Activists in California Deliver a Strong Message
Calling on Blue State Governments
On December 2, 2024, at the start of a special legislative session in California convened by Governor Gavin Newsom, 300 organizations delivered a letter to the Governor and state legislative leaders. The letter urged a strong stand against the incoming administration, protecting our democratic institutions, and safeguarding the freedoms that are integral to us as Americans.
Far from being a template, the letter built on California’s history of taking bold action that serves as a model for progressive reforms to compel our nation to move forward.
This first-person narrative was written by Peggy Bernardy, one of the handful of exhausted but determined grassroots activists who executed the letter campaign.
The post-election period was a surreal experience for me, as I’m sure it was for others. I was so devastated after November 5, for weeks I could not watch or read any news or analysis without becoming enraged. Yet we in Indivisible Yolo were still working on the CA-13 campaign, going door to door to cure ballots with mismatched signatures, knowing we’d lost the White House and Congress.
We ultimately won CA-13 by just 187 votes on December 3, the culmination of a two-year Bay Area Coalition effort including our colleagues from nearby Sacramento, Jennifer of Indivisible Sacramento and Brittany of Sister District Sacramento. Seeing their hard work gave me a great respect for them and the resulting relationships we developed between our groups will have a lasting impact on our grassroots power.
On November 7 Governor Newsom scheduled a special legislative session on California’s reaction to Trump’s win. This session, scheduled to begin in just three weeks on December 2, was a valuable opportunity to call attention to our group’s legislative priorities. I sent out a group email to invite ideas on a campaign. The Senior Regional Organizer for Indivisible, Dennessa Atiles, directed us to the new Indivisible: A Guide for Democracy on the Brink, which advises Indivisible groups in blue-state trifectas like California to hold their elected officials responsible for safeguarding progress. This advice seemed particularly pertinent to our groups. We’ve been building relationships with our state legislators in Sacramento since 2017. The advice also dovetailed nicely with Brittany‘s new project, the Coalition Against Project 2025
We decided to write a joint letter based on the Indivisible Guide’s sample list of requests for blue-state legislators tailored for California, including specifics about Project 2025. It was a challenge to keep the letter to a manageable length, given the 900 pages of insidious, objectionable proposals Project 2025 contains. Anticipating the surprise and shock that is an autocrat’s stock and trade, we knew it would be impossible to predict everything we’d want our legislators to address. An overarching risk is that well-intentioned politicians acting in good faith try to negotiate deals with bad-faith actors and in doing so make concessions with nothing to show for it. They base their actions on the past they know, but the future will not be that way. So our letter included this phrasing: “The role of the State of California must be reconsidered in light of the nature of the incoming federal administration.“
Getting Organizations’ Sign Off
Brittany circulated the letter and got signatures from members of her new Coalition Against Project 2025, while Dennessa ran it by the committee leading CA Indivisible. They signed on as an independent entity and on behalf of 300 plus indivisible groups in California. Score!
The letter began strong:
We are over 300 organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Californians committed to resisting the oppressive and illegal agenda of the incoming federal administration and to retaining and expanding the freedoms that are integral to American ideals and have been fought for through history. California must lead in ensuring adherence to the rule of law, protecting people and our democratic institutions, and rooting out corruption.
The original plan was to deliver the letter with some fanfare at the special legislative session on December 2. When Brittany found out there was a large pro-immigrant event at the Capitol on December 2, we tabled at that event, displaying the letters and information about the Coalition, and then we joined the march. Afterward, a few of us visited the offices of Governor Newsom, the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate President Pro Tem. We delivered the letter and talked to staff, whom we found to be interested and appreciative. Over the course of that week, more activists came to the Capitol to deliver a copy of the organization letter along with individual letters to their own legislators.
In retrospect
It was almost like sleepwalking to organize this campaign, including writing the letter, wrangling the signatures and the logos, and organizing the letter’s delivery at the debut of the legislative session. With all that we’ve been through in these last eight years, we in the grassroots are getting to the point where we can do these things in our sleep, or in a rage-induced coma. Our shared experiences as organizers create a strong base for working together to get things done. Going forward, the letter will serve as a record of what we requested of our Governor and legislators. Whenever we see movement toward “bi-partisanship.” or capitulation in the form of a shrug of the shoulders with a “what can we do?” attitude, we can point to the letter and urge our representatives to do better.
Read the full text of the letter to Governor Newsom and the California General Assembly.
Contributed by Peggy Bernardy
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resist the Trump agenda? Let us know at thegrassrootsconnector@gmail.com.
This is inspiring. I now see how we Indivisible groups at the city level can organize in response to the state level Republican trifecta in Ohio!
Bravo! California has always set the standard by which the rest of us meassured our successes and failures. Yet again, you lead. Thank you. Success to you and success to all of us in this effort.