In This Issue —

New Year’s Greeting

Events:

• Americans Abroad and the $600 Economic Impact Payment
• DA Global Black Caucus: MLK Film Night
• DA Austria Biden/Harris Inauguration Watch Party
• DA Global Women's Caucus: Inauguration Celebration
• Solidarity Sundays: Americans Divided
• DA Austria Annual General Meeting

Issues & Actions:

• Looking Forward
• Save the Date! Annual General Meeting & Elections
• Open Volunteer Positions
• Fixing Democracy Project by Solidarity Sundays

Reviews:

• Punching for Democracy

Our Executive Committee meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month. Our next meeting will be held online on: Wednesday, January 13, 2020, at 7 p.m. Members are welcome to join us at the meetings. Please contact Jennifer at chair@democratsabroad.at to join.

DAA is making a strong effort to include in our monthly newsletter all the information you need to stay up to date in order to avoid the flood of emails that occurs in an election year. By sending you fewer emails, we hope you will read those you receive. Thanks for reading!

New Year’s Greeting —

You did it!

Going into 2020, none of us could have imagined the pandemic that lay around the corner and just how challenging it would be to help people vote in 2020.

But, with the two Georgia Senate seats going blue on 5 November, we did it — together!

Whether online, on the phone, with postcards, at voter help tables, or ads in Metropole Magazine — thanks to you, your countless volunteer hours, your generous donations, and, most importantly, your vote, DA Austria pulled off record-breaking voter returns. Toi toi!

After last week’s seditious attack on the US Capitol building and an attempt to overturn a free and fair election, it is all too clear that the challenges that lay ahead have not diminished and will require all of our continued efforts. As Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said in her acceptance speech on November 7, “Now is when the real work begins. The hard work. The necessary work. The good work.” Four democracy-threatening years are just a few days from being behind us. Now, we’ll not only need to address the critical issues before us but also repair the gaping holes in our democracy and civil society.

This new year, I’m looking forward to brighter days when the Experienced Dems will once again meet for wine and the Progressive Dems for pizza; Solidarity Sundays will be working to fix our democracy, and we’ll all be able to celebrate Thanksgiving again—together. In the meantime, I hope you will join us online on Tuesday, January 20 as we watch the 46th President of the United States and a history making Vice President be sworn into office.

Until we can meet again in person and in the name of the entire Executive Committee, DA Austria wishes you health and happiness in 2021!

Democratically Yours,

Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, DA Austria Chair

Events:

About the Inauguration Watch Party —

We’ll not only be watching and discussing the events in Washington, DC, but we’ll also feature a few special guests and other activities. If you missed the Election Night party, you’ll definitely want to tune into the LIberadio Show out of Vorarlberg. Stephanie and Diego are our hosts and will spin a few tunes as we try to answer their Inaugural quiz questions for DAA swag. We’ll also be joined again by former DAA Chair Keith and mixology partner Kate as they mix up some Liberal Libations for us to enjoy (see the ingredients below).

So grab your martini glass and patriotic paraphernalia as we celebrate a Democratic victory in the House, Senate and White House!

Liberal Libations:

Will be mixing The President and The Kamala Harris Victory Cup for us. We’ll be mixing our victory cocktails together.

Be sure to have on hand:

Issues & Actions:

Looking Forward

The silver lining in moving online is that many of our members across Austria and Europe have been able to come to our events, and we’ve been able to join their’s. I hope many of you will take the opportunity to attend the Global Black Caucus for a film night and discussion on Martin Luther King holiday or the Global Women’s Caucus for an Inaugural Celebration and plan to keep volunteers engaged. And, for those of you hoping to get a stimulus check, Nathalie Goldstein from My Expat Taxes will be answering your questions on January 13.

For more information and to RSVP for all these events, click the links in Events above.

Save the Date!
Annual General Meeting & Executive Committee Elections

Fresh voices, energy, and ideas — save the date! On March 21, 2021 DA Austria members will meet online for our Annual General Meeting and to elect a new Executive Committee. More information about the meeting and how you can run will be posted in February’s newsletter, but we wanted to make sure you add this important date to your calendar!

Youth Caucus Coordinator Position Open

If you or someone you know is interested in building your resume and being a key component of DA Austria’s youth outreach, please contact me at: chair@democratsabroad.at

–Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, Chair DA Austria

Fixing Democracy Project

We’re turning Trump out of the White House, but that’s only the first step. America’s democracy has been hijacked, and we need to get it back. Throughout 2021, our Fixing Democracy Project looks at one democratic institution a month. We‘ll examine why it‘s not working and inspect solutions.

Our year-long series starts on January 31 at 4 p.m. with Solidarity Sundays 39: Americans Divided and a look at our troubling political divide: Who voted for Trump? Why? And how do we interact with them? Or not?

