The Annual General Meeting and Elections will be held on Saturday, 13 May from 10:00am to 1pm (approx.) at the ESERP Business School, Calle Girona 24, Barcelona. Stay tuned for more details on the event.

Elections for officers of the Barcelona chapter of Democrats Abroad Spain for the 2023–2024 term are approaching quickly. The new term will run from the moment elections have been decided until the Spring of 2025, meaning that the coming term will see the all-important General and Presidential Elections of 2024. You can play a leading role in the Democrats retaining the White House and the Senate, retaking the House, and continuing to champion democracy and equal opportunity.

The following offices are up for election this year: Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. Officers serve a two-year term and can hold the same office for a maximum of two consecutive terms. To submit your candidacy, use the nomination form here.

Want to learn more? Join the Orientation Meeting on Tuesday, 28 March at 7:30 pm on Zoom, at which we will provide further insights on the roles now open, the nomination and election process and the AGM. Past and current officeholders will be on hand to provide more information and answer all your questions about the different roles and what they involve. 

Ballots for the April 4th election must be received by your stateside local election official or clerk by 8pm on election day! If you haven't send it back yet, it's time to think about express mail, courier or other service. The number one reason overseas ballots were rejected in 2020 was late arrival. Don't become a statistic! 

This webinar, “WEP and Americans Abroad”, focuses on an issue which impacts on many Americans living abroad. Democrats Abroad has been working on the elimination of WEP since the early 2000s. We know in the last Congress that HR 82 Social Security Fairness Act of 2022 which would have repealed WEP did not pass. In the current Congress, HR 82 Social Security Fairness Act of 2023 was introduced in the House on January 9th 2023 by Representative Gareth Graves (Republican, Louisiana District 6). Again, we have a bill that eliminates WEP.

The DA Seniors Caucus is currently working on WEP elimination and this webinar stems from this activity. What is WEP? Will it affect me when I retire abroad? How do I prepare for it? What if as a retired person I receive a pension from abroad as well as Social Security – how will WEP affect me?  Please attend this webinar to have answers to these important questions.

Our guest speaker is Nancy Altman from Social Security Works and she will speak to us about WEP and answer our questions about WEP.

About our Speaker:

Nancy J. Altman has a forty-five year background in the areas of Social Security and private pensions. She is president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition.
Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi appointed Ms. Altman to a six-year term, starting October 1, 2017, on the Social Security Advisory Board. The seven-person Board is a bipartisan, independent federal government agency established in 1994 to advise the President, Congress, and the Commissioner of Social Security.
Ms. Altman is the author of The Battle for Social Security: From FDR’s Vision to Bush’s Gamble (John Wiley & Sons, 2005) and The Truth About Social Security: The Founders’ Words Refute Revisionist History, Zombie Lies, and Common Misunderstandings (Strong Arm Press, 2018). She is also co-author of Social Security Works! Why Social Security Isn’t Going Broke and How Expanding It Will Help Us All (The New Press, 2015). She has shared her Social Security expertise on numerous television and radio shows, including PBS NewsHour, MSNBC, and FOX News. She has published op-eds in dozens of newspapers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
From 1983 to 1989, Ms. Altman was on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and taught courses on private pensions and Social Security at the Harvard Law School. In 1982, she was Alan Greenspan’s assistant in his position as chairman of the bipartisan commission that developed the 1983 Social Security amendments.
From 1977 to 1981, she was a legislative assistant to Senator John C. Danforth (R-Mo) and advised the Senator with respect to Social Security issues. From 1974 to 1977, she was a tax lawyer with Covington & Burling, where she handled a variety of private pension matters.
Ms. Altman chairs the Board of Directors of the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of beneficiary rights. She is a member of the Boards of Directors of the Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund, the Economic Opportunity Institute, Latinos for the Secure Retirement, and the Institute for America’s Future. In the mid-1980’s, she was on the organizing committee and the first board of directors of the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Wisconsin team co-chairs Liz Blackbourn and Annie Graul had a blast talking about all things Wisconsin on the popular radio program As Goes Wisconsin. (if this radio show/podcast is not on your regular playlist, it should be!) Check out the recording here.

Calling All DPCA Officers... to Vote On 2024 Delegate Selection Plan

Connection details will be emailed to all Democrats Abroad member RSVP's closer to the meeting date.

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Every four years, the Democratic Party begins designing the Delegate Selection Rules and a resulting nominating process for the next presidential election.

While the Rules drafting process begins anew after each Presidential election, many norms and traditions carry over, including a rule that lets some states hold their nominating contest early, which in 2024 will be South Carolina, Nevada & New Hampshire, Michigan, and Georgia.

