Since 2018, Swing Left Greater Boston has been creating campaigns, providing support resources, coordinating events and launching countless new activists into the fight to take back the White House, flip the Senate and win back state legislatures now under Republican control.
Swing Left Greater Boston is a regional leader, with the largest subscriber base in New England. Over 8,000 people read our newsletter to learn about events and actions across Massachusetts and beyond. We also publish a Leaders Bulletin that provides advice, information and encouragement to more than 185 New England organizers who are leading the charge to take back our democracy.
Swing Left Greater Boston creates effective activism campaigns at meaningful scale. In the age of Covid, our vote by mail postcard campaign encourages Democrats to sign up for absentee ballots in two critical states, Florida and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile our in-house research team conducts ongoing investigations to assess the effectiveness of these mailings. We’ve shown that postcards encouraging Democrats to register to vote by mail elicit a greater response than standard get-out-the-vote mailings.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic changed the game, Swing Left Greater Boston organized volunteers to knock doors in other states, from Maine to Pennsylvania, and North Carolina and Florida. Wherever we’ve gone, we’ve built lasting relationships with groups in key states. Some of our closest friends include Reclaim Our Vote, Field Team 6, the Maine Dems, the Sarasota Dems, the Palm Beach Dems, the Lehigh Valley Dems, Turn PA Blue, Indivisible NC-09, and, of course, Swing Left the National Organization, which is a separate entity.
Swing Left National believes in the energy of the New England activist community, which is why they have placed four volunteer organizing coordinators here. They include Paula Joseph and Amy MacDonald – a dynamic duo whose focus is Maine, Amy Bouchard, who is exporting New England activist energy to Pennsylvania. And lastly me, a Jill-of-all-trades, supporting organizers and new volunteers across New England and recommending them to other activist groups.
I want to make this clear – all this energy does not go to parochial, Swing Left-branded initiatives. We are fully engaged in Together for 2020’s communal effort to dump Trump and everything he stands for.
Collaboration is an essential value and strategy for winning in 2020. This is why we will continue to bring together organizers from New England to share updates and connect with Democratic party officials and groups operating in key states. As the campaign season commences, we are launching strategy briefing calls open to all activists. You can now sign up to be notified for these calls on the Together for 2020 website.
Going online in the age of Covid has become increasingly important for activists. Training on online tools such as Zoom, Slack, Google Drive, Google Sheets and Mobilize America is critical so that we can harness the activist energy of volunteers of all ages, including baby boomers.
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Each week, we offer numerous training opportunities, including five drop-in Office Hours per week, a Slack channel staffed with volunteers standing by to provide technical support and a calendar of training events provided by local volunteers as well as curated training opportunities from National organizations and our partners in the Swing States.
While this call may be coming to an end, our work together does not have to skip a beat. All of us who have put this launch call together are waiting to engage with you online. The Together for 2020 Slack online workspace is a place where you can:
Please visit the Together for 2020 website to find a Slack for Beginners resource guide and to sign up to join the Together for 2020 Slack workspace. Once you join us, you will find there are volunteers available to help you.
On behalf of Together for the 2020 and the Swing Left Greater Boston team, we look forward to serving you.