Many of us want to initiate conversations with Republicans to cultivate solidarity. We‘ll explore ideas, and share tips and resources for conducting difficult conversations on your own.

Check out the 2021 agenda for the Fixing Democracy Project — what do you want to work on? https://www.facebook.com/solsunvienna/guides/?view_public_for=2248595575364902&ref=page_internal

—Tanya Lolonis, Solidarity Sundays Vienna Co-Founder

Reviews:

ProDA “Progressive Punch”

On December 6th, a dozen progressive “punchers” convened via Zoom to discuss president-elect Biden’s developing cabinet and agenda for the presidency’s first 100 days and beyond. These were our central questions:

• How might the Georgia run-off elections influence the developing team and its agenda?
• How will the administration respond to the coronavirus health and economic crises?
• What steps will it take to combat climate change quickly and effectively?
• What can we do to influence the decisions?

We enjoyed our favorite holiday punch, heard talking-point reports from ProDA Austria members, discussed in small-group break-out rooms, then held a joint discussion of what we expect. Finally, we considered action options to ensure our expectations are met. Please look for an invitation to our January event soon!

– Bruce Murray, ProDA Leader

Thank you for reading January’s newsletter!

In this Issue:

Events:

• Progressive Caucus
• Solidarity Sundays — will be back in January 2021!

Issues & Actions:

• DA Austria’s Super Volunteers
• Georgia on Our Mind
• Post-Election Round Up
• DA’s Phonebanking Campaign
• Youth Caucus Coordinator Position Open
• Democratic Holiday Gifts

Reviews:

• Solidarity Sundays

Our Executive Committee meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month. Our next meeting will be held online on: Wednesday, December 9, 2020, at 7 p.m. Members are welcome to join us at the meetings. Please contact Jennifer at chair@democratsabroad.at to join.

DAA is making a strong effort to include in our monthly newsletter all the information you need to stay up to date in order to avoid the flood of emails that occurs in an election year. By sending you fewer emails, we hope you will read those you receive. Thanks for reading!

Events:

Issues & Actions:

DA Austria’s Super Volunteers

Every election cycle has a few super volunteers who go to extraordinary efforts to help get out the vote by calling members, registering new voters at schools and universities, and assisting people with their ballots. This last election was extraordinary in many ways, including the number of dedicated volunteers who, since January, have dedicated tens of hours and made thousands of calls and helped hundreds of people at in-person voter events. Because of them, 80% of DA Austria membership engaged with our VoteFromAbroad.org website and turned out to vote. Thank you to all our volunteers and especially the super volunteers!

Top callers: S. Ball, A. Beckman, R. Franks, D. Heatherman, R. Miller, B. Murray, Y. Richard, M. Rosenberg, W. Rosenzweig, J. Schechner, M. Wagner. Voter Help Tables: L. Davidson, S. Don, D. Englund, E. France, A. Grossman, M. Kollert, S. Kulnigg, T. Lolonis, R. Miller, P. Milstein, H. Monihan, R. Saul Ganev, L. Tuttle-Weidinger, M. Wagner. Get Out the Vote Video: S. Dahmen, F. Hall-Herbold, E. Stolyarov.

–Jen Rakow-Stepper, Chair DA Austria

Georgia On Our Mind

Georgia voters, your vote is powerful and will determine Biden's presidency!

Federal elections were held for both of Georgia’s US Senate seats on November 3, 2020. Both of these races are going to "runoff elections" as no candidate received at least 50% of the vote. Democrats need to win both of these seats to have a 50/50 Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris able to cast the tie-breaking vote.

The two races are:

• US Senate: Jon Ossoff (Democrat) versus David Perdue (Republican)
• US Senate Special: Raphael Warnock (Democrat) versus Kelly Loeffler (Republican)

Help get out the word! Please go to DA Austria’s Facebook page and share our Georgia posts in your groups and networks.

The diplomatic pouch will be available. Please drop off you ballot at the US Consulate, Parkring 12A, 1010 Vienna by 4pm, December 7, 2020.

For detailed information on how to register and return your ballot go to: https://www.democratsabroad.org/jenniferrakowstepper/georgia_us_senate_election_jan_5_2021

Have questions? Need help? Go to one of the online forums for Georgia Voter Assistance: https://www.democratsabroad.org/at_events

–Jen Rakow-Stepper, Chair DA Austria

We did it!

Joe Biden will be the 46th President of the United States of America!! He has won the popular vote with 80.1 million votes and counting, the most votes ever received by any candidate in US history. Senator Kamala Harris will become the first woman and person of color to hold the Vice-President's office, "but won't be the last." The voter turnout in 2020 is projected to reach 158 million votes, or 66.8%, 20 million more than 2016. The 2020 election will go down in history as the highest voter turnout in over a century.

