. Just like it was in 2020. And then like the GA runoffs were.
James E Powell
According to twitter, my senior senator does not believe democracy is under any threat.
Sternly worded letter on its way to Senator Feinstein.
Jinchi
@Woodrow/asim:
Wow! That really says a lot about the technical skills of our modern Congress.
James E Powell
@Jinchi:
A: Can I fax it to you?
B: No, we don’t have fax here.
A: Really? Where are you?
B: The 21st century.
WaterGirl
@James E Powell: I am pretty sure you were able hear my sigh when I read that, wherever you are.
Feinstein has lost the plot. People close to her need to tell her some hard truths.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: Faces are making a comeback. The are considered more secure than email.
something fabulous
@James E Powell: WHAT?!?! I also was (quietly) in the camp of “Surely OUR Senators don’t need a call!” Just goes to show, no questioning the wisdom of Stacy (and WaterGirl!)!!!
On it. thanks for the heads-up!
KSinMA
@AM in NC: Good for you!
J R in WV
@MisterForkbeard:
Sorry to hear about Thule, which is a great name. Sometimes they let us know when it’s time.
Take care of yourself, too!