From Orange to Blue!

Orange County, CA, is home to four key congressional races–more than any other state! With our help, the five OC groups we support will train 350 new organizers, register 34,000 new voters, and manage 1,000 volunteers! With large Korean, Vietnamese and Spanish-speaking populations, this job has to be done from the inside, by groups people know and trust.

Airlift's Orange County Civic Engagement Table, a part of Airlift's West by Southwest Fund, is a coalition of Latino, Asian-American, faith-based, and low-income organizations. in one recent week, they registered over 1,000 new voters while leading direct actions in multiple cities to defend DACA. Their increased capacity will be used to communicate with hundreds of thousands of voters, including a number of new voters registered through California’s automatic voter registration laws. This information will be “in-language” for their Vietnamese and Korean communities and will include voter education and mobilization materials. The in-language capacity developed by these groups is very unusual in the electoral space. 

Hillary won Orange County in 2016. Now we need to make it happen from the bottom up.

 

Conor Lamb PA Congressional Race Just Became a 3-Pointer!

The Pennsylvania special Congressional election on March 13th, with Conor Lamb, a former Marine and federal prosecutor, running against Republican Rick Saccone, just became a 3-pointer.

Lamb is trailing in the latest Monmouth Poll by only 3 points in a +11 Republican district. If you’re a Warriors fan, you know about the power of 3-pointers.

We are recommending that everyone in our network help out a tenacious grassroots group called One Pennsylvania. They are getting out the vote for Conor Lamb by organizing young and minority voters. These people overwhelmingly vote our way — if we get them to the polls.

Matt Singer, Airlift’s top adviser, thinks that One Pennsylvania is poised to play a serious role as PA redraws its district maps for the big one in November.

We know from Virginia and Alabama that this stuff works. 

Students are Waking Up!

Following on brilliant successes at college campuses in Virginia, Airlift-supported groups like Alliance for Youth Action / Student Power Network are planning for massive mobilizations at 500 college campuses across the country! They are cracking the code with a sophisticated festival atmosphere mix of DJs, free food, animals to pet, voter ed., and Election Day dorm sweeps. 

These groups have developed sophisticated systems for registering and turning out young voters . Their local organizations are completely run by young people. And they have been successful at creating programs that work so well they have been taken over by major funders like NextGen America.

Alliance for Youth Action, a part of Airlift's Network Effect Fund, has been a major force behind automatic voter registration in four states, including the first such bill in the country. And they helped oust the Cook County (Chicago) States Attorney, the fight that activated prosecutor races nationwide. In last fall’s elections, using sophisticated, proven programs on and off campus they were instrumental in tripling youth (under 30) turnout. As high school students across the country escalate their protests over gun control, these groups are ready to provide organizing support. 

$500 pays half the cost of training a local organizer. We know young people vote the right way. They just need some cajoling and pizza to make sure they show up.

Organize Florida Helps Ensure the Right to Vote

Organize Florida (a part of Airlift's Voter Motor Fund) is engaged in the biggest voter suppression battle in the country–restoring voting rights to 1.6 million felons who have to wait years and show up at the State Clemency Board to individually plead their cases.

We just learned that Organize Florida and their partners have gathered over 500,000 signatures, enough to ensure that a Florida constitutional amendment to automatically restore their right to vote will be on the ballot in 2018.

This would bring Florida voting laws in line with most of the country and welcome folks who have paid their debt back to society.

This effort focuses on Puerto Ricans, all US citizens by birth, who are settling in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. AIRLIFT helps Organize Florida welcome these new residents, support their relocation and resettlement during an incredibly difficult period, and ensure that they become engaged in Florida political life.

Our next job: help Organize Florida make sure 1.5 million targeted people know what to do on Election Day.

Communities for a New California Engages CA's Latino Democrats

With California's Latino population at close to 40%, and a tendency of that portion of the electorate to vote 3:1 Democratic, It's a mystery to us why the Democratic Party would routinely ignore Latino Democrats. Enter Communities for a New California, an organization in Airlift's West by Southwest Fund, which is reaching out to this population in numerous ways. CNC:

• Runs very sophisticated phone banking operation in the CA Central Valley–they are a trusted local organization with incredible metrics

• Reaches an average of 700 voters a night using predictive dialers

• Has real conversations with disengaged voters 4 times per year, the kind of people that were being ignored in the present system, instead of being brought in. (Read more about some of the dynamics involving Latino voters in California.)

