Giving Tuesday: Celebrate the Victories, Fight for a Better Future & Sustain the Movement
The past year has been incredibly challenging and painful. The past few months, in the lead-up to the election, have only intensified that anxiety and pushed us past our limits of exhaustion. Yet, because of your tireless commitment to justice and free and fair elections, we have so much to celebrate as the year winds down.
Once again, we have to pause and thank the work of our volunteers who helped to pass lifesaving legislation through Vote By Mail - the first meaningful electoral code rewrite in PA since 1937. Passing that reform last fall allowed millions of Pennsylvanians to vote safely from their homes in the historic presidential election, slowing the spread of COVID-19 as the flu season begins.
This election season our volunteers made a big impact across the state:
We made democracy an election issue by forcing Pennsylvania candidates across the state to talk about #DemocracyReform leading up to the election, with 15 candidates posting an entire page on their websites detailing reforms they would fight for if elected.
Through our work with the Poor People's Campaign, we contacted two million poor, low-frequency voters across the country, we organized and mobilized over 1,000 poll watchers across PA, and we helped organize Poor People’s Hearings across the state to make sure that every vote was counted.
Through our work with the Protect Our Vote Coalition, we organized volunteers to monitor ballot counting and election court in Philadelphia on election day and for the following days.
Through our work with Indivisible, PA Stands Up, and other local groups and coalitions, we led trainings, served as marshals, speakers, and as jail support for Count Every Vote rallies in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and the Lehigh Valley.
We helped pass vote by mail last fall, and we worked to remedy potential harm ahead of this election.
MarchOnHarrisburg is now four years old, and we have learned a lot! Since 2016, we have lobbied 251 of our 253 State Legislators, marched 265 miles, engaged in 20 nonviolent direct actions, forced five House and Senate State Gov. Committee hearings on gerrymandering, moved the gift ban out of its House committee, and moved open primaries through the full Senate - all thanks to you!
As we head into the new year, our priorities for 2021 are to:
Develop and fight for our legislative agenda:
• Our growing legislative team and community powered lobbyists are working with allied policy organizations and groups of law students at University of Pennsylvania and Boston College to develop and push a bold and thorough pro-democracy agenda in Harrisburg that would make Pennsylvania a national leader and trailblazer for democracy.
• Stay tuned for an announcement of our Legislative Campaign for 2021. We are excited to announce that we’ll be championing measures to ensure a more representative electoral system, including Ranked Choice Voting!
Increase our outreach and educational capacity, and develop more chapters and leaders:
• We currently have eight chapters across the state, and we will continue to grow new chapters and relationships in key legislative districts to create permanently organized and active presence in every legislative district.
• We have had three college interns, and we will continue to grow our presence on college campuses.
• We will formalize and expand our internal political educational structures, and continue to direct our members to external political educational opportunities. The struggle is a classroom!Continue to practice moral fusion organizing:
• As active leaders on the PA Poor People's Campaign Steering Committee, we will continue to support our allies on various fronts of struggle as we all struggle together toward justice and plug our members into Poor People’s Campaign working groups.
• We remain committed to organizing across traditional lines of division such as race, gender, and geography to create a nonviolent army of the poor in Pennsylvania!
Thank you again for your constant support.
While we understand that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on so many of our finances, please consider donating on this #GivingTuesday to support our continued work to take democracy where it has never been in Pennsylvania. A donation of any amount helps to sustain our small staff.
Take some time to reflect and relax between now and the new year.
We’ll “see” you in 2021! Together, we will win!
For Love and Democracy,
MarchOnHarrisburg