Democrats Abroad has worked hard at crafting our Delegate Selection Plan, which is the guiding document as we play our part in nominating our Party's 2024 nominees for President and Vice President of the United States.

You can review a copy of our draft 2024 Delegate Selction Plan which was posted for public comment on our website on March 6, 2023, and submit your by writing to [email protected] through April 5, 2023.

(Please include the page and line number your feedback refers to in your email. Thank you!)

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NOTICE: This meeting will be recorded, including audio, video, and any materials exchanged or viewed during the session.

The Spain Women's Caucus is hosting our second informal one hour chat that we are calling  ‘Let’s Talk!’ to close out the month of March, Women’s History Month. 

The focus will be on sharing who our personal female heroes are, be they historical, current, famous or not. As well we can talk about what is on our minds, for example the ERA, abortion rights, and being a foreign female living in Spain.  It will be a very informal gathering with a flexible agenda. 

The suggested topics are:

• Who is your female hero? (How do we define the word ‘hero’?) 
• What is going on in the USA!?! (ERA, abortion rights, the current Supreme Court etc. etc. (The list is too long!) 
• What is it like to be a foreign woman living in Spain? 
• What is on your mind?

This is what we're up against in April, as per WisDems : 

“Dan Kelly is a fatally flawed and ethically compromised MAGA extremist who promises a future for Wisconsin in which patients are unable to access basic reproductive health care, doctors are at risk of prosecution, and the very integrity of our democracy is called into question.

“In his previous tenure on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, extremist Dan Kelly repeatedly twisted our Constitution and our laws to the benefit of right-wing special interests, and in the years since his 2020 defeat, Kelly has cashed paychecks from these same special interests. Dan Kelly has shamefully compared Social Security to slavery, and has fully embraced extremist groups campaigning to fully enforce Wisconsin’s draconian 1849 criminal abortion ban."

Not a good look for our beloved home state. Please fill out your Backup Ballot (or FWAB) and get it in the mail ASAP! 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 4th is THE most important election of 2023. This election will decide everything from if abortion is outlawed in the state, to if the gerrymander that has turned Wisconsin into a one party state is allowed to stand, to whether this ultimate swing state is allowed to send electors to Washington who didn’t win the popular vote, potentially swinging the 2024 Presidential Election to Republicans even if the Democrats win. Democracy itself is literally on the line with this election, not just in Wisconsin but for the entire nation. To get you fired up and passionate about this game changing moment in time, Politics Girl talks to Ben Wikler, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, who not only knows everything about Wisconsin politics, but he knows how to win even when it seems the game is rigged against him. If you want to live in a country with a functioning democracy, there is nothing more important for you to be paying attention to right now than this one special election. 

After two years of meeting predominantly on Zoom, we were extremely happy to gather in person for the 2022 Annual General Meeting of Democrats Abroad Barcelona.

Barcelona leaders and nearly two dozen attendees spoke at length about the importance of this year's midterm election and -- in the context of recent news that the Supreme Court is on the verge of overturning Roe vs. Wade -- the fact that our votes matter now more than ever. We discussed how we can work together to turn out more overseas votes from Barcelona, beginning with phonebanking, registering high school and college students, and holding in-person voter registration events. We have already begun attending the American Society of Barcelona's monthly happy hours, where we talk to Americans about the importance of voting and how to use www.votefromabroad.org. More voter registration events will be held throughout the summer and fall of 2022 - stay tuned! 

Vice-chair Rachel Mantiñan reviewed the plethora of online events held during the last year as part of our highly successful La Lucha Continúa series, as well as a few times that we were able to gather in person. Membership and treasurer's reports were made, and Chair Chris Reilly explained a few highlights of global activity. The meeting was adjourned and members' attention turned to eating, drinking and enjoying the beautiful spring day and the wonderful company of other DA members. 

If you've missed any of our amazing La Lucha Continúa speakers this year, never fear! We have recorded the sessions. Links are below: 

On January 11, 2020, DA Spain (hosted by DA Barcelona) had the distinct pleasure of hearing from Rachel Vindman (and briefly from her husband Alex as well). Rachel is an activist and plain-spoken political commentator who fights for justice and American democracy. She shared observations from her vantage point in the suburbs of Washington, DC and acknowledged that we, as Americans living abroad, have a unique perspective on the events unfolding back home. She enthusiastically encouraged all members to register to vote and to vote in every election — not just the “big” races at the top of the ballot. The problems with our democracy, she said, have been imposed from the top down – but the solutions must come from the bottom (that’s us!) up. 

