Election coverage from a grassroots POV
Bringing you the real experiences of the ordinary Americans who will decide the results this November
Brat summer, the joy campaign, the battle against weird — whatever you want to tag this election season — it’s important to remember that real life happens outside of the trends on X and TikTok. Over the next few months, our election coverage will be based in the real experiences of ordinary Americans who will decide the results come November.
Like Mads Stirling, an organizer and voter who has very real fears about what Project 2025 would mean for themselves, their friends, and their family. They’ve been paging through the nearly 900-page conservative agenda and have found plenty to warn us all about — from killing wild horses to deregulating baby formula.
But they also discovered something else, positing that the antithesis to this large scale destruction of the programs millions rely on is the building up of the community spaces where our collective power lies.
Two community organizers who are taking that strategy to heart spoke with our fellow Omar Marquez for his latest podcast episode. Community Change Action Electoral Data Manager, former high school teacher, and current college professor Gilbert Nuñez explains how we are made to feel out of sync when we butt up against the culture of rugged individualism and the cult of one powerful leader.
“We are at a time in history and our politics where we need other people. Humans are social creatures and it’s not just nice to interact with and need each other, it’s necessary,” he said.
Community Change Director of Local Strategies and father Ben Hanna shares ways that he actively seeks to make connections to ensure he doesn’t stay isolated from others.
“People become afraid when they’re cut off from one another,” Hanna said. “The antidote to isolation and our epidemic of loneliness is to recognize that we are interdependent on each other. That’s how ecosystems work in the natural world, and in ours too.”
Editor’s picks
Community Change Voters Executive Director Grecia Lima tells us what grassroots voter outreach efforts were hearing from their communities after Biden passed the torch to Harris.
In this eye-opening interview with Childcare Changemaker Corrine Hendrickson, ChangeWire fellow Amina Jinadu explores what it’s like for women who get involved in rural politics.
We go deep in the Hoosier state to talk about how grassroots organizers are winning Medicaid expansions in red Indiana.
In other news
After discovering her ChangeWire piece on how relational organizing — even when it happens virtually — can help save our democracy, Kristee Paschall was featured in a Bloomberg piece about what organizing work needs to happen after the Zoom calls that rallied Harris supporters when she officially launched her candidacy for President.
“I love the power of being on a call with 20,000 people—but what I really want is 20,000 who are committed to talking to 10 friends and family members, and an accountability system to follow through on that,” Paschall said in the interview.
You might also be interested in our piece about what the Zoom call organizing Black women for Harris meant for those who jumped on (and stayed on until the early AM hours!)
ICYMI
Need a mental health break? Take a moment to connect with this poem by ChangeWire fellow Tyler Azure that’ll make you feel less guilty for needing that break.
On the horizon
Last year, our fellows published an award-winning series on democracy. Next month, our 2024 fellows will be coming out with a new series about the connectivity of the care economy.
Status-quo narratives and news tell us that it’s the individual’s fault for facing poverty, caregivers need to do it all on their own, and we should mistrust each other and look out only for ourselves.
This series will seek to flip the script on those ideas and tell stories about how solutions centered around caring for each other — and the government’s role in that — can move us towards a society where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Stay tuned for a special edition newsletter.