Here's What The Fight Is About
More than slogans
Welcome to the big Sunday edition of Progressives Everywhere!
There’s a lot to discuss today, but first, I want to take a minute to discuss something that’s really important to me…
We are now just over two weeks away from the most consequential election since Lincoln won the White House. There are just so many issues and contributing factors at play, from economic inequality and racial injustice to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and even democracy itself. Many of those issues are connected in some way, but there’s one issue facing the nation that actually encompasses all of them.
Entering 2020, the US was already experiencing a growing mental health crisis, with 1 in 5 Americans dealing with a mental illness. The fallout of COVID-19 has transformed it into a serious epidemic. A recent CDC study indicated that over 40% of adult respondents are dealing with mental health struggles right now. It’s serious stuff — we’re talking substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation, with over 25% of young adults saying they’ve considered suicide this year.
So what can we do about it? Glad you asked!
I’ve teamed up with Fountain House, an amazing mental health organization based in New York, on a voter guide that explains the big challenges, key policies, and how this election can make a huge difference for tens of millions of people (and really, all of us). It’s a quick and easy read — you can check it out here:
If you come away wanting to know more and hear from some truly interesting experts, you can join folks from Fountain House (including progressive lawmaker/activist Abdul El-Sayed) at a virtual discussion on Tuesday at 12pm EST. I’ll be there!
Today at Progressives Everywhere, we’re reviewing the big, specific issues at play in some major swing states and taking a look at the latest election news. Lots going on!
But first, thank you to GoFundMe donors: Ruth, Gina, Daniel, and Ruth (yes, two Ruths!)
What’s at Stake In Each State
On Friday, I sent out an email in the wake of the Supreme Court’s announcement that it would hear Donald Trump’s plea to inflict explicit and unprecented racism on the Census. The gist was that with SCOTUS indicating that it’s going to gut just about every federal protection for anyone that isn’t a ridiculously rich white guy and/or corporation, it’ll be up to the states to step up.
Today, I want to go through some of the most pressing issues in some of the biggest swing states we’re targeting for flipping. These are key not just for the people living in those states, but for all of us — gerrymandering impacts control of Congress, access to healthcare is clearly linked to COVID-19, criminal justice reform becomes bipartisan when it proves popular, etc.
North Carolina
Gerrymandering: While Democrats already control the governor’s mansion and Gov. Roy Cooper looks likely to win re-election, the state legislature has full control over redistricting. The GOP super-majority pushed through absolutely egregious gerrymanders after the 2010 election that were finally partially struck down by the State Supreme Court in 2019, but that took years to happen. If Republicans maintain control of the legislature, they can go ahead and enact another awful, racist gerrymander that will impact Congress and state representation for years to come.
Education: North Carolina teachers were part of the big #RedForEd strike movement in the spring of 2018, and for good reason: For the last two decades, the state has defied a State Supreme Court edict that it provided a quality education to all of its children. Last winter, a nonpartisan board of experts made a series of recommendations to lawmakers to rectify the situation, but COVID-19 has instead made things worse. Democrats have pledged to address the deep systemic inequities.
Medicaid expansion: North Carolina is one of 11 states that still have not expanded Medicaid under Obamacare. This despite a stunning 75% of people in the state supporting the expansion — including 60% of self-identified conservatives and an eye-popping 91% suburban white women. Even before COVID-19, it was estimated that up to 500,000 low-income North Carolinians would gain healthcare access, and now due to job losses created by COVID-19, that number ticks up by another 200K. Republicans in the legislature almost came to an agreement on it this summer, but in the end, they decided instead to begin transitioning to privatizing Medicaid.
Our candidate interviews: Terri LeGrand | Ricky Hurtado | Marcia Morgan
Texas
Gerrymandering: The fact that Democrats are close to flipping the State House and winning even more seats in Congress is even more impressive when you look at just how much that Republicans have gerrymandered the state. They’ve refused all overtures to creating an independent redistricting commission, and they’ll make things even worse if Democrats don’t take at least one chamber of the legislature.