On March 8, we had a very interesting conversation with Texas lobbyists Bee Moorhead and Josh Houston, who tried valiantly to explain what’s going on at the Texas state legislature. Heavy-handed Republicans in control there are seriously restricting voting rights, and had the opportunity to field-test their restrictive new policies in the primary elections on March 1st. Our guest speakers went over all the recent developments, and explained what they are doing to defend Texans’ right to vote.

On March 22, we spoke with legendary election whisperer Rachel Bitecofer, founder of StrikePAC. Dr. Bitecofer was the first (and one of the few) to predict a huge blue wave in 2018. She had a serious message for us in 2022. Be sure to listen to the recording, where she makes it clear US democracy is in a "break glass" moment.

David Pepper is former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, a former councilman for the city of Cincinnati and former member of the Hamilton County, Ohio Board of Commissioners. He is also a prolific author, having published four political thrillers. In October 2021, he published the nonfiction book Laboratories of Autocracy, an urgent message to Americans about the attack from within on our democracy. In the book, he describes how the GOP has gradually, almost imperceptibly taken over the mechanics of our democratic system by winning local and state elections and then changing to rules to keep their hold on power. On April 5, 2022, David Pepper spoke frankly to Democrats Abroad Spain about the importance of knowing what's going on in your home state, being informed on the issues, and voting in every local and state election.

If the outcome of COP26 teaches us anything, it’s that people whose interests are anchored in the past are not going to help us build a better future. This is why young people must step up and get more involved at this crucial time – and why we are excited to announce the formation of the DAS Youth Caucus. 

The new group is led by Hunter Baldridge, a graduate student at Saint Louis University in Madrid. If you are interested in helping out or getting involved feel free to connect with Hunter via our newly created Instagram or by email. The first order of business is to grow the caucus’s following by figuring out where students and young adults are located across Spain. With this base, the team will be putting out a call for a five-member steering committee. This committee will be responsible for developing activities, strategies and social media campaigns. Once everything is set up, the Youth Caucus will host events, register students to vote, and increase involvement of the 18-35 age range in our political system. The 2022 midterms are coming up fast, so there is no time to waste!

On October 2, Barcelona members of Democrats Abroad and the DA Spain Women's Caucus, in collaboration with other women's groups in Barcelona, gathered at Plaza Catalunya to support the protests organized in the US by Women's March and raise our voices in defense of women's reproductive rights. A threat to women's rights anywhere is a threat to women's rights everywhere, and the uncertain future of Roe v. Wade in the US makes it increasingly evident that women and their allies worldwide must speak up and resist this attack. 

Barcelona chapter members had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th of July at a park on the waterfront, catching up with old friends and welcoming some new faces. It was one of our first chapter-wide in-person events since March 2020, and the excitement at seeing fellow DA members and friends was palpable. Newly elected vice-chair Rachel Mantiñán spoke about the challenges that lie ahead as we work toward the November 2022 midterms, and treasurer Hunter Roberts spoke about the importance of donating to Democrats Abroad in order to help make the magic happen again. If you have questions about donations, where the money goes and how you get more bang for the buck when you donate to DA than to candidate campaigns, please reach out ([email protected]). We are happy to provide more information about how your donations can help elect Democrats and preserve American democracy.

Our next gathering, still in the works, will be a movie viewing at an outdoor venue. Date and movie title will be announced soon, but plan loosely on a late September event. We will also be starting a postcard campaign this fall, and will be putting out a call for volunteers to print, color, address and stamp postcards to be mailed in early 2021, reminding DA members that they need to re-register every election year.

Finally, if you are not already a member of the DA Barcelona Signal group, please take a moment to join so you can stay on top of all the latest news and conversations. Click here to join.

From the Nominations and Election Committee: 

During the DA Barcelona annual general meeting, held May 15, 2021, the results of the Barcelona chapter election were announced. Elected leaders for the next two years (2021-2023) will be: 

Chair: Chris Reilly

Vice Chair: Rachel Mantiñán

Elections for new 2021–2023 DA-Barcelona officers are coming up fast, as the current terms of office are drawing to a close. This is your chance to participate in your local chapter of Democrats Abroad! 

Democrats Abroad Spain (DAS) is holding Executive Committee (excom) elections for the 2021-2023 term and we need your vote! 

Our organization depends on the participation of the members as we renew our group for the continuing struggle for a better USA and a better world through democratic political engagement. Please help select the new Democrats Abroad Spain leadership committee of Chairperson, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Counsel, and 4 Voting Representatives.

This will be the first time we will organize our DAS chapter elections purely online. Ballot emails (actually an email with a link to an online voting site) were sent out on March 5, 2021. If you think that you did not receive this email, please follow the instructions below.

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The Kamala Inauguration Kocktail is a perfect blend of carefully selected ingredients that will ease the transition into a new administration.