Message from DA Spain Chair

It’s November, the month Americans dedicate to giving thanks. This year, among other things, I’m grateful that the midterms are over. 

What a mixed bag we’re left with! There was no red wave, but there wasn’t a blue one, either. We held the Senate but narrowly lost the House. In some states, Democrats made gains; in others, like my home state of Texas, terrific Democratic candidates lost to corrupt and inept Republicans. 

Scholars, strategists, and pundits are already busy dissecting the results. Everyone seems to have a different take on what happened and why. What startled me was how close so many of the races were. We may well be in for more cycles of narrow margins of victory — elections in which every vote will be decisive. 

For Georgia voters, that urgency begins NOW. Your state will hold its Senatorial runoff election on December 6th. Incumbent Democrat Ralphael Warnock faces Republican Herschel Walker in this crucial race, and deadlines are tight this time around. Please rush to get your ballot in the mail! If you need help voting, please go to www.democratsabroad.org/georgia for information and assistance. 

So the question for us is this: How can Democrats Abroad Spain use the next two years to help push those narrow wins fully and firmly into the blue column? One big part of our answer has to be to organize more Democratic voters here in Spain. We need to identify them before the election cycle heats up in 2024 and be ready to focus on helping these folks navigate the increasingly complex rules governing voting from abroad.

Our path is clear and our resolve is strong. And in this month dedicated to gratitude, I’m grateful for all of us Democrats Abroad. We’re working together for democracy and decency, and that’s great work to do with great people.

Kathy Tullos (Chair) 

Calls to Action

Gimme Five to Keep Democracy Alive! 

Before you groan at the prospect of another fundraising pitch (I got zillions of emails over the past couple of months, too), please bear with me for a minute. One lesson we learned from the midterms is that slim margins will decide many key races. Therefore, we have to turn out every possible vote. That takes wide outreach, and outreach costs money.

Hence, gimme five. If DA Spain can raise $500 a month from sustaining donors, we will have roughly $10,000 by the 2024 election. Click here to see how we plan to spend the money.

So how do we achieve this goal? We need 100 people who are willing to give $5 (or more) per month, and we’re already off to a big head start. I'm proud to report that members of the DA Spain Executive Committee and members who attended the last EC meeting have pledged a total of $220 per month already. So we only need $280 more in monthly pledges to hit our target. This is doable, with your help.

People complain that there’s very little besides voting that we can do individually to affect elections and that Republicans seem to be better long-term planners than we are. Here’s your chance to prove them wrong. Click here to become a sustaining member today! And gimme five to keep democracy alive!

Views on the News

No Half-time Break
by Dan Solon (member, DA Barcelona)

Amid sighs of relief that we held on to the Senate — with fingers crossed for a win on December 6 in the Georgia runoff — and held the Republicans to a slender majority in the House of Representatives, this is no time for us Democrats to take a half-time break. Presidential elections, with all of the House and a third of the Senate again up for control, are less than two years away. The Inside-the-Beltway echo chamber and pollsters of all persuasions took another bloody nose when the predicted "Red Tide" turned into a modest trickle, but this is no cause for complacency. We need to keep a laser focus on the issues, and on persuading overseas Americans who will be at least 18 years of age on or before November 5, 2024 to register and vote blue. Click here to read more.

Caucus News

Global Women's Caucus

Abortion on the Ballot - Results

Greetings from the other side of November 8th. Aren’t we all breathing a sigh of relief? Besides keeping the Senate and the feared ‘Red Wave’ turning out to be only a red trickle, the results of the measures in the five states where abortion was on the ballot have given me a sense of hope. If we count the Kansas amendment in August, that’s six states that have put abortion or abortion-related legislation on the ballot since the fall of Roe v Wade, and all six have sided with keeping politicians and the state out of peoples’ personal and very private decisions. Click here for more detailed information on ballot measures.

So please join me in celebrating and working toward a future where the right of women to control their own lives and destinies is no longer a discussion because it is an accepted and unalienable right. 

Would you like to join the Women’s Caucus? We are always looking for volunteers. Get in touch by sending an email to [email protected].

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LGBTQ Caucus

¡Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias!

DA Spain’s LGBTQ+ Caucus is kicking back into action. Madrid members John Murphy and Hal Moskowitz are the brand new co-chairs of the caucus and are gearing up for an inaugural brainstorming session on December 1. And even though it’s called the LGBTQ+ Caucus, all are invited to join!  Click here for more about our ideas and objectives for the grouphere.

The new group hopes to achieve big things but also build a community of like-minded individuals, make connections and, hopefully, have some fun along the way. The caucus needs your input on the best ways to do this. So please consider joining us, and invite a friend or two! 

Join the LGBTQ+ Caucus for the first planning meeting. Event details & RSVP here. For more information, please email [email protected].

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Click here to see all the upcoming Caucus events.

Chapter and Verse

Barcelona 

Several dozen enthusiastic (and relieved) DA Barcelona members gathered at CocoVail Beer Hall on the day after the election, as votes in close races were still being counted but it was clear that we had exceeded all expectations. In the months leading up to the midterms, members of our chapter put in many long hours phonebanking, registering first-time voters, putting up posters and QR stickers around the city, joining state teams and caucuses, and contributing to the enthusiasm surrounding the 2022 election – and it was worth every minute! The excitement in the room was palpable as some close races were called. By the end of the evening, many of us were already thinking about 2024, and all that needs to be done to replicate and build on our successes. 

