March 2022
REACHING THE MIDTERM SUMMIT
“My Vote in 2022 is the Most Important of My Life.”
– Edward Hamburg
Holding onto Democratic power this year can seem a little like climbing Everest – particularly considering massive voter suppression at home and war in Ukraine. However, a midterm defeat is certainly not destiny.
Edward Hamburg* has analyzed midterm elections since 1930. He argues that, given the Democratic tsunami of 2018, “as the majority party, they should see this coming election as theirs to win by capitalizing on their sizable numerical advantage through persistent, aggressive mobilization efforts.” This is feasible even with ground lost in the U.S. House in 2020; redistricting has not resulted in the steep Republican advantage once feared, and the competitive races that have swung from blue to red and back to red again are eminently flippable in 2022.
A Democratic Party weakness in past midterms (notably 2010) has been its failure to aggressively mobilize across the board. As in 2018, the mobilization of 2022 will have to include both turning out the Democratic base and recruiting more “high potential voters.
This includes infrequent voters who tend to support Democrats when they do vote as well as those not yet registered. Airlift’s partners on the ground excel at registering and turning out these “high-potential voters”. Furthermore, the growing support grassroots organizations have garnered over the past two election cycles means they are better equipped to do so now.
What about that potentially fatal crevasse, “the enthusiasm gap?” To traverse it will require a sturdy communications bridge. For decades, Republicans have excelled at using “dog whistle” racist messaging to divide the electorate. Today their disinformation network maintains daunting control over the psyche of their supporters.
Hamburg believes the way to counter this is to “vilify” Republicans for their blatantly anti-democratic, often racist, actions. As he points out, Republicans are “the reactionary authoritarian party of greed and prejudice. We don’t have to go low when they continue to go low. We can, however, hit them right between the eyes with the best shots we can take.”
Or, as Way to Win, our mentor and fellow-funder, puts it: “instead of running away from addressing racism and sexism, we need messaging that provides a necessary offensive against ‘dog-whistle politics’.” One approach to this is the race-class narrative. Empirically tested, it resonates with working people in a way that both neutralizes and offers an alternative to Republicans’ covert racism.
Messaging will also need to be tailored to individual audiences. For example, our Florida partners, Dream Defenders, are honing their messaging to address the concerns of young people across the state: housing, education costs, and immigration.
Mobilization and messaging are “broad-brush” winning strategies; each will have challenges. Effective mobilization, for instance, will require Democrats to be acutely aware of the need to motivate some parts of the base they have taken for granted in the past and that Republicans are intensely courting, in particular African American men and Hispanics. Another recurrent messaging failure has been Democrats' tendency to spend too late and in the wrong places.
Just as defeat is not destiny, neither is victory. However, working as a team, we have the potential to summit our 2022 Everest.
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*Edward Hamburg serves on the boards of directors of high technology companies. He was a senior business executive as well as an assistant professor of political science. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
ORGANIZING AGAINST ORGANIZED SCHOOL BOARD HYSTERIA
All over the country, angry people are turning public schools into battlegrounds. As Mike, an Afghanistan veteran, husband, father of three, and Down Home North Carolina member from rural Johnston County, puts it, “Why did everyone in my county just go crazy at the school board?”
First it was uproar over Critical Race Theory. Then masks and vaccines. More recently it’s been accusations about “pornography” in schools, targeting LGBTQ students. Mike notes, “Something that didn’t exist and was never a problem seemed to have been made into a problem.” His brothers in different states see the same thing in their school districts.
There’s no question that the pandemic has created a crisis for parents, kids, and educators in schools throughout our country. But exploiting that pandemic stress and fomenting division under the guise of “parental rights” for political gain is also a well-funded, nationally organized, right-wing strategy.
To Mike of Down Home, something feels fishy. Why else are people in his community suddenly going crazy, and why is Madison Cawthorn, the right-wing provocateur and a childless congressman from a district 300 miles away, showing up at their local school board?
Down Home’s Gwen Frisbie-Fulton notes, “We are pretty alarmed with what we are seeing here in North Carolina: Proud Boys showing up regularly in different counties to intimidate parents attending school board meetings, extremist groups approaching high schoolers outside their schools, QAnon candidates filing to run for office ... The far-right wants to replicate Virginia’s “parental rights” playbook in North Carolina, and we’re keeping an eye on it.”
Down Home is doing a lot more than that. In collaboration with North Carolinians for Safety, Truth, and Reason, they’re educating communities about what’s happening and why, empowering parents to show up consistently and effectively so “school boards know we need them to stay the course and not be bullied by whoever can say the most outlandish things at board meetings.”
At a recent online forum, “Help! I’m Speaking at School Board!,” a member of a rural county’s Board of Education talked about what her job is like nowadays. Describing the aggression and misinformation at public meetings, she also revealed that the vast majority of written comments to board members support Covid safety protocols and more inclusive library books and lessons. But you’d never know it because media coverage amplifies the often belligerent people who currently dominate the space—that’s why it’s so important to show up. Those on the call immediately felt less alone and inspired to speak up in person. Down Home and NCSTARS gives them the tools: how to find out when your school board meets, what makes an effective public comment, practice in doing so, and lots of encouraging handouts and follow-up. This issue is so serious that they’re launching a statewide strategy focused on what’s happening at school board meetings and upcoming elections.
As Down Home’s Frisbie-Fulton notes, “It all fits together, and we are here to help folks understand that and organize against it.”
Such efforts don’t just counter the craziness we’re seeing. They also offer a window into how grassroots organizations successfully engage community members about what’s affecting their daily lives, and what they can do about it. It’s what Down Home North Carolina and other groups Airlift funds do day in and day out to build solidarity, courage, and effectiveness. It’s the heart and soul of making America a better place for all.
is proud to announce that
BILLY WIMSATT, nationally acclaimed Founder & Director of Movement Voter Project,
will join us for
New Leaders, New Power
March 15, Tuesday, 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET
Billy is a star to progressive donors and organizers like ourselves. He's a social entrepreneur, a leading strategist -- and the original "energizer bunny." Founder of the Solidaire Network, League of Young Voters, Movement Voter Project and other timely political movements. Billy is also a consultant to dozens of progressive organizations, and an award-winning author and journalist contributing to Vibe, the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and The Nation.
Billy will be joined by Rai LaNier of Michigan Liberation and Dreama Caldwell of Down Home North Carolina, two inspiring new leaders of these Airlift partner grassroots groups who will share their remarkable stories of how they became the Executive Directors of their groups, and how they are preparing the next generation of leaders to succeed them.
MOBILIZE FOR MIDTERM VICTORY!
Now’s the time to make sure that our Airlift partner groups have what they need to successfully climb that midterm mobilizing summit. Here’s how you can help:
Donate by Check. Set up automatic payments to Airlift with the Bill Pay service at your bank, or send a check directly to: Airlift, PO Box 617, Corte Madera, CA 94976
Donate Online at ActBlue. Just click the button:
Host an Airlift@Home Party on Zoom or in your home! For more information, contact Lizzy Hersey at lizzy@airlift.fund or Alison Whittaker at alison@airlift.fund.
Spread the word! Tell your friends and family about Airlift and our “Live from the Frontlines” series. Share this newsletter and the link to our website.
Thanks!