Voting Rights: As we’ve followed in excruciating detail this summer and fall, Texas Republicans are also determined to make it as hard as possible to vote. It took a lawsuit settled this fall for them to even allow online voter registration (which still can only be done with a driver’s license renewal), have gone to the Supreme Court to block expanded access to absentee voting, and now are limiting drop boxes for ballots.
Medicaid expansion: Texas is another one of the 11 states that have not expanded Medicaid. As a result, it’s the most uninsured state in the nation — before COVID-19, there were 4.4 million people in Texas without health insurance, and now, that number has climbed to 5.2 million. Medicaid expansion would cut that number nearly in half. If Democrats ride this issue to a flip of the State House, Republicans will feel the heat and might look to deal with the issue before it hurts them in statewide 2022 elections.
Permanent school funding: While lawmakers were compelled to increase school funding after a 2018 wake-up call election, they only did so for the short-term. On the other hand, Republicans in the legislature also passed massive property tax reform that risked putting long-term education funding in danger if there were to be some kind of economic downturn… which is precisely what happened this year. Changing the formula again will be crucial.
Our candidate interviews: Akilah Bacy | Joanna Cattanach | Sharon Hirsch | Eliz Markowitz
Pennsylvania
Gerrymandering: Noticing a pattern? Republicans have maintained their power in just about all of these legislatures thanks to their gross manipulation of district lines. Like North Carolina, the State Supreme Court overturned some of the worst district gerrymanders, but everything will be reset in 2021. With a Democratic governor, the party will have a seat at the table, but if they control the legislature, they can absolutely ensure that districts are more fair this time around. There’s a bipartisan bill making the rounds that would make some difference there, but there’s no substitute for being able to set the rules of engagement.
Plus, if Democrats don’t win, Republicans have a better chance of pushing through an awful bill that would gerrymander the very important state appellate courts.
Marijuana legalization: To help fill what is going to be a massive budget shortfall due to COVID-19, Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed legalizing marijuana in the state. In fact, he’s proposing it over and over again, like a guy who really wants his kush but doesn’t want to worry about going out of state during the pandemic. Republicans will have nothing to do with it, even as they claim to care about both the budget and criminal justice reform.
COVID-19 response: In fact, Republicans in PA have been blocking just about all of Wolf’s priorities, especially those that are meant to keep people safe during this pandemic. They’ve sued over and over to have his emergency powers removed, claiming that the pandemic is over (FYI the US just had a 70k case day again).
Criminal justice reform: This summer, the legislature passed a bipartisan first stab at criminal justice reform that doesn’t really do all that much. It was the best they could do, its GOP sponsor insisted, because lots of Republicans and police groups hate the idea of probation caps and other real reforms that other states have already made. In the end, it’s a pretty useless, toothless law, and it’s going to take a Democratic takeover (and then even more pushing) to create real reform.
Our candidate interviews: Brittney Rodas | Anton Andrew
Michigan
COVID-19 response: Donald Trump is not the only elected official who has spent the summer attacking Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. As I document at COVIDSuperSpreaders.com, the Michigan GOP — which moved to strip Whitmer of her constitutional powers even before she took office — sued and sued until the State Supreme Court finally ruled that she’d exceeded her authority by trying to keep people safe.
Since that ruling, COVID-19 rates in the state have spiked. While they’ve reached compromise bills on some issues, but it’s going to be incredibly touch-and-go from now on… unless Democrats can take over in January.
Environment: Michigan has been a hot-zone for environmental disasters over the last decade, from the Flint water crisis to pollution from chemical and industrial manufacturing. Gov. Whitmer last week issued an executive order to make the state’s economy carbon neutral by 2050, but we know how Republicans there feel about Democratic executive orders (they don’t like them and sue over them). There will be no actual meaningful legislation to create clean water or any other environmental progress until Republicans lose their veto power.
Our candidate interviews: Christine Morse | Kelly Breen
Can You Help Us?
Together, we’ve raised $3.3 million now for progressive candidates and causes, plus over $1.5 million for bail funds and civil rights groups. That’s over $4.8 million raised!
