Archives for 2024

Does it seem strange to talk about the accomplishments of one of the boots on the ground organizations we partner with, as we raise money for a different group?  Not to me!

We try to fund groups when they can put our funds to best use, and then we get reports later, often when we are funding someone else.

This is the kind of difference we make with our fundraising efforts on Balloon Juice.

(We still have the double matches that The Civics Center found us, and we still have a BJ Angel, matching up to $250 per person, which gives us a 6x match for as long as this Balloon Juice Angel match lasts.)

Now, the update from Worker Power!

We want to share the recent victories you have helped us achieve in Arizona, the swing state that will decide the outcome of one of the most contentious elections in our nation’s history.

First, we are proud to announce that earlier this month, we submitted sufficient signatures to place a Hotel Workers Protection Act on the November ballot in the City of Glendale, Arizona. This initiative aims to create a minimum $20 wage for hospitality workers, limit the number of square feet a room attendant can be required to clean in a single shift, and ensure that service charges levied by hotels are actually given to the hotel staff. This historic measure would represent a significant intervention for workers in one of Arizona’s fastest-growing hospitality markets. Rather than accepting these signatures and placing the measure on the ballot, the City of Glendale officials have refused to accept the signatures on the basis that our initiative breaks the single-subject rule for citizens’ initiatives in Arizona. Fortunately, we won the first round of litigation, and pending a successful appeal by the city in the next two weeks, we are headed to the ballot in November!

Second, we delivered a victory (by fewer than 50 votes) for Lupe Conchas to the City Council in Glendale’s Cactus district. Lupe took out a conservative white incumbent who has represented this majority-democrat, majority-Latino district for over 20 years. Lupe is the first LGBTQ council member in Glendale’s history.

Third, Worker Power finished a partisan voter registration drive where we successfully collected 6,552 voter registration applications among young people and communities of color in Arizona’s Congressional Districts 1 and 6, which Democrats lost by a combined 8,000 votes in 2022. This work necessitated an early start in the field in some of the North Phoenix suburbs, where we have flipped state legislative seats in recent elections (namely in Legislative Districts 2 and 4). But it also necessitated the expansion of our field efforts to southern Arizona and to the suburbs north and east of Tucson, which will be critical to any successful effort to flip CD1 and the state legislature in Arizona.

We also collected 10,000 ballot initiative signatures for a statewide minimum-wage initiative that is in the process of qualifying for the November ballot.

Additionally, we conducted an advocacy canvass with 19,774 knocks and 4,197 contacts, educating and engaging voters about the need for U.S. Supreme Court reform (an issue Biden and Harris have since endorsed). Moreover, this July, we conducted a survey among 8,459 voters—largely low—and mid-propensity Latino voters—asking their opinions about the Presidential and U.S. Senate elections and getting their commitments to vote in the fall.

Finally, this week marks an important milestone as our 70 canvassers have hit 150,000 doors and counting. We have already spoken to over 21,000 voters—more than any other organization conducting field operations in swing states in the U.S. at this stage of the electoral cycle. We have engaged voters in minimum-wage initiative signature drives, municipal primary elections, and a survey to educate voters on the upcoming Presidential elections.

Starting today, we will be doubling the size of our canvass team. We will be knocking on more than 10,000 doors a day, advocating for democratic candidates at the Federal, State, and City levels and the Abortion Access Act ballot initiative.

Of course, small victories like these lead to bigger ones, which in turn lead to movements that transform our communities. Our victories are only possible because of your support. Thank you for being part of the Worker Power family. We will send more good news in the coming weeks and months.

Open thread!

Fighting for Everything We Believe In, and Celebrating VictoriesPost + Comments (70)