It's a great time to get involved with Democrats Abroad Germany (DAG) Veterans and Military Families Caucus.

We need members and leaders! We encourage all interested Democrats Abroad Germany members to join the caucus. To join, just fill out this form. If you are interested in being on the steering committee please also indicate that on the form. 

Currently, the caucus has only two serving officers, Kirk Samson, who is leaving in August for the US, and Michael Lee, so we really need your help. A robust caucus ensures that Democrats Abroad Germany remains a key player in issues involving the U.S. military presence in Germany and helps to support veterans and family members’ issues that are unique to our overseas constituency. 

Please join us!

Also, if you are a veteran residing in Germany, we recommend that you keep an eye on the VA Benefits Bulletin

Thank you,

Kirk Samson and Michael Lee

Co-Chairs, Germany Veterans and Military Families Caucus
DA Germany

There are 158 days until the midterm elections. If you have not registered to vote or requested your ballot, now is the time. Go to Votefromabroad.org and do it today! If you are already registered, it doesn't hurt to check your registration at https://iwillvote.com/. This election is extremely important, don’t get disenfranchised by republican tricks. #VotingMatters

It looks and feels like we have quickly moved into summertime in Germany. We hope that everyone is staying cool, eating lots of ice cream, and able to still enjoy the sun (don’t forget your sunscreen)! To provide you with some cool thoughts, you can already start to think about fall and our  10th Annual Oktoberfest Extravaganza on Sunday, October 7th. If you sign-up before July 1st, tickets are only 65€ and this includes a reserved seat in the “Gallerie”, a half roasted chicken (vegetarian options are available), 2 liters of Spaten beer (there are other beverage options, too), and a 10-euro coupon for other purchases. Make sure you sign-up now because starting July 1st, tickets will go up to 75€.

June - Upcoming Election Information

California’s primary election on June 5 will be one of the most important –and bizarre - contests of the entire primary season. The Golden State is crucial to Democrats’ effort to retake the House and Republicans currently hold seven districts which Hillary Clinton won in 2016. With so many Democrats running, and because of the state’s “top two” open primary system, there is a risk that the vote will be split, allowing Republicans — who have fewer candidates — to dominate some primaries. Watch this video to learn more about the California primary system and the problem this year

If you are a California voter, make sure you have a choice in November and vote in the Primary on June 5th!

For more details about What is on the Primary Ballot for the June 12 State Primaries and June 19 and June 26 Primaries on the DA website Voting blog.

I’m Michelle Cummings-Koether, and I am the new Women’s Caucus Chair for Germany. I am here to help coordinate Women’s topics and events in Germany, and to try to place a focus on important Women’s topics for Democrats Abroad. I look forward to working with the various Chapters and Precincts in Germany, to help keep a bright light on topics that affect Women in the United States.

A little about myself. I was born in the US and have spent my life traveling between the US and Germany. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now live in Munich. When I am not fighting for Women’s topics, I work as an interculturalist, consulting American and European companies on how to work together. I also teach intercultural topics at three universities in Munich and Augsburg. To help me regain footing and to help me keep focused, I hang out with my dog while she works as a therapy assistant dog with disabled kids.

I would also like to announce that the Women’s Caucus will be holding the Germany Women's Caucus Workshop (Open to Democrats Abroad Worldwide) on September 22nd in Berlin. With the theme “refocus, revisit, resist & re-empower” we will hold an all day event followed by dinner. This event will be open to all DA members worldwide. Please RSVP today. More details to follow.

I am looking forward to this new opportunity and the challenges that will arise. As my consultancy takes me all across Germany, I hope to meet with some of the Chapters personally soon. If you need to reach me, my email is dag-women@democratsabroad.org.

Hello everyone, my name is Lori-Kaye and I have been appointed the chair of the Black Caucus in Germany. I have been living in Germany near Frankfurt for 13 years and vote in New York. As an international opera singer, I have had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling and getting to know many people and cultures. That's one of the reasons why I would like to get as many people involved in racial justice issues that are not only plaguing our country but, the entire world to this day.  The only way for we as Americans to be able to live peacefully is through accepting diversity in all its forms. In my opinion, racism is a lack of knowledge of other persons and its based on willful ignorance through certain news organizations, representation through our film and music industry, or passed down through family generations, to name a few.

