June 2023
“AS GOES THE SOUTH, SO GOES THE NATION”
With that W.E.B. DuBois quote, Down Home North Carolina’s Co-Directors Todd Zimmer and Dreama Caldwell kicked off a fabulous in-person gathering last month with more than 40 Airlift donors in attendance. Noting that there’s no purple state better poised to become a solid progressive bulwark than North Carolina, Todd and Dreama made a compelling case about why Down Home, which organizes in rural areas and small towns, is ready to lead the charge into this progressive future.
Dreama shared her story about growing up poor in an apolitical, working-class family in the “wrong zip code” of Alamance County, NC. Like many low-income people of color, she found herself ensnared by the cash bail system when she was held responsible for an employee’s mistake at a daycare she managed. This led to a downward spiral of losing her job, home, and ability to find work. It also politicized her, which led her to Down Home and her life’s work transforming injustice into effective activism.
Todd followed up by saying, “There are incredible people like Dreama all over rural North Carolina, and those are the people we’re reaching.” When Todd co-founded Down Home in 2017, North Carolinians had been living for seven years under massively damaging Republican legislative supermajorities enabled by extreme gerrymandering in 2010’s redistricting. There was no way for people in small towns and rural areas to fight back without massive grassroots organizing. Down Home and similar groups broke the GOP supermajority in 2018, defended it in 2020 and 2022, and recently helped pass Medicaid expansion. Unfortunately, the firewall against the return of the GOP supermajority was recently breached thanks to one turncoat new member who switched parties and voted exactly the opposite from her campaign promises.
Todd joked, “If you’re a national observer, you’re thinking, ‘North Carolina, you always break my heart,’ and you’d be forgiven for feeling pessimistic.” But, he added, “We’ve been taking the fight to previously safe, red-ruled districts, contesting and winning those political battles. Every cycle we’ve been pushing the battleground, gaining every time.” There’s been a Democratic governor since 2016, Biden lost the state by just 75,000 votes, and recent Senate races have been agonizingly close.
Down Home is part of a progressive coalition with a plan to crush the GOP supermajority once and for all, keep the governorship blue, and flip North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes to Biden in 2024. Grassroots groups plan to knock on 3.4 million doors statewide, with Down Home making 1 out of 7 of those visits in the toughest, lowest-density 20 counties. Then it’s onto 2026 and 2028, for the best opportunities in the country to gain two more U.S. Senate seats.
“There’s no purple state in the country that’s better poised to go blue and stay blue,” Todd and Dreama reminded the rapt audience. “But it’s going to take work. We need your help with that.”
We’re convinced–and all in. We hope you are, too.
If you couldn’t join us in person, watch our inspiring speakers here:
If you couldn’t join us in person, watch our inspiring speakers here:
Dreama Caldwell and Todd Zimmer. And if you want to help support Down Home North Carolina’s work, donate here. Feel free to share!
KEEPIN’ IT BLUE IN NEVADA AND GEORGIA
National political analyst Simon Rosenberg – the first to predict there’d be no red wave in 2022 – is confident we can win in 2024, too. In fact, Rosenberg is bullish on expanding the map, particularly through engaging and registering young and underrepresented voters. Keeping the White House and Senate blue while flipping the House is not wishful thinking, but a realistic goal based on data and the power of grassroots organizations.
That’s exactly where Airlift Partner Groups One APIA Nevada and Black Male Initiative Fund in Georgia come in. These scrappy newcomers are on the frontlines in keeping the White House blue, and, in Nevada, defending a crucial Senate seat. One APIA Nevada and BMIF are on the ground among the Asian-American/Pacific Islander and Black communities that will matter most in expanding our winning margins in 2024 and beyond.
Come hear Simon Rosenberg and the leaders of Airlift’s newest Partners about how, with the proper investments, we’ll get the job done. You’ll come away inspired and hopeful. Register here or below, and feel free to spread the word!
Why We’re Bullish on 2024
Simon Rosenberg, national Democratic analyst
Simon will be showing us how to keep our winning states even as we expand the map with more states with the help of grassroots movements.
Tuesday, June 20
5 pm PT / 8 pm ET
Leaders from Airlift’s two new partner groups will join us in the conversation:
One APIA Nevada and Black Male Initiative Fund in Georgia. See Field Notes below for their most recent daring accomplishments.
