Thank you for recognizing Meck Dems! As a Precinct chair here in Huntersville, the strategy of planning social get-togethers to build community and attract volunteers worked! We also grouped precincts geographically to work together vs in isolation. We were able to flip the town board and Mayor to blue in 2023 with this approach as well as running a strong slate of candidates. I absolutely agree figuring out how to outmaneuver the RW media will be absolutely critical moving forward. It's the single biggest thing I'm worried about.
Hi, Lori, the Meck Dems are a model for the rest of the country. I'm hoping we can replicate your success in other places around the country. Any ideas on how to penetrate the RWPM would be most welcome!
Steve, check in with Jeff Blum, the organizer who runs All in for NC. In addition to MCDP recruiting good candidates for every seat, and having a ~50/50 district, Jeff raised money and his team (about 20 callers per weekly session) made 10,000 phone calls over 8 months to solicit event attendance (only about half the calls went to Huntersville). Also to recruit for volunteer recruitment, canvassing etc, later in the year. Surely there were more steps, but that's the part I know.
Any activist group of 50 people could do this for a district somewhere else in the US .
I agree with all your suggestions about moving forward. I am particularly interested in keeping volunteers engaged. I was afraid that everyone would step away after Nov 5, but instead I am finding new people, especially younger (than me!) people and people who have never taken action before. Where I live, in Durham NC, there are several new activist groups just getting started and others are getting new volunteers. Channeling that energy will be important so that people can feel that there is a way forward. I have held trainings with volunteers about how to engage voters in real conversations, but would welcome more skill-building about how to engage people too discouraged about government to participate. I think this alongside training people to counteract the lies they are hearing would be a good combination. I'm down with that!
Anyone else in NC (I'm in Durham), please let me know!
I am not from North Carolina, but I used to live there and went to graduate school there and I adopted the state as one of the ways to focus on the 2024 campaigns. I contributed to Down Home and to Siembra, both grassroots groups in the state. I was very impressed with them both… not sure I have the names just right here. I was so impressed with your state organization who I engaged with through Jess Craven and Simon Rosenberg. I now attend all in for NC zoom meetings as a way to stay engaged.
You have some great ideas here on things we can do, Steve. The 1-to-1 conversations will be powerful, if we can learn how to do them well and have very many of them. Given the scale of maga media dominance we will need coordinated social media messaging.
I like Antonia Scatton's Reframing America substack for ideas on how to organize our messages. And the books How Minds Change and Reclaiming Our Democracy for persuading people and pulling on the levers of power. Hopefully Indivisible or the Democratic party, someone with national audience, will take the lead or at least amplify the effort.
I have one objection to the intro to your article -- you said "This election, with Trump winning 2.5 million more votes than in 2020, and Harris receiving 6 million fewer than Biden, shows that MAGA is winning the battle for voters’ hearts and minds.". I disagree. In addition to the media dominance that you mentioned, it shows to me that we (America) are not able to elect a woman, and definitely not a Black woman, as president. That hurts. But we must learn the lesson and fix that problem. While winning the next election. To ignore this problem, or gloss over it, is harmful.
Thanks for your thoughtful writing. And perhaps one day you can give me a tour of the Dayton science museum and I'll show you the Chicago museum of Science and Industry.
I read How Minds Change last year and I agree it is quite useful. I don't agree that we lost because Harris is a Black woman. When I was canvassing, the opposition to her was based on beliefs that she was a radical leftist, or responsible for inflation and the supposed "open borders" or was a "DEI candidate", etc. all lies created by the RWPM. Although latent or overt sexism and racism may have been a contributing factor, I don't think that was a primary reason we lost.
I haven't been back to Dayton since my 40th high school reunion, and the Dayton science museum I referenced in the piece is probably long gone. But if you ever come to Oakland, I'd be happy to give you a tour of science museum or the Exploratorium in San Francisco. And I love the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I visited there when I was about 10 years old, and again as an adult with my son and granddaughter, and it was great both times.
I agree RWPM created the multi-point spread. However I believe that a white man would have weathered that storm more easily here in NC. For instance, Jeff Jackson got more votes than Harris in NC, even though the RWPM focused on him heavily too.
One idea I had in mind was that we should have turning point USA type events or cpac type events of our own. Specifically it’s where we have conventions like what turning point USA does only for them it’s whiners, liars and screamers & extremists and for us we need powerful speakers and leaders. The ones we need are powerful speakers who are dedicated to protecting our democracy and much more but also want to prioritize focusing on tackling the economy, inflation and the high cost of living and basically say the GOP is just using you just so they can enact an unpopular agenda. As for voter registration there is no doubt we do need to hold more of those types of drives. There are a lot of people who are a danger to our democracy But one person who is extremely dangerous because of him being called the Maestro of Voter registration is Scott Presler a stop the steal loyalist. He was a factor in getting Pennsylvania being won for Trump. Not only has he bought a house in Pennsylvania he already is vowing to continue to make Pennsylvania red. He also is vowing to keep the house/senate red, wants to target New York and New Jersey and has a super pac called early vote action which targets every state including California. Over in California they are in serious jeopardy of being red because voters there are extremely frustrated with the high cost of living along with the economy, crime and inflation which has caused the rightward shift statewide and the gop there has made giant gains with Latino/black voters which shows democrats need to make massive changes if they want to reclaim/register voters.