AIRLIFT’s first contribution of $1,500 allowed CNC to put on two additional shifts that talked to 700 voters. Real money going to real people talking to voters one-on-one to make a difference.

Start 2018 by Contributing to Airlift's Winning Strategy

If you contributed to Airlift this year, you sent money to the New Virginia Project, which fought for 12 candidates—11 of whom won in November.

If you followed Airlift recommendations in Alabama, you helped people like Rev. Kenneth Glasgow register 5,000 inmates in Alabama jails and prisons—in an election that was decided by 20,000 votes.

Airlift works with some amazing people who keep tabs on grassroots groups in battleground districts across the country. 

We help you focus your political giving like a zen archer. We give you winning strategies, vetted groups and monthly reports on what your money is doing. And none of it goes to consultants or TV.

So before you kiss 2017 goodbye, go to airlift.fund and end the year on a positive note. Contributions to Airlift are not tax-deductible because we are here to win elections.

Mobilizing the Grassroots for a Big Win in Alabama

Photo: DeJuana Thompson, AL.com

A mere few months ago, the New York Times and other media outlets were writing off the South in general and voters of color in particular for being disinterested in politics and in voting for Democrats. Now that Doug Jones has handily defeated Roy Moore in the Alabama special senate election, the media is catching up.

“The Alabama special election … affirms that the coalition that elected and re-elected an African-American as president of the United States remains a majority of the country’s population. By combining a large and inspired turnout of voters of color with the meaningful minority of whites who consistently vote progressive — even in a state like Alabama — Democrats can win across the country.”

“African-American voters were a decisive force in the election, showing up in huge numbers and casting nearly all their votes — 96 percent — for Mr. Jones.” 

By late November, the Democratic party had spent nearly $7 million on TV ads aimed at white voters and online fund-raising to continue to pay for those ads. Even after the previously “unwinnable” race had been deemed a wide-open contest.

At the same time, black organizers, particularly women – like DeJuana Thompson of Woke Vote and LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter – were mobilizing and organizing.

Airllift knew of 30 black grassroots groups around the state that needed money fast to hire organizers. We were part of an amazing operation that moved $300,000 to these groups almost overnight. We helped fund 30 local grassroots partners that hired 600 organizers and 108 "Righteous Vote Faith Captains," ran GOTV (Get Out the Vote) rallies in 6 major cities, engaged students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and provided rides to the polls in rural Black Belt communities.

Most importantly, we gave people who were already on the ground the tools to amplify their powerful voices. We helped give them the ability to build something for themselves by focusing not just on the election at hand but on helping them build the infrastructure to sustain their operations year-round, so they could continue to galvanize their networks to make change long after the current election cycle ends.

That last is at the heart of what Airlift is about. We seek to duplicate Alabama’s success story in Georgia and Florida, and around the U.S.

Movement for Black Lives Launches Electoral Justice Project and Black November

We’re excited about two new initiatives from Movement for Black Lives. In October, M4BL launched the Electoral Justice Project with 50 black organizations to:

·      Grow the capacity of grassroots organizations to enact political change

·      Expand and mobilize the black electorate

·      Help bring a more hopeful vision to people’s lives through political and social change

Watch a moving video about the Electoral Justice Project.

In addition, Movement for Black Lives hosted #BlackNovember, during which the group held 76 black-led town halls all around the U.S. to show what electoral justice can look like and to help create “a loving and strategic political home for black people to seek transformational political change”.

Movement for Black Lives, a part of Airlift's Network Effect Fund, is largely led by women of color, and while it arose in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement, it addresses issues beyond police violence and criminal justice to include state violence in all of its manifestations, including health care and education justice and voting rights.

Just to give you an idea of how cool this group is, M4BL hosts its website in Spanish, French, Chinese and Arabic. A long way from Ferguson!

18 Who Beat the Odds

A pattern is already emerging in this young election season: “Improbable Winners”, the kinds of races and candidates that pundits and others are quick to write off, often because they don’t fit traditional profiles or molds. The kinds of candidates who are winning and who are going to win even more. The kinds of candidates and campaigns Airlift supports.

The Old School way was that candidates were dictated by the party, with messages, appeal and policies shaped by focus groups.