To make this sustainable, I need your help. I don’t get paid by any politician for this work. In fact, it costs me money to do this. To make this sustainable, I’m offering very low-cost premium subscriptions that offer a lot of goodies. If you become a member of Progressives Everywhere, you’ll get:
Frequent election season emails with deep dives into elections and the crucial political stories not getting enough attention. You’ll read the news before anyone else you know.
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It’s just $5 a month and one of the best investments you can make this election season. Why? For your $5, you help:
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Important News You Need to Know
State Legislatures: Want even more information about swing seats in state legislature?
Here’s a good statistical breakdown of the flippable seats that Democrats are targeting in some of the states above and a few others.
And here’s a look at how national Democrats are starting to pour money into these races late in the game. Good thing we’ve been doing it all year!
Texas: The early voting turnout continues en masse, with absolutely stunning numbers in the six days since it began last week.
In the state’s 10 biggest counties, there have already been over 2.3 million votes cast — nearly 25% of all registered voters in those counties.
Harris County, home to Houston, saw four straight days of over 100,000 voters. There were over 65,000 yesterday and today’s total will take it up past 600,000 overall, which is more than a quarter of registered voters there.
These counties are key because they are the Democrats’ best chance at winning the state — Hillary Clinton won them by over 600,000 votes in 2016 and Beto O’Rourke did even better during his Senate run in 2018, when he won them by nearly 1 million votes.
Republicans tried to get rid of drive-thru voting in Harris County last week, but their lawsuit fell short.
Florida: Meanwhile, in Florida, another swing state where we’re raising money for candidates this year, Democrats have taken an early (and hopefully sustainable!) lead in early and absentee voting.
More than 2.4 million people have already voted by mail in Florida, which eclipses all of 2016’s total. Everyone in the state is allowed to vote absentee (wild that they get that right and Georgia and Texas do not).
Of those 2.4 million people, nearly 50% are Democrats while just 30% are Republicans. Obviously, how independents vote will be quite important, but the difference in enthusiasm here is clear.
Voting Rights: Not all the news about the state of the ballot is rosy (or even murky) tonight.
First, this analysis of the Trump campaign’s efforts to cut short absentee ballot return time is a concise look at many of the cases we’ve been covering. As you know, Republicans are winning most of them thanks to their control of the judiciary. Seeing it all in one place really makes it hit home.
A new study from the Sentencing Project reveals that 5.2 million people will be disenfranchised this year due to a felony conviction. This in particular is devastating:
“One in 16 African Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate 3.7 times greater than that of non-African Americans. Over 6.2 percent of the adult African American population is disenfranchised compared to 1.7 percent of the non-African American population.”
Fake News: As if Fox News and the alt-right media weren’t pervasive and destructive enough, the New York Times has a new report out about a series of 1,300 GOP propoganda mills posting as local “news” sites around the country.
These sites exist to trash Democrats and push Republican talking points, but look innocuous and frankly crappy enough to pass as small-town sites.
They’ve received over $1.7 million from Republican campaigns over the last few years, fueling deceitful coverage that has been especially poisonous this year.
The network doesn’t even pay writers well — it’s about $6 to $36 per story, which is basically dirt. The death of local journalism continues to be one of the biggest tragedies in modern America, because not only does it lead to far-right scam artists filling the void, it robs writers and editors of their livelihoods.
I guess this is where I’m supposed to suggest you help progressive media organizations like Progressives Everywhere! Stop giving to Senate candidates who have more money than they can ever use and start funding independent groups who will spread truth in ways political campaigns never will!
Quibis
I started another newsletter! This one is a weekly digest of job and gig listings for creative (and nerdy) people. I’m hoping to help out writers, designers, artists, editors, video producers, and social media pros who are having a tough time finding work right now. It’s 100% free, so if you know anyone searching for work in those fields, definitely send the newsletter their way.
Amy Coney Barrett is awful in every single way.
Admit DC and Puerto Rico as states but also abolish the Senate:
Wait, before you go!
Figured I’d give it one more shot: Please subscribe and join the team!
You can also make a one-time donation to Progressives Everywhere’s GoFundMe campaign — doing so will earn you a shout-out in an upcoming edition of the big newsletter!