January 20, 2024 Newsletter
Posted on January 20, 2024
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Massachusetts' best resource for keeping the House and the Senate and turning purple states Blue.
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Volunteers Taking Back Democracy
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In This Issue
● Last and First Chances ● Help Suozzi win NY03
● All In for NC Meeting features Supreme Court justices
● VA grassroots org expands its horizons ● SBA survey results
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Call NH Dems and remind them to write in President Biden’s name on the New Hampshire Democratic primary ballot. Write-in votes in this primary demonstrate his political health.
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Tomorrow's the First Chance!
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The re-inaugural Activist Afternoons event, complete with launch party, is finally happening after a snow delay. Every other Sunday, volunteers like you can socialize and contribute to a variety of grassroots campaigns.
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Did you sign up so long ago that the meeting slipped your mind? Slip on your warmest coat and come join the fun!
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Sun, Jan 21 @ 4-6 pm EST
St. James Church, 1991 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge (Porter Square)
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Tom Suozzi for Congress Phone Bank
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Help Tom Suozzi win this toss-up special election on February 13. We're working to fill George Santos's seat in NY03. This is the first step to flipping the US House Blue in November.
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We'll be using the Scale to Win Dialer which enables us us to speak with more voters and won't show your phone number. There will be training and support for the whole time you're calling. We end each shift with a debrief to share stories, learn from each other, and create community while defending Democracy.
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Wednesdays, 5-7 pm EST
Saturdays, 3-5 pm EST
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All In for NC Meeting Features Supreme Court Justices
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Come kick off 2024 at the first All In for NC meeting of the year. Our speaker is NC Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, the youngest woman ever to serve on the court. We hope some of you will be supporting her in her reelection run in November.
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PLUS! Joining Justice Riggs is former Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court, Cheri Beasley. Beasley is currently the Sandra Day O’Connor Professor at Elon Law School and a partner at a Raleigh law firm. You will remember how hard we worked to support Beasley's 2022 run for US Senate.
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Mon, Jan 22 @ 4-5 pm EST
Co-sponsored by Chop Wood Carry Water,
Lean Left VT, and Swing Blue Alliance.
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Don't wait! Start recruiting NC activists next week!
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Starting on Feb 4
Sundays @ 6-8 pm EST
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Successful Virginia Grassroots Org Planning to Expand Its Horizons
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If we've learned anything over the past few years, it's that we have to be in it together to win. That's why Virginia-based Network NOVA is expanding its Friday Power Lunch to go national.
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Network NOVA is a band of savvy women promoting democratic values: equality, justice, and human rights. The group creates opportunities for political engagement and civic participation to educate, engage, and empower voters, candidates, and elected officials.
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Join the national launch of the Friday Lunch podcast, and learn how collaboration has been a game changer in social movements and how we are coming together once again to use our grassroots muscles to win in 2024. Speakers include longtime activist and organizer Heather Booth and three other grassroots group leaders, including SBA's own Susan Labandibar.
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Fri, Jan 26 @ noon EST
Note: the link may advertise the Jan 19 meeting, but the registration will include you in the Jan 26 meeting
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Whether or not you participated in the Swing Blue Alliance survey, you’ll be interested in what Professor Ronald Rapoport and his team discovered about our volunteers. Here are the highlights of changes between 2021 and 2023.
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Evaluations of Biden and his policies are positive
President Biden is the highest rated figure in 2023, surpassing Elizabeth Warren, who led in 2021. In seven out of eight issues on the survey, the majority of respondents agreed with at least 75% of President Biden’s policy proposals.
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Climate change and voting rights remain top issue priorities
In 2021, three-quarters of respondents picked climate change and voting rights as their top priority issue; in 2023, half the respondents still placed these topics first. In contrast, the issues of abortion and gun control increased significantly as top priority; abortion went from 2% to 15%, and gun control went from 3% to 8%.
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Volunteer participation remains high
More than three-quarters of the respondents did at least one SBA-related activity, including reading group emails; half did two or more events, and a quarter did three or more. Ninety percent reported some campaign activity during 2022 (about the same percentage as in 2020, which had a presidential election).
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Most contributed money (77%) and sent postcards (59%). Participation in phone calling and trying to convince friends dropped. While fewer people canvassed (21%), those who did found it more rewarding. While Zoom group meetings were not as popular as face-to-face meetings, half found them equally motivating and 11% actually found them more motivating.
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Social connections have a large influence on SBA participation
In addition to agreement with Biden, partisanship, and both ideological and non-ideological motivations, the number of friends in SBA has a significant effect on participation. Those with more than five friends in the group were twice as active as those with no friends in SBA.
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Our Mission
Swing Blue Alliance (formerly Swing Left Greater Boston) is the largest all-volunteer Democratic grassroots organization headquartered in Massachusetts. We use proven methods to protect our Democracy, work on competitive local and national elections, and strengthen the Democratic party at the grassroots level.
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Your contribution will help fund the operations of this volunteer-produced newsletter, which goes out to over 15K subscribers.
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