On November 25th, Solidarity Sundays activists held a marathon session reviewing the crowning achievement of 2 years’ work: Democrats retaking the House and electing the most diverse Democratic caucus ever.
Juan gave us a look under the hood at what made victory possible– notably, women turning further away from the Republican Party, and the record-breaking 8.8 million vote lead over Republicans. He reviewed propositions that scored victories throughout the nation, which included impressive wins for redistricting and voting rights. The popularity of progressive propositions points to Medicare expansion as a new frontier for ballot initiatives.
Bruce Murray shared insights from his Cycling For Sanitybike tour through the Midwest.On two wheels, Bruce explored Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania in the weeks leading up the Midterms. He met voters, activists and politicians, pitched in to help with community projects and attended rallies where politicians led everyone to the polls. Hear about the fun and get inspired about our country’s capacity for self-renewal at the “Hindsight Is 2020” event on December 8th.
No sooner did Democrats learn that we did, indeed, deliver a Blue Wave, than we started talking about how to repeat it in 2020. Tanya reviewed structural factors that kept so many races tighton a day when 6 million more Americans voted for a Democrat over a Republican to represent them. She demonstrated how gerrymandering distorts the votes in 5 states, and how weakened voting rights and lax political spending rules make it hard to translate Democratic votes into power. These obstacles won’t disappear, and we must surpass this year’s turnout to assure victory in 2020. Attend a Solidarity Sundays meeting in 2019 and help achieve that.
Tanya Lolonis, SolSun Coordinator, Member-at-Large