I want to take a moment to thank all of our members and volunteers who contributed to the Democrats Abroad election efforts this Presidential cycle. This colossal victory doesn't come without enormous effort from activities like each of you, who made calls in Austria and all around the globe, sent texts, wrote postcards, donated your euros, and spoke with your friends and family time and again about the importance of this election. Democrats Abroad was the margin of victory in flipping key electoral college states such as Georgia and Arizona and holding the blue wall in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Not every fight this year was a victory. Democrats lost seats in the House. The Senate is still up in the air—however, two significant Senate seats were flipped, with the election of Mark Kelly in Arizona and John Hickenlooper in Colorado. Trump continues to undermine democracy out of delusional spite. We didn't win everywhere, but where we did win—thanks are very much owed. Above all, I'm most thankful that we will have competence back in the White House.

There's plenty to do in Georgia, and we will continue the fight for the Senate and beyond. For now, let's take a moment to celebrate our victory.

– Juan Cerda, Vice-Chair of DAA

DA’s Phonebanking Campaign

Phone banking works and our call hub activities may have had a significant impact on the 2020 election results. The DA global phone banking team currently consists of 1,600 volunteers who have made over 600,000 calls to more than 200 countries. Our DA Austria team had done 11,904 calls by election day. To illustrate this: our DAA phone bankers were online on call hub for a period of 583 hours and talked to people for 308 hours. 34 people in Austria helped make calls during this election campaign and our top five phone bankers each had more than 1,000 conversations with voters. The biggest highlight of our phone banking activities was the call-a-thon on Trump’s birthday with almost 9,000 calls. What a gift for the president. A big thank you to all of our phone bankers!

– Michael Wagner, DA Austria Phone Bank Coordinator

Thank You Laura — DAA Youth Caucus Coordinator

DA Austria would like to extend a big thank you to Laura Farmwald who did great work organising the Young Dems Pub Nights for the Youth Caucus over the past year. Many of you know Laura from the Global Presidential Primary where she registered voters, or perhaps from the 2019 Pride Parade which she co-organised. Laura needs to step down from her role due to a busy work and academic life. We wish her great success completing her Masters degree!

Youth Caucus Coordinator Position Open

If you or someone you know is interested in building your resume and being a key component of DA Austria’s youth outreach, please contact me at: chair@democratsabroad.at

–Jen Rakow-Stepper, Chair DA Austria

Democratic Holiday Gifts that Win for Georgia

The impact of the work of Democrats Abroad has never been more apparent: 19,000 overseas ballots were the “margin of victory” for Biden’s 12,000-vote lead in Georgia. Our votes from abroad helped turn Georgia blue for the first time since 1992!

Two U.S. Senate seats will be decided in a January 5 run-off election that will oust Mitch McConnell and his plan to cause further gridlock. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris need and deserve a Congress that will work with them and for the American people.

Help Democrats Abroad realize our extensive outreach plan for reaching Georgians abroad – from social media and phonebanking campaigns to postal mailings and newspaper ads.

Consider supporting Georgia outreach efforts by making a donation in return for Democrats Abroad swag, including a limited-edition Georgia peach tote bag.

If you are already stocked with plenty of Democrats Abroad gear, you can still help by donating directly: democratsabroad.org/donate.

Reviews:

Solidarity Sundays 38: Democracy — Let's Fix It!

New Dealers in the '30s tried to save the economy, and ended up saving democracy. The nightmare of Watergate was followed by an era of reforms in federal and state governments. What might an era of economic and political reform look like after Trump?

Let’s be honest — America’s democracy is broken. The minority party routinely elects Presidents, controls state legislatures, and appoints federal judges — locking the majority out of governing. The hard-won Biden-Harris victory is critical to saving our system, but not enough to fix it.

Solidarity Sundays emerged as part of the civic movement inspired by Trump’s election. Our grassroots group was founded on the principle that democratic renewal takes more than one or two elections. At the last meet-up of the year, sixteen activists focused on rebuilding work that we can start in 2021.

Building starts with the foundation. Juan Cerda surveyed who voted in November, and why. Democrats embody America’s diverse majority, but the election revealed cracks in our coalition. These need attention if we are to expand on this year’s achievement, reassert majority power, and enact a fully progressive agenda.

Attendees then turned to the question on everyone‘s mind — where do we start? This was discussion at its finest. The team explored threats to our fraying democracy, and debated reforms small and big. Talk was lively, critiques incisive, ideas inventive. Juan and Tanya will do their best to shape the ideas into Solidarity Sundays' 2021 agenda. Check out the Solidarity Sundays Vienna Facebook page for how to drop in on the stimulating conversation, and add your ideas and muscle to the work of our generation.

—Tanya Lolonis, Solidarity Sundays Vienna Co-Founder

Thanks for reading December's newsletter!

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