June 2024
Rise Up to the Seriousness of the Moment
So said President Biden at this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner, an evening of humor and celebration. But what’s at stake in the 2024 elections is no laughing matter. It’s all hands on deck to protect our freedoms, build on the progress we have made, and save our democracy. Our opponents are counting on our fatigue and demoralization. But as Representative Jamie Raskin’s dad told him when he was young, “When the world seems hopeless, you be the hope.”
That’s us: Airlift, our Partner Groups, and you.Your generous support turns hope into reality. Thank you for continuing to rise up to the seriousness of the moment.
Bottoms Up: From Down-Ballot Races to the
Top, Pennsylvania Stands Up Has a Winning Strategy
PASU-endorsed winners: Shonta Ford, Vanessa Campos, and Brittany Stephenson
If you can motivate citizens to vote for candidates at the bottom of the ballot, then they will also vote for candidates at the top. That’s one of the principles of grassroots organizing. After all, most people interact with government at the local level, so providing inspiring local candidates fires up voters. Once they’re motivated to show up for people they know and trust to make improvements in their daily lives, they tend to vote up-ballot, too. That’s how change comes about.
That’s also why Pennsylvania Stands Up (PASU) has been making alliances with progressive first-time candidates. And they’ve been winning! Here we feature three women of color who won recent local elections with PASU support.
Last November, Shonta Ford was elected to the East Penn School Board, a large school district near Allentown. PASU’s encouragement, she said, made all the difference:
Pennsylvania Stands Up was actually the first organization to reach out to me. I thought that was wonderful because at that time I hadn’t run for political office. They didn’t just endorse me–they also wholeheartedly supported me. PASU made sure I was invited to their meetings. They phone banked, knocked on doors–it was just mind-blowing! When I did the swearing-in, they came with cupcakes and balloons. We are adding new life and ushering in a new chapter for the East Penn School Board.
Shonta worked in the mental health field when she was younger but then switched to the corporate world before launching her own event planning business. She decided to serve in politics after the George Floyd shooting. “It was a wake up call for me as a parent.”
Having the support from PASU helped counteract the challenges she faced, such as an online smear campaign and racially motivated attacks that, unfortunately, have become too common in our country.
“There was a group of people who collectively would do these attacks,” Shonta said. “It was coordinated. They said I was going to let black kids beat up white kids.”
They also tried to peg her as a criminal by bringing up a time she went to court to fight an eviction and a few traffic tickets.
“I’m not surprised that people would try to paint a black woman as a criminal because that is what the media often trades on with people who look like me,” Shonta said. “So I told them, ‘You’re actually encouraging me.’ I knew I was on the right track if they were coming for me.”
Shonta continued with a sly smile about what she next told her attackers:
That they use their time to volunteer to serve the homeless, like I do, you know? I made some suggestions on what better things they could do with their time. That’s my mental health training. I know the issue that they’re having really has nothing to do with me. If you’ve worked in a job where you had feces thrown at you, you pretty much can take on the keyboard warriors of Facebook.
PASU also helped Shonta with her own door-to-door efforts. “As a black woman alone, knocking on doors is tricky.” But having someone with her from PASU, “Then people felt comfortable and then I could start talking to the person and normalize the relationship.”
In November 2023, Shonta Ford won her seat for the East Penn School Board, part of a slate that beat far-right extremists aligned with Moms for Liberty.
Last November also saw the victory of 27-year-old Brittany Stephenson, who won a seat on the Luzerne County Council, the first Black woman to do so. She, too, is a big fan of PASU:
I love Pennsylvania Stands Up, they have some rock stars working for them! As a first-time candidate, as someone who was doing an extremely authentic grassroots campaign, I would say their being on the ground canvassing had a huge impact for my campaign. Personally, you know I had a very education-focused campaign, getting people to understand what democracy actually is and how that’s constantly being shaped by how they participate. It’s important that people my age get involved. PA Stands Up really helped me send that message.
PASU, which strongly believes not just in getting good people elected but in staying involved in policy-making to ensure good governance and accountability, continues to help Brittany in her new role. She notes:
I’m staying in touch with a lot of the heads of their committees. They continue to provide information when I want to know about, say, how is this housing project going? Or are there climate initiatives that we could have in the county? They are just eager and they’re finding the answers or they’re connecting me to people that I need to talk to.
Brittany adds with a laugh, “They’re living up to their website!”
Brittany, in turn, is living up to one of the key principles of why it matters that people like her are running for office and bringing new voters into the political process. As she said about her election victory, it “sends a wave of positive messages to everyone in the community to show everyday voters that they can do something like this. It tells them that the sky's the limit. If they are willing to try [and to vote!], they can have an impact.”