I very much like the idea of having conferences like Turning Point and CPAC to help educate and mobilize our activists. As I wrote in the article, I'm now exploring having a zoom conference to discuss the right wing propaganda machine. In person conferences could be more valuable, but they also are much more expensive and time-consuming to organize, and expensive to attend for out-of-towners. But they still might still be worth doing if we could find the funding.
We especially need something like Turning Point to engage young voters. As far as know, there wasn't much organizing of younger voters the past four years.
I didn't know about Presler. If you have ideas how we can address what he is doing, I'd like to hear them.
We need the Leadership of the DNC to begin to identify candidates for the Presidency in 2028. I will never understand how they allowed Biden to change his mind and attempt to run for a 2nd term. If only…we had had a primary and had selected a candidate in the normal fashion DT would have been defeated. KH did an incredible job, as did millions of volunteers, but nothing takes the place of good organization and a workable plan.
First we need to pick a new chair of the DNC. I personally favor Ben Wikler. Grassroots influence over the DNC choice is limited, but some activists are working on getting Ben elected. In terms of candidates for 2028, I'm not sure we need the DNC to identify candidates. Potential candidates will be making their own decisions about whether to run. As I wrote, in 2025 we need to focus more on local organizing, exposing the RWPM, and training ourselves to do better work. Our side also needs to work on developing better media, but that's something that it is harder for grassroots activists to do.
Regarding local organizing in purple and red areas: Last January, Michael Moore posted a 12-episode podcast called Blue Dots in a Red Sea, with each episode a very appealing and accessible guide on how to organize in a community along non-political lines that eventually translate into more political power. (For example, Episode 8 is on creating a local newspaper -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE9aixhXZHU.) Here are the first three episodes, with the other nine available online:
Thank you for recognizing Meck Dems! As a Precinct chair here in Huntersville, the strategy of planning social get-togethers to build community and attract volunteers worked! We also grouped precincts geographically to work together vs in isolation. We were able to flip the town board and Mayor to blue in 2023 with this approach as well as running a strong slate of candidates. I absolutely agree figuring out how to outmaneuver the RW media will be absolutely critical moving forward. It's the single biggest thing I'm worried about.
Hi, Lori, the Meck Dems are a model for the rest of the country. I'm hoping we can replicate your success in other places around the country. Any ideas on how to penetrate the RWPM would be most welcome!
Steve, check in with Jeff Blum, the organizer who runs All in for NC. In addition to MCDP recruiting good candidates for every seat, and having a ~50/50 district, Jeff raised money and his team (about 20 callers per weekly session) made 10,000 phone calls over 8 months to solicit event attendance (only about half the calls went to Huntersville). Also to recruit for volunteer recruitment, canvassing etc, later in the year. Surely there were more steps, but that's the part I know.
Any activist group of 50 people could do this for a district somewhere else in the US .
I agree with all your suggestions about moving forward. I am particularly interested in keeping volunteers engaged. I was afraid that everyone would step away after Nov 5, but instead I am finding new people, especially younger (than me!) people and people who have never taken action before. Where I live, in Durham NC, there are several new activist groups just getting started and others are getting new volunteers. Channeling that energy will be important so that people can feel that there is a way forward. I have held trainings with volunteers about how to engage voters in real conversations, but would welcome more skill-building about how to engage people too discouraged about government to participate. I think this alongside training people to counteract the lies they are hearing would be a good combination. I'm down with that!
Anyone else in NC (I'm in Durham), please let me know!
I am not from North Carolina, but I used to live there and went to graduate school there and I adopted the state as one of the ways to focus on the 2024 campaigns. I contributed to Down Home and to Siembra, both grassroots groups in the state. I was very impressed with them both… not sure I have the names just right here. I was so impressed with your state organization who I engaged with through Jess Craven and Simon Rosenberg. I now attend all in for NC zoom meetings as a way to stay engaged.
The group is called down Home,North Carolina
You have some great ideas here on things we can do, Steve. The 1-to-1 conversations will be powerful, if we can learn how to do them well and have very many of them. Given the scale of maga media dominance we will need coordinated social media messaging.
I like Antonia Scatton's Reframing America substack for ideas on how to organize our messages. And the books How Minds Change and Reclaiming Our Democracy for persuading people and pulling on the levers of power. Hopefully Indivisible or the Democratic party, someone with national audience, will take the lead or at least amplify the effort.