The following candidates are all New School. They rose from the bottom up, despite the odds against them. They were nurtured by the grassroots. Their backgrounds enable them to understand and work for their constituents, as they break various glass ceilings.

Let’s meet them!

DANICA ROEM (pictured, right) will serve in the Virginia House of Delegates and will be the first openly transgender person to serve in any state legislature in the country.  Roem soundly defeated Bob Marshall, a longtime Republican delegate who sponsored legislation that would have restricted transgender bathroom use and who called himself the state's "chief homophobe."

LEE CARTER is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a Marine Corps veteran. Go figure. Carter beat the Republican majority whip in Virginia, despite being given little chance by state Democratic party leaders.

HALA AYALA is one of the first Latinas in the Virginia House of Delegates. She just knocked off a four-term Republican incumbent in the 51st district. Not bad for someone running for the first time!

ELIZABETH GUZMAN came to America from Peru as a single mom looking for a better future for her daughter. I worked 3 jobs to be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment. My opponent accused me of wanting to protect criminals. Well guess what? now I am a Virginia state legislator. 

VI LYLES became the first African-American female mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, at the age of 66. We believe her election will lead more young women to think it’s possible for them.

KATHY TRAN came to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam when she was a little girl. She is now the first Asian American woman to join the Virginia House of Delegates,  replacing a Republican who served for 24 years.

RAVI BHALLA is the new Sikh-American mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey. Bhalla is everything Trump hates. Bhalla has pledged to defend our rights as immigrants and minorities whenever they come under attack.

ASHLEY BENNETT, a New Jersey woman of color, took the job of her local county freeholder—after the man had posted a Facebook meme asking if the participants in the Women’s March would be home in time to make dinner

JANET DIAZ is the first Latina city council member in Lancaster, PA. She believes that the political climate following the presidential election has spurred many people to engage in the political process on the local level to protect their own communities.

ALLISON IKLEY-FREEMAN is a 26-year-old lesbian who picked up a key state Senate seat in Oklahoma, marking the 4th seat Democrats have gained in special elections in the Oklahoma this year. Her district went for Trump by a 40% margin,

ANDREA JENKINS won the race on November 7th for an open seat on the Minneapolis City Council with over 73 percent of the vote. She is a 56-year-old poet and historian who transitioned in her 30s, and spent years as a policy aide to two previous council members in the same ward. She is the first openly transgender candidate elected to the city council of a major U.S. city.

PHILLIPE CUNNINGHAM is a 29-year old transgender black man who unseated Barb Johnson, the leader of the Minneapolis City Council. Phillipe’s issues are environmental justice, clean energy access, and good governance.

RANDALL WOODFIN is a 36-year-old black man who was elected Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. Woodfin ran on a platform of debt-free college for high school graduates, a summer jobs program for city teens, and a $15 minimum wage. Woodfin beat his two-term opponent by 17 points, even winning the opponent’s home district. 

MANKA DHINGRA was born in India. After her father died, she moved to the U.S., where I studied at UC Berkeley and became a District Attorney in Seattle, fighting for immigrants and women who were victims of domestic violence. She is Washington’s newest state senator, which means the Democrats now control the governorship and both houses of the WA state legislature.

JOYCE CRAIG is the first woman mayor in the 266-year history of Manchester,  New Hampshire. She almost beat the Republican mayor in 2015. This time it wasn’t even close. She pledges to improve city schools, reduce crime, and address the opioid crisis.

WILMOT COLLINS (pictured) arrived in Helena, Montana, 23 years ago as a refugee from Liberia. Collins, a 54-year-old black man, Naval Reservist and child protection specialist with the state of Montana, was recently elected Mayor of Helena, Montana.

STEPHANIE MORALES is a black woman who just got reelected as the District Attorney of Portsmouth County, Virginia. Morales prosecuted and won a conviction in a case of a white police officer who killed a young, unarmed black man in a Wal-Mart parking lot. A lot of folks thought that would get her unelected. She got 62% of the vote.

JENNY DURKAN was just elected to be Seattle’s first lesbian mayor, sending a clear message to Donald Trump…Keep your hands off Seattle.

MELVIN CARTER is the first black mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. “We’ve built what I’m excited to say is a big, bold, bad vision for the future of St. Paul.”

We look forward to meeting and supporting more "improbable" winners in 2018 and beyond.

Photos: Courtesy Danica Roem, Montana Senior News/ Nann Parrett