Democrats mobilize to elect Harris
“I really encourage you to think about what you can do in your community,” Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan).
What a transformative week it has been, since President Biden took the extraordinary step last Sunday of announcing the honorable, and clearly wrenching, decision not to seek re-election, and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee.
Suddenly, weeks of Democratic anxiety and doom abated, replaced virtually overnight by a surge of enthusiasm, energy and determination to work to elect Harris President of the United States and prevent Donald Trump from coming to power again. That surge is especially evident among women and younger people.
The Harris for President campaign announced today that it had raised $200 million in less than a week--66% of it from first-time donors. Over 170,000 new volunteers have signed up to volunteer for the campaign, it also said.
Thursday night, I listened in on a remarkable Zoom meeting organized by anti-gun violence activist Shannon Watts with nearly 200,000 women that raised over $11 million for the Harris for President campaign—apparently one of the largest Zooms of all time. (You can watch a video of the event here.)
Galvanizing voters to get to work
The virtual meeting was electrifying, because it was not just about raising money or singing Harris’ praises. It was about getting the people on the call to roll up their sleeves: inspiring, educating, mobilizing and empowering citizens to think about how they can work to get the candidates they want into office.
Another Women for Harris Zoom event is scheduled for Monday*—99 days out from the election. (*updated with new date)
‘You just make it up’
What I was most impressed by were the stories of women who started mobilizing in their communities, particularly after Trump’s election in 2016. Some, like now-Michigan congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, ran for office themselves. She is now running for Senator in Michigan.
Slotkin, a former Defense Department and CIA official who did three tours in Iraq, said she was very apolitical until Trump’s election in 2016.
“Politics was not part of my life,” Slotkin said on the Zoom. “And then 2016 happened. And I so did not understand how to get involved in politics.”
“I came home to my family farm in Michigan, a pretty red area, and I googled local Democratic club and there was no club in my town. I actually found the Indivisible Club, and that was the first time I engaged at all in anything political.
“And the truth is, there is no right way to do this,” Slotkin said. “There’s no formula… You just make it up. You make it up how to best be useful. And I represent an area that’s pretty purple, that swings back and forth, and that tends to be Republican-leaning. And I just want to say, particularly to women who may live in areas like that, it can be very, very difficult to be the only open-minded, progressive Democrat person in your town, in your area.”
“So I just want to put a plug in for what it can be to have one woman take a risk, and put like a yard sign out for Kamala Harris,” she said. “What it means to just do one little thing in a community that’s not used to having people out about being Democrats or being more open-minded about things.
“I really encourage you to think about what you can do in your community,” she said. “Every friend group has like that person…who like knows a little bit more than everybody, who follows it a little bit closer, and everyone comes to them and says, ‘who should I vote for? What should I do? How do I get involved?’”
“Be that person in your friend group,” Slotkin urged. “Pay attention and get engaged a little bit more than you usually do, and be that woman who like knows where to get the yard sign, and knows how to get on the zooms and knows how to donate and all those things.
“The fight is beginning,” she said. “In the swing states, this is by no means a done deal. …So I appreciate everyone on this call doing that work.”
“Remember, right up until the day that they got rid of Roe versus Wade, they were claiming there was nothing to worry about, that they weren’t serious about it,” Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of pro-democracy/anti MAGA group Indivisible Team, said on the Zoom, referring to Republicans. “But they were serious about getting rid of Roe versus Wade, and they are dead serious about putting Project 2025 into action.”
Women, especially, are mobilizing to come out big time for Kamala Harris this November, and fight like hell to try to keep Donald Trump from returning to the White House, for Democratic majorities to regain reproductive rights and protect access to health care, and protect America’s institutions and the courts from being further corrupted by Trump.
“I covered the Clinton campaign, the Women’s March, the anti-Trump resistance, the wave of women in the 2018 midterms…and the momentum for Harris over the last five days is basically like all of that rolled together,” Time correspondent Charlotte Alter wrote on Twitter Thursday. “These organizers built muscle memory, and it never went away.”
“In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America’s future,” President Biden said in an Oval Office address to the American people explaining his decision not to run again Wednesday night.
“I made my choice,” he said, going on to praise his vice president Kamala Harris. “She’s experienced. She’s tough. She’s capable. She has been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.
“Now the choice is up to you, the American people,” he said. “Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands.”
“History is in your hands,” he said. “The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands.”
“Ultimately, in this moment,… we each in our country face a question,” Harris said in a speech to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in Houston, Texas on Thursday (July 25). “That question being: What kind of country do we want to live in — a country of freedom, compassion, and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear, and hate?
“The beauty of our democracy is that we each have the power to answer that question when we vote,” Harris said. “And when we vote, we make our voices heard.”
So, today I ask you, AFT: Are you ready to make your voices heard? (Applause.)
Do we believe in freedom? (Applause.)
Do we believe in opportunity? (Applause.)
Do we believe in the promise of America? (Applause.)
And are we ready to fight for it? (Applause.)
And when we fight —
AUDIENCE: We win!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: — we win.
God bless you. And God bless the United States of America. (Applause.) God bless you.
If you are a U.S. citizen interested in getting involved, the DNC is hosting a National Organizing Call with Vice President Harris on Tuesday, July 30. A sign-up link is here.
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