Keep Warm! Stay Active (Politically)!

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become."

Hi all!

It is the season of resolutions and starting (or restarting) new habits, and we hope you will join us as we strengthen our activism muscles from now until November. It was wonderful to see so many of you -- 70!! -- at our first meeting, even if the weather conspired against us and we were back on Zoom. Thank you all for tuning in. We have shared the slides from that meeting below in To Consider if you want to check them out.

We also hope to see you at our next monthly meeting on Feb 20th when we'll discuss writing letters to editors as another form of activism. The meeting details are below in To Do. Also save the date for our March 19th meeting when we will show a fascinating film about the Youth Vote at the Screening Room (with popcorn, of course). Stay tuned for details.

Whatever actions you are taking, please remember that one of the most important things you can do to help ensure a blue wave in 2024 is also one of the easiest. Talk to people!

Talk to people at your church, synagogue or mosque. Talk to people at the gym, or when you're walking the dog. Talk to your colleagues and your friends and your nieces and nephews and family in other states. Ask them how they're getting involved. Ask them if they have any interesting down ballot races happening in their state. Mention whatever you've been working on: postcard writing, or phone banking, or how easy Force Multiplier and Swing Left State Bridges make it to donate. Find out if they might want to get involved but aren't sure how to start. We can help guide them if they'd like information about helping out in their area or remotely with us.

There are far too many talking heads, far too many pessimists, far too many people who have already started saying gloomily, "there's no way Biden can win." We cannot let that become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We need to counter that unhelpful narrative with conversations that remind people that Biden can win with help and votes from all of us.

Meanwhile, Action Hour and our remote postcard writers are off to a powerful start to the year - we are on track to write well more than twice as many postcards as last year! We're also looking forward to our monthly meetings, to getting back to texting voters in the coming months, and to participating in phone banks. We hope you will join us for any and all of these activities!

Onward.

New Postcard Writing Campaigns
We wrapped up our first major campaign of the year, writing 2,200 postcards to get out the vote for Democrat Tom Suozzi who is running to fill the House seat of the expelled pathological liar George Santos.

We've now turned to registering Democrats in key states, currently writing to likely Democrats in the 3 primary swing districts in PA and to marginalized populations in AZ.

As always we are writing:

In person at Action Hour on Wednesdays 5:30-6:30 at Nu Kitchen on Pleasant Street in Newburyport.
Remotely, with writers getting postcards at one of our pickup locations, supplying postage and emailing in divisible.rise.newburyport@gmail .com for the script and addresses. Email us with questions or to join this program.

Continue to Help GOTV for the NY Special Election
While the deadline has passed for writing postcards to GOTV for Democrat Tom Suozza, there is still time to help by calling voters in the district to encourage them to vote. Sign up to make calls with Swing Blue Alliance or Grassroots Dems HQ. There are shifts every day through the Feb 13th Election Day.

Monthly Meeting: Letters to the Editor as Activism
Our next monthly meeting is onTuesday, February 20th at 7:00-8:30 pm, when we will explore how letters to the editor (LTE) are a great way to make our voices heard as another form of activism.

Guest speaker, Roger Hirschberg, is the author of 70+ letters to the editor published in the NY Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe and LA Times, all touting Biden and pointing out the shortcomings and dangers of Trump. Roger will talk about his experiences and offer tips for writing and submitting LTEs. We'll also learn from some of our own prolific LTE writers who will guide us in writing letters in small groups.

Whether or not you think writing LTEs is a form of activism that suits you personally, this will be an interesting and informative evening. Please join us Tuesday, February 20th at 7:00-8:30 pm at Central Congregational Church on Titcomb Street in Newburyport. RSVP to indivisible.rise.newburyport@gmail.com preferred.

Recap of our January Meeting
Access the meeting slide deck her e. Highlights of the meeting include:

-- I-RISE postcard writers cranked out 13,000 postcards last year for various swing elections. Excellent work on an "off" election year!

-- This year, we'll primarily focus on states and districts where each vote for Democrats has the most impact. At the top of the list are select districts in AZ and PA, where there are battleground races for President, Senate, House and state offices. We'll also expect to help with elections in MI, NV and WI and in other battlegroun districts as opportunities arise. For more analysis, review slides 8-13 of the meeting deck along with the notes accompanying each slide.

-- After hearing from our guest speaker with NH Write In Biden, I-RISE volunteers wrote hundreds of postcards in a couple of days and joined NH volunteers holding signs at the polls. The efforts of volunteers throughout the state led to Biden handily winning the NH Presidential Primary even though he was not on the ballot. Kudos to all who helped!

A Biden a Day
If you are on Facebook consider joining the "A Biden a Day" group, which posts positive news and updates about Biden's presidency. There is a real disconnect between the level of success this administration has won, and the public perception. Help spread the word! A Biden a day helps keep fascism away!

Democracy Docket Opinions
We previously recommended the Democracy Docket newsletter, a resource we rely on for some items included in To Celebrate. Without adding to your inbox, check out the Opinion page of Democracy Docket's website to read insightful and expert opinions on voting rights and democracy.

Presidential Primary

FL - Democrat Tom Keen won a hotly contested special election in central Florida, flipping a Republican-held seat in the Florida state House.

Positive Voter Protection Updates

FL - In a win for voters, a federal judge rejected efforts by the Florida county supervisors of elections to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the state's new restrictions on third-party voter registration organizations.

LA - Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signed a new congressional map into law, creating two majority-Black U.S. House districts in the state. The new map follows a lawsuit from advocacy groups seeking fair representation for Black Louisianans.

ME - Democrats in Maine's legislature renewed their effort to elect the president according to the national popular vote when they held a hearing on a bill that would have the state join a multistate alliance to implement just such a change.

NC - A federal judge granted a request from voting rights organizations and Democratic groups to temporarily block a provision of this state’s recently enacted voter suppression law.

OH - Efforts are underway to place a state constitutional amendment on the Nov. '24 ballot that would significantly expand voting access in Ohio while overturning numerous voting restrictions imposed by Republican state lawmakers in recent years.

TN - Nashville launched a new program to help eligible voters in county jails navigate voter registration, the mail-in voting process, voting rights restoration and more.

VA - Senate Democrats blocked a Republican effort to drastically shorten the state's early voting period. Virginians will continue to have 45 days to vote early.

WI - A state judge rejected parts of a lawsuit brought by a right-wing legal group that sought to limit the availability of early, in-person absentee voting sites in the city of Racine.

As always this section fouses on good news related to elections and voter rights. Also as always, we rely heavily on two sources for this information: Jessica Craven's Chop Wood Carry Water newsletter and Democracy Docket.

If you are motivated by recent developments, have some good news to share, or would like to get more involved, please let us know. Indivisble-RISE is completely volunteer run, and we can always use more help organizing and leading our actions, events, programs, and more. Email indivisible.rise.newburyport@gmail.com with ideas, news, suggestions, and anything you would like to tell or ask us. We'd love to hear from you!

-- James Clear, author of ATOMIC HABITS