I have one objection to the intro to your article -- you said "This election, with Trump winning 2.5 million more votes than in 2020, and Harris receiving 6 million fewer than Biden, shows that MAGA is winning the battle for voters’ hearts and minds.". I disagree. In addition to the media dominance that you mentioned, it shows to me that we (America) are not able to elect a woman, and definitely not a Black woman, as president. That hurts. But we must learn the lesson and fix that problem. While winning the next election. To ignore this problem, or gloss over it, is harmful.
Thanks for your thoughtful writing. And perhaps one day you can give me a tour of the Dayton science museum and I'll show you the Chicago museum of Science and Industry.
Hi, David,
I read How Minds Change last year and I agree it is quite useful. I don't agree that we lost because Harris is a Black woman. When I was canvassing, the opposition to her was based on beliefs that she was a radical leftist, or responsible for inflation and the supposed "open borders" or was a "DEI candidate", etc. all lies created by the RWPM. Although latent or overt sexism and racism may have been a contributing factor, I don't think that was a primary reason we lost.
I haven't been back to Dayton since my 40th high school reunion, and the Dayton science museum I referenced in the piece is probably long gone. But if you ever come to Oakland, I'd be happy to give you a tour of science museum or the Exploratorium in San Francisco. And I love the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I visited there when I was about 10 years old, and again as an adult with my son and granddaughter, and it was great both times.
Steve
I agree RWPM created the multi-point spread. However I believe that a white man would have weathered that storm more easily here in NC. For instance, Jeff Jackson got more votes than Harris in NC, even though the RWPM focused on him heavily too.
Much food for thought. Thanks
One idea I had in mind was that we should have turning point USA type events or cpac type events of our own. Specifically it’s where we have conventions like what turning point USA does only for them it’s whiners, liars and screamers & extremists and for us we need powerful speakers and leaders. The ones we need are powerful speakers who are dedicated to protecting our democracy and much more but also want to prioritize focusing on tackling the economy, inflation and the high cost of living and basically say the GOP is just using you just so they can enact an unpopular agenda. As for voter registration there is no doubt we do need to hold more of those types of drives. There are a lot of people who are a danger to our democracy But one person who is extremely dangerous because of him being called the Maestro of Voter registration is Scott Presler a stop the steal loyalist. He was a factor in getting Pennsylvania being won for Trump. Not only has he bought a house in Pennsylvania he already is vowing to continue to make Pennsylvania red. He also is vowing to keep the house/senate red, wants to target New York and New Jersey and has a super pac called early vote action which targets every state including California. Over in California they are in serious jeopardy of being red because voters there are extremely frustrated with the high cost of living along with the economy, crime and inflation which has caused the rightward shift statewide and the gop there has made giant gains with Latino/black voters which shows democrats need to make massive changes if they want to reclaim/register voters.
HI, Anonymous,
I very much like the idea of having conferences like Turning Point and CPAC to help educate and mobilize our activists. As I wrote in the article, I'm now exploring having a zoom conference to discuss the right wing propaganda machine. In person conferences could be more valuable, but they also are much more expensive and time-consuming to organize, and expensive to attend for out-of-towners. But they still might still be worth doing if we could find the funding.
We especially need something like Turning Point to engage young voters. As far as know, there wasn't much organizing of younger voters the past four years.
I didn't know about Presler. If you have ideas how we can address what he is doing, I'd like to hear them.
Steve
We need the Leadership of the DNC to begin to identify candidates for the Presidency in 2028. I will never understand how they allowed Biden to change his mind and attempt to run for a 2nd term. If only…we had had a primary and had selected a candidate in the normal fashion DT would have been defeated. KH did an incredible job, as did millions of volunteers, but nothing takes the place of good organization and a workable plan.
Hi, Julie,
First we need to pick a new chair of the DNC. I personally favor Ben Wikler. Grassroots influence over the DNC choice is limited, but some activists are working on getting Ben elected. In terms of candidates for 2028, I'm not sure we need the DNC to identify candidates. Potential candidates will be making their own decisions about whether to run. As I wrote, in 2025 we need to focus more on local organizing, exposing the RWPM, and training ourselves to do better work. Our side also needs to work on developing better media, but that's something that it is harder for grassroots activists to do.
Excellent post, Steve!
Regarding local organizing in purple and red areas: Last January, Michael Moore posted a 12-episode podcast called Blue Dots in a Red Sea, with each episode a very appealing and accessible guide on how to organize in a community along non-political lines that eventually translate into more political power. (For example, Episode 8 is on creating a local newspaper -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE9aixhXZHU.) Here are the first three episodes, with the other nine available online:
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelmoore/p/blue-dot-tsunami-ep1?r=4w4vn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelmoore/p/blue-dot-tsunami-ep2?r=4w4vn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelmoore/p/blue-dot-tsunami-ep3?r=4w4vn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Thanks, Julie. I'll check out Moore's podcast, it sounds right on point.
We talked about many of the points you made at our last steering committee mtg. I’ll forward this to them for further consideration. Thank you!
Thank you, Katina!