WATER FOR GRASSROOTS (W4G) supports community organizing groups in the swing states. In the 2020 election we partnered with Pennsylvania Stands Up, Make The Road-PA, New Florida Majority, LUCHA in Arizona, Durham For All in North Carolina, and more. We focus on groups organizing in working-class communities, especially in communities of color, and we put a priority on the fight against voter suppression.
WHAT WE'VE DONE
Here’s some of what we’ve done in previous years:
● Helped restore the right to vote to more than a million people in Florida with past felony convictions. In 2017, in the petition campaign to put this referendum on the ballot, W4G’s outreach to NY unions' retiree groups in Florida brought new organizers into the fight. Then in 2018 we helped this crucial reform pass with 64% support, by working with New Florida Majority and the Second Chances coalition to contact Florida voters. W4G volunteers sent out thousands of calls and texts, helping win a major victory in the fight against voter suppression.
● Knocked more than 4000 doors in Pennsylvania with Lancaster Stands Up. In 2018, Lancaster Stands Up helped progressive populist Jess King wage a surprisingly strong challenge to a Republican incumbent in Congress. We organized a dozen carpools to canvass alongside members of LSU. While King didn’t win the race, she closed the gap by 8% compared to Trump's margin here in 2016. And Lancaster Stands Up dramatically expanded its organizing base during this campaign, expanding its membership to over 1000, building 11 local teams across the county, and helping launch York Stands Up in the county next door. In 2020, those organizing gains can help determine which presidential candidate wins Pennsylvania.
● Worked with New Florida Majority (NFM) to help Andrew Gillum win the Democratic nomination for governor in 2018, in a historic campaign that pointed the way to Florida's political future. Gillum’s platform called for taxing the rich to pay a minimum $50K starting salary for all teachers, a $15 minimum wage, Medicare For All and an end to Florida’s racist “stand your ground” law. We made calls and sent texts to help bring Gillum to within a half-point of victory in the general election – the best result for any Democratic candidate for governor in more than 20 years. Since then we’ve supported NewFM’s voter-registration work, and called Florida voters in support of NewFM-backed candidates for City Council and State Attorney.
● Registered voters in Philadelphia, and helped elect a radical reformer as district attorney and a community activist to city council. In 2017 we joined Reclaim Philadelphia and other community groups in a voter registration campaign in North Philly. We then helped get out the vote to elect civil rights attorney Larry Krasner as DA, in a campaign that made the injustices of mass incarceration its central issue. In the fall of 2019 we organized five carpools to Philadelphia, for voter registration work and canvassing with Make The Road PA and Make The Road Action. Those efforts helped Working Families Party candidate & parent organizer Kendra Brooks defeat one of the two Republicans on Philly's City Council.
● Raised small-dollar donations to support independent voter mobilization by grassroots groups in Alabama, who were working to organize Black voters and keep arch-reactionary Roy Moore out of the US Senate. These community-based initiatives made Doug Jones Alabama's first Democratic Senator in more than 25 years.
● Joined efforts to defend voting rights in Georgia, Texas, North Carolina and North Dakota, sending postcards or making phone calls to contact people affected by Republican voter-suppression efforts.
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