DREAM POSSIBLE WITH CALIFORNIA DONOR TABLE
“As goes California so goes the nation.” We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again because with 7 contested Congressional House races, California is a battleground for House control again in 2024. In addition, California’s statewide initiative field promises to be broad and deep, spanning issues ranging from workers’ rights and tax policy to climate justice and LGBTQ rights. Join California Donor Table, Airlift’s trusted guide for our home state, and co-hosts for two important briefings to hear how you can support community-based efforts to win these important races and boost the chances for a slate of progressive ballot initiatives in 2024.
AIRLIFT’S UNSUNG HERO: DAVID DIAMOND
We hear a lot about infrastructure. It went from being a joke under Trump to one of the crowning achievements for President Biden and the country as $1.2 trillion is now being invested in tackling climate change and rebuilding America for the 21st century. In the realm of political organizing, we invest in Airlift Partners so they can build the organizing infrastructure needed to expand and win. Things like bridges, water and pipelines in one realm, and hiring and training organizers who knock on doors in the other may not be sexy, but it’s the necessary undergirding without which we can’t function.
Airlift, too, couldn’t function without infrastructure. At its inception, the website that Airlift was using for most donations (ActBlue) could not interface with the software application used to organize events and communicate with donors (EveryAction). Then, as now, Airlift was an all-volunteer organization, and technical expertise isn’t cheap.
Enter David Diamond, who volunteered to build the infrastructure Airlift needed for ActBlue and EveryAction to interface for free.
David graduated from MIT, created his own multi-currency accounting software company, and is currently the creator of a website that facilitates online learning for kids. He also happens to have a daughter who married the son of Airlift founder Danny Altman. One day over a family meal, Danny explained the objectives and strategies of Airlift, and David asked, “How can I help?”
Recalling that time, David remarks, “Danny never asks you to do something, he makes you want to do it yourself.”
So David created a new webpage that acted as a translator between the two systems: “I love doing that. I love coding. And it was an unbelievable cause. Trying to save democracy!”
David has worked closely with Airlift’s Volunteer Operations Coordinator, Carol Korenbrot. He’s made sure that all the information Carol needs to reach out to donors is easily available.
Carol says of David’s work, “Without the application interface and data storage website that he created and continually keeps up to date with our changing organization and efforts, Airlift would be flying blind. We are deeply indebted and so grateful for his continued availability and tireless effort these last 5 years.”
David also works to keep donors’ data safe, “Our site and the intermediary Airlift database that's on it is protected by end-to-end data encryption, password-protected site access with immediate notifications of multiple failed login attempts, and complete auditing of all database modifications.” And David’s technical efforts are backed up by Airlift's own strict policies not to share donor data with any organizations or individuals.
Thank you David! We’d be broken down on the road to nowhere without you.
HELP BUILD THE INFRASTRUCTURE
OUR PARTNERS NEED TO WIN
Here’s how:
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, and click again to Make it Monthly!
For Tax-Deductible Giving. Email Ruth Jaeger at ruth@airlift.fund.
Spread the word! Tell your friends and family about Airlift and our events. Share this newsletter and our website.
Thanks!
FIELD NOTES
Wow! Pennsylvania Stands Up endorsed 55 candidates in recent primaries, and 50 of them won! “This incredible victory is not just about what we win. It’s about how we win. Pollsters have written off rural communities as all-white, elderly, and conservative. But that “common wisdom” is just plain wrong. How do we know these rural voters share our values? We asked them! We put in the time, the heart, and the legwork to canvass our rural communities. We use value-based messaging to talk to everyday people about the issues affecting their lives. At PASU, we know that if we canvass our communities year round and build trust by engaging people about their values, we can shift the balance of power in PA. We’ve already reached out to 23,378 Pennsylvanians this year. We had vulnerable, courageous conversations about the economy, race, education and the importance of local elections. And we won.”
LUCHA played a big role in this victory for democracy AND in passing Arizona’s budget with big wins for education, affordable housing, children’s healthcare, and more.
Read more.
One APIA Nevada held over 50 meetings with legislators and made the voices of the 389,000+ Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in Nevada heard on policies that impact them.
Black Male Initiative Fund rallies Georgians against U.S. House GOP hostage-takers who refuse to pay the nation’s bills without drastic cuts.
Michigan Liberation fights to end cash bail–and to help bail out women who are in jail simply because they can’t afford to pay.
The DROP is taking July off–see you in August!