Balloon Juice Zooms

We have had some discouraging and disappointing news related to voting lately, but that just means that we have to fight harder, and smarter.  In the end, control of the House and the Senate after the midterm elections is what matters most.  So let’s get to work.

We have scheduled the zoom with Voces de la Frontera Action  for Thursday July 15 at 7:30 pm Eastern.  So set your calendars for a week from today!

You may recall that Voces is Wisconsin’s leading state-wide immigrant rights organization, and they are in the process of raising funds for a full-time elections organizer.

In the zoom next Thursday, in addition to the three who participated in our Balloon Juice Q&A post, we will have two leaders from their youth organization (Youth Empowered in the Struggle, aka YES).  The folks from Voces will talk with us about about what they’re doing now and the impact that having the field organizer position can be expected to have on the primaries and the election in Wisconsin for 2022.

But I will share a small preview now.

This is how they described the situation on the ground for the 2020 cycle:

Once these campaigns start we’re always scrambling, re-prioritizing, trying to cobble something together – something, somehow, someway.  It’s throwing spaghetti at the wall with pitchforks.  It’s highly inefficient but we do it that way because we’re used to it (though we don’t like it!), it works surprisingly often, we rarely have a choice, and even when it doesn’t work we find ourselves better off in the long run than we would have been had we done nothing.  It’s also completely draining, it leads to high burnout and high turnover, and you can’t build much of an organization when you’re continually training new people  to replace old ones.

Even with the situation on the ground in 2020 as described above, Voces was able to turn out people in numbers that were higher than the margin of victory in Wisconsin.

Just imagine what they could do with a full-time field organizer – someone whose sole focus is to coordinate all that activity on the ground.

We are going to need every vote we can get in 2022 and 2024, and this looks like a great opportunity to make a real difference.

Please join us a week from today to hear more from the folks at Voces.

It’s not looking like we will be able to raise the full $45,000 needed for the field organizer position, but they are working to find a person or organization that could match our funds if we are able to raise half, which would be $22,500.  I am hoping that there will be news on that front by next Thursday when we have our zoom with them.

Here’s the original Voces post:  Q & A with Voces de la Frontera

Voces de la Frontera Action

Interested in the zoom?   Please let us know in the comments, and also send me email to let me know.  Please include your nym in the email so I can connect the dots.

Zoom With Voces de la Frontera on Thursday July 15 at 7:30Post + Comments (49)