Any person or any race or ethnicity can join the Black Caucus. If you are a person who believes in universal and unconditional human rights, and you are not a member of the Black Caucus, please join. I would love to get to know all of you and have some real conversations to come up with real solutions to this epidemic. Please take this survey. The purpose of this survey is to find out how many people would be interested in getting together for some of these fun events once a month and how many from each chapter so that I can get an idea as to how to organize it.  Just for starters, the subjects include:

• Book Club
• Martini Night with friendly political banter
• Movie Night in a cozy living room with snacks
• Labor Day American BBQ

If you have any ideas or suggestions, please specify on the survey. You can always contact me via email at dag-blackcaucus@democratsabroad.org. Thank you for your participation and I look forward to hearing from you.

You can follow the Global Black Caucus on Facebook and Twitter

The March For Our Lives movement is created by, inspired by, and led by American students who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that have become all too familiar. The movement has expanded to include other major cities across the U.S. and the world. Democrats Abroad will be marching and rallying in 7 locations in Germany.

March certainly is coming in like a lion this year. Democrats have flipped 39 Republican-held state legislative seats since January 2017.

This past weekend, members of Democrats Abroad Germany (DAG) met in Hamburg for this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). See pictures from the AGM. We started the weekend with a trip to the theater to see Neuland, a piece about how American women feel about life under Trump and which several members of DAG performed in. On Saturday, we got down to business by discussing our Get Out To Vote (GOTV) strategy, listening to presentations by all of our caucus leaders about their work this past year and what they have planned for 2018, and learning how to communicate with conservatives.

The most important part of the weekend was the vote on proposed resolutions to our bylaws, which resulted in lively discussions and hopefully an improved set of bylaws that will strengthen DAG. On Saturday evening, we welcomed Josh Handelman from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) who gave an interesting speech on the wins Democrats had this past year and what lies ahead this year for the midterm elections. Read more about the speech or watch the video. Our 2019 AGM will be in Heidelberg.

In an effort to be as effective as possible in our GOTV efforts, each chapter received a tablet, portable printer, and SIM card during the Executive Committee meeting on Sunday to allow them to help people request their absentee ballots on the spot. We want to simplify the ballot request process to ensure that ballots requested online at a GOTV event are not forgotten and never printed and sent to the local election offices. We hope this will improve the efficacy of our GOTV events and make the entire process quick and easy. If you would like to make a donation to support the DAG GOTV Digitization efforts, you can find more information here. You can always register to vote and request your ballot at www.votefromabroad.org

Democrats Abroad Germany would like to be able to provide all chapters with a tablet, SIM Card/hotspot capabilities, and a printer to help improve our GOTV efforts. These items will allow chapters to hold absentee ballot request drives without having to rely on individual members to provide their personal devices, make it possible to hold these events when wireless internet is not available, and, most importantly, the printer will ensure that those who complete their request forms can print their form on the spot and put it in the mail immediately.

We want to try and simplify this process as much as possible to make sure that we are effective and successful in helping people complete the request for their absentee ballots.

If you would like to support this effort and make a donation, you can send your donation to the following account:

Account name: Democrats Abroad Germany
Bank: Kreissparkasse Kaiserslautern
IBAN: DE04 5405 0220 0140 2702 99
BIC: MALADE51KLK

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Emily Lines, Events and Fundraising Coordinator, at dag-events@democratsabroad.org.

Voting in the 2018 Midterm Elections is extremely important. As the first major elections held since President Trump took office in January 2017, these midterms are the nation's first opportunity to hold a mass referendum on the Trump administration, making it all the more important to have your vote counted. The results of this year’s midterm elections will be enormously important — not just in shaping the future of Donald Trump’s presidency, but in shaping the American political landscape for a great many years to come.

Even though Democrats netted two seats in the Senate last year, Republicans hold a majority with 51, nine away from a filibuster-proof margin. Local and state elections matter! These elections have more impact and influence over citizen’s everyday lives than one may think. Many of the state legislators elected on November 6, 2018 will draw the congressional and legislative redistricting lines after the 2020 census. Therefore, voting this year may be one of the most important things you do this year!