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THANK YOU to all our hardworking volunteers, and a special shout-out to our chair, Chris Reilly, for the Native Ads and LinkedIn campaign that he managed for Democrats Abroad Global. This campaign has brought in many new members, and yet, only about 30% of overseas Americans who use www.votefromabroad.org tick the box to join DA, showing the ads have an even broader reach. 

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Want to get more involved in chapter activities? Contact us at [email protected] and join our Signal group to stay in the day-to-day conversation.

Madrid

On November 17, DA Madrid held its annual Thanksgiving dinner and fundraiser. This year, we met at Trikki Nueva Orleans Traditional Cuisine and had a packed house! We enjoyed a full Thanksgiving spread, complete with pumpkin soup, turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade cranberry sauce, Southern dirty rice, pumpkin pie, and drinks. A vegetarian option was also available.

This dinner is always a hit, and we're thankful for everyone who supported the event. It's a wonderful opportunity to enjoy good food, sustain local business, network with fellow Democrats, and financially support DA Spain's efforts — especially with the runoff in Georgia coming up. 

At the dinner, we celebrated our victories in the midterms, caught up with old friends, talked with new members, and promoted DA Spain's current and future fundraising efforts. 

Thanks to you, we raised over €300 from the dinner, encouraged attendees to be monthly donors, and received some generous one-off donations from long-time supporters of DA Spain!  If you're interested in donating to DA Spain on a monthly or one-off basis, click here. 

See you next month!

Valencia

The DA Valencia Leadership Team had a pre-election party on Tuesday, November 8 to celebrate all our hard work and to hope for decent election results. Fortunately, we weren't too disappointed when we woke up the next day!

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We will be hosting a Thanksgiving "Leftovers" Picnic on Saturday, Nov. 26 at the picnic tables in front of Gulliver's Park in Turia, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. Please join us for the festivities and bring a traditional Thanksgiving dish to share. 

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Our First Friday Coffee meetups continue, with the next gathering on Friday, Dec. 2 at 10:30 am at Salad Planet. Everyone is also invited to participate in the Leadership Team meeting following coffee around 11:15 am.

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Finally, we are excited to welcome you to visit our new official Democrats Abroad Valencia private Facebook group. Please click this link to join.

Alicante

Democrats Abroad Alicante chapter had a post-election merienda at El Cookie in Alicante two days after the midterms. We had drinks, delicious cookies and conversation about the election results and still-undecided races. It was a good moment to lift each other’s spirits and compare notes on whether all our votes were received and counted by the different states.

The vice chair of our chapter, Di Longo, has been the contact for the Vote Forward Georgia runoff letter-writing campaign for DA Spain. More than 140 letters have been sent to Georgia voters from the different chapters to encourage them to vote again in early December and help the Democrats to control the Senate with a majority.

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With Trump announcing his candidacy, it's not too soon for us to start working towards the 2024 election!

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Click here to find us on Facebook!.

Seville

Seville worked until the last minute getting out the vote, especially among the many American college students who are studying here. We witnessed countless times the enthusiasm of young people to cast their first ballot, and thank goodness they did! Post-election day we gathered for a “Hopefully” Happy Hour, and indeed it was a time of joy and relief. 

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We are continuing our work with a letter-writing campaign to Georgia voters, which has inspired new volunteers to join us. We are re-building a motivated community of Democrats here in Seville, thanks in no small part to the assistance of DA Spain, and we are excited to keep growing our numbers.

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Be sure to like our Facebook page to stay informed! Join our WhatsApp group by clicking here. 

San Sebastian

The San Sebastian precinct is getting organized. We’ve got a bit of housekeeping to do, but pretty soon those in País Vasco and Navarra will be under the San Sebastián umbrella, and we’ll have a new email address and point-person set up. After meeting informally a couple of times in the late summer and fall, a half-dozen folks got together at a member’s home last week for an evening of letter-writing to GA voters back in the US, encouraging them to head to the polls for Senator Warnock in the upcoming runoff. We hope all 120 letters will spur their recipients to action!

Anyone interested in connecting locally with this precinct, please send email to [email protected] to reach Katharine (DA Spain secretary and San Sebastián organizer). 

Spain Fun Fact

Photo by Marcos Moraes on Unsplash

With the FIFA World Cup kicking off (pun intended) this weekend in Qatar, this month’s fun fact is about soccer, or fútbol as it is known in Spain. Fútbol is the national sport of Spain, and for its fans, it’s practically a religion. The Spanish national team is consistently one of the world’s strongest, and has competed in the global competition since 1934. In spite of that long and proud history, Spain has won the cup only once: at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, España defeated The Netherlands, 1-0. The winning goal was scored by Andrés Iniesta. Do you think they can repeat that success in 2022?

In Closing

To stay on top of all the news, follow Democrats Abroad Spain on social media. And please forward this email to your American friends in Spain who may not know us!

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