Another PASU-endorsed winner is Vanessa Campos, a new City Councilor for Reading, PA. She got inspired after her sister ran in 2021 for Magisterial District Judge and won. Vanessa spent 15 years as a public school teacher in Reading before trying her hand at politics. A county commissioner connected her with PASU. Like Shonta and Brittany, Vanessa also spoke of the organization’s importance:
They were a mentor that I needed to bounce ideas off and to identify myself as a candidate. And after I won, we’ve been staying in touch and continuing to be part of a progressive movement, and I still have that support, even as I’m sitting in the seat, I can always reach out a phone call away. They can help me think it through.
Unlike lobbyists. As Vanessa notes of PASU, “It’s not about their self-interest; it’s about the interest of the communities.”
When Vanessa won she was joined on the Council by two other new members, and described the impact on someone who attended a meeting:
This one young lady said she would have never stepped up to make a public comment if it wasn’t for this new council body. She said she was inspired by the diversity in the body. If it was the old council, she thought they wouldn’t care or they wouldn’t listen or they wouldn’t have seen her. You just never know how you influence others just by being in the seat.
PASU is deeply committed to elevating those whose voices have not been heard. Through canvassing, organizers first find out what communities want and need and connect the dots for them between voting and improved lives. Then they elevate community people who can deliver, identifying, encouraging, vetting, endorsing, and supporting the kind of leaders we need to run for office. After someone is elected, PASU continues to work with them in a co-governance model. PASU’s vision is clear:
Winning on issues that impact working people means changing who is in power–from US Congress to your local city councilor. No matter the office, no matter the election, our goal is to elect true champions who are committed to taking on the 1% and standing up for working people so we can build a Pennsylvania where each of us can thrive.
Shonta, Brittany, and Vanessa are among those true champions. None of these three women had ever run for office before. But each was devoted to community, with a passion for improving the lives of ordinary people. They cared enough to step up, and Pennsylvania Stands Up was right there with them. It’s a winning formula that inspires others to get involved and make a difference.
That’s how PASU brings about transformative change, from the bottom of the ballot to the top.
PENNSYLVANIA:
PUTTING DEMOCRACY
INTO ACTION
Heather Cox Richardson
Award-winning historian, author and podcaster
June 11, Tuesday
2pm PT / 5pm ET
(note earlier time, replay available)
Come hear historian Heather Cox Richardson, author of best-selling Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, as well as the award-winning newsletter, “Letters from an American.” A keen observer of progressive movements, she will let us in on how the struggle for economic justice is feeding into pressure for political change and how Pennsylvania is a promising example of that process.
Edwin Stubbs and Carrie Santoro from Pennsylvania Stands Up (PASU) will follow Heather and show us why the demand for economic justice in Pennsylvania is the basis for PASU’s plan for victory, and how you can help.
If you can’t attend but want to help PASU, click the donate button below:
Meet the Moment
The stakes are high. Our determination is strong. Grassroots organizers are the frontlines, donors are the supply lines. Here’s how to rise up to meet the seriousness of the moment:
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!
Make it Monthly–Your Own Anxiety Relief Program! Becoming a monthly donor means our partners can count on having resources right through to the election. Besides, you’ll feel better.
For Tax-Deductible Giving. Although non-tax-deductible 501c4 gifts allow our partners the most flexibility for political action, tax-deductible 501c3 donations are welcome too. 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.
FIELD NOTES
Pennsylvania Stands Up is gearing up to mobilize in Harrisburg June 10 to make sure that the state budget is a reflection of what communities need, not for the pockets of the ultra-wealthy.
Carolina Federation chapter Durham for All keeps up the pressure on City Hall to fund the Guaranteed Income Program: After a successful pilot program in 2023 that provided $600 per month for 12 months to 109 formerly incarcerated Durhamites, there’s an opportunity to increase the budget by $200,000 this budget cycle and make GI a permanent budget item to help the most financially vulnerable people in Durham.
Leaders United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) reject the GOP’s hateful rhetoric and dystopian politics. Read more.
Michigan’s We the People advocates for housing. “Our Home Team has been hammering the point that we all deserve a place to call home and make memories. That’s why our leaders picketed outside of the Building Michigan Communities Conference at the Lansing Center, where elite corporate and political figures are gathering this week to offer fake solutions to our very real and urgent housing problems. Our message is clear: we need common sense solutions like rent control, renters’ rights and social housing. Together, we can ensure all of us have a place to call home, pursue our dreams, and enjoy the comfort and safety we all deserve.”
