In this issue:

• Please watch this short video, it is 5 minutes and 40 seconds long, it inspired us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFkAQSLsPM4
• We are cancelling/postponing the two House Parties at our house with Swing Left Boston, scheduled for Sunday March 15
• Here are some things you can do without leaving home to promote voter registration and voter turnout by likely Democratic voters in key swing states
• An introduction to Swing Left (updated from previous emails)

* * * * * * * * *

Please watch this short video, it is 5 minutes and 40 seconds long, it inspired us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFkAQSLsPM4

I have written below about Swing Left and how we can take back our country and set the stage for a decade of progressive victories, but you can get the message and info much more powerfully in 5 minutes and 40 seconds by watching this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFkAQSLsPM4

I watched it at a Swing Left House Party at a friend’s house in January and it gave me enormous hope and inspired me to believe that I, working with many others, can make a difference in the 2020 elections and the future of our nation.

We are cancelling/postponing the two House Parties at our house with Swing Left Boston, scheduled for Sunday March 15…I don’t think I need to tell you why…

It is terribly disappointing to have to cancel/postpone our House Parties.  Over 50 people RSVPed!!  Many others sent regrets.   Thank you to those who responded to our invitation.  We plan to reschedule as soon as the coronavirus situation allows.

Here are some things you can do without leaving home to promote voter registration and voter turnout by likely Democratic voters in key swing states.

Write letters or postcards from home to potential voters in swing states.  Swing Left leaders are figuring out other ways people can do voter registration and turnout work from home, including perhaps phone calling and texting. 

Vote Forward – Swing Left has this program to write letters from home, you can learn about it and sign up to participate here: https://swingleft.org/p/about-swing-left-letter-writing or here: https://votefwd.org/vote-forward-instructions.pdf

From the Reclaim Our Vote  website -- “Help empower voters in communities of color in voter suppression states! Reclaim Our Vote, a non-partisan phone bank, post carding and textbanking campaign created by the Center For Common Ground, focuses on contacting voters of color in voter-suppression states to help them register and vote." Partners include NAACP, Rapid Resist, Black Voters Matter, Virginia Poor People’s Campaign, DemLabs, Mi Familia Vota, Progressive Coders Network, VoteRiders, and the Transformative Justice Coalition.”

Go to: http://centerforcommonground.org/main/index.php/campaigns/reclaim-our-vote and https://actionnetwork.org/forms/reclaim-our-vote-signup

Movement Voter Project (MVP) – You can donate money from home!!  We are cancelling the March 25 MVP fundraiser event at the Armory that I and 17 co-hosts/sponsors were planning.  We hope to reschedule it for later in the spring.  I will be sending another email to you about this cancellation and MVP next week.  For now, if you want to beat Trump, turn the Senate Democratic, and win state houses key to rolling back Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression, there is no better use of your money than to give it to MVP.  

MVP raises funds and gives all of them to local, community-based organizations in key swing states that are working to register, mobilize and turn out likely Democratic voters.  I truly believe money given to MVP will have 100X as much positive impact as money given to a Presidential or any U.S. Senate campaign – where your funds are a small drop in a huge bucket.  A big bonus of giving to MVP: the organizations they fund will continue to do the work of building community power and  mobilizing Democratic voters in key swing states AFTER November 3, 2020.  Remember: Presidential and U.S. Senate candidates’ campaign organizations will DISAPPEAR after November 3!! For more info about MVP’s approach, see  this short flyer  or visit their website.

For a short video about MVP’s work, go here: https://www.facebook.com/MovementVoterProject/?eid=ARDIB2POHnTa1JlkY8Z_k42fRbD7xVF1OKevuCIrulBgRDmAju2VejEnsadjWB7J7jztF2BM9eE3pQcI

To donate to MVP, please consider as generous a contribution as you can to  MVP's Big Five Battleground Fund, which supports groups in the states most likely to determine the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Please don’t hesitate to call or email me if you have questions, want to talk about any of this, or have suggestions or information that you’d like to share with me.

An introduction to Swing Left (updated from previous emails)

Swing Left’s mission is to “Transform our government in 2020 by winning all the Houses—including the White House, the Senate, and state houses key to rolling back Republican gerrymandering and voter suppression.”

Swing Left provides avenues for people like us in progressive areas to have an impact in elections in swing states where the Presidential and key U.S. Senate races will be decided.   Working with a number of other organizations, they helped flip the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 when the Democrats added 41 seats to take control of the House, and helped flip the Virginia State Legislature from Republican to Democrat in 2019.  This stuff actually WORKS!!...if enough of us get involved…

This work is critically important regardless of who the Democratic candidate for President is.  I believe the 2020 elections will be decided by who actually turns out to vote in the key swing states.  Voter mobilization – which we can all be a part of starting now or any time – is likely to determine the outcome. We Democrats have a large natural majority in our nation: we just have to get our voters to go out and vote.

We believe Swing Left provides a pathway with support, instruction, an excellent strategy and connections for those of us who live in Massachusetts to contribute meaningfully to the important work of influencing the 2020 elections and helping to take back our country for years to come.  

Swing Left has a national strategy focused on 12 key “super” states that are key states for Democrats to win for the Presidency, U.S. Senate, and to stop voter suppression and gerrymandering.  Check it out at https://swingleftboston.org/super-state/

When the coronavirus restrictions on public events and meetings are relaxed, Swing Left Boston will again sponsor and organize dozens of activist working events each week.  They will have an Activist Afternoon meeting late every Sunday afternoon at the Workbar in Central Square.  I went four Sundays, and have found this worthwhile, productive, and enjoyable.  All this by writing postcards, letters or making phone calls to help register and turn out voters who are likely to vote Democratic in November.  

Swing Left can plug you in to volunteer on campaigns in swing states to help make a difference.

Marya is planning to spend a couple of weeks in the Orlando, Florida area, where her brother lives.  God and the coronavirus willing, I will be going to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in July after the Democratic Convention where I have a friend from high school.  (Many people believe Wisconsin – which Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016 by 23,000 votes – may be the key swing state in the 2020 Presidential election.)  And perhaps we will also go to Minneapolis where we have family and friends; Swing Left is also funneling people to key state legislature district races in Western Wisconsin (around Hudson WI) in the suburbs of Minneapolis.  We will help register voters, support campaign workers, do voter turnout, make meals, enter data, do whatever is needed to support the people working to elect Democratic candidates there.  Let me know if you are interested in doing some political travel. 

Whether you can travel or not, please think about who you know in the key swing states.  If there is any chance they may agree with you, tell them how you feel and then ask them how they feel.  Listen to them; listening is critical.  Talk to them about how important this election is to you – and for the future of our country and the world.  We need to engage people in swing states and help them get motivated to do what they can.   

This just received from Susan Labandibar, the Swing Left Regional Organizing Coordinator for New England:“Here are my top thoughts on how volunteers from Massachusetts can affect the outcome of the most important election of our lifetimes. We can't affect how people vote, but we can affect who votes...If we get started now.”

1. ​“Expanding the electorate means registering voters​, reducing barriers to voting and encouraging voters to cast their ballot in ​local elections.
2. ​Swing Left has pre-existing relationships with organizations on the ground. We can leverage these relationships to place volunteers.
3. A small team of volunteers in each pivot county ​can be​ more effective than​ an entire busload of​volunteers in one county.”

If you’d like to talk about how you could be involved, please contact me.  I’d love to talk with you about this!

Mark Niedergang, Ward 5 City Councilor

mark@markniedergang.com

(617) 629-8033