This is How Organizers are Prepping for What Comes Next
As Nov. 4 approaches, we’re asking organizers and activists four big questions about how the election outcome will change their work.
The first response we’re featuring is from Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of Justice Democrats, a political action committee that recruits and supports progressive Democratic candidates nationwide who support platforms such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
Founded by former Bernie Sanders campaign leaders in 2017, its most famous alumni are “The Squad”: Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This year, the committee includes people like Ferguson activist Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. Rojas, a co-founder of another progressive PAC Brand New Congress, told us she believes that successful down-ballot races will help the fight for a more equitable future.
If Trump wins, what is your group, Justice Democrats, planning to do on Nov. 4?
If Trump wins reelection and Democrats don’t take back the Senate, we know exactly what we’re getting from Republicans over the next four years: more lies, more tax breaks for the rich, climate denial, a long and painful battle against COVID-19, and more judicial nominations devised to strip the rights of people of color, the LGBTQ community and women. We need to invest in future down-ballot races [state and local offices] and fight like hell for structural reform that will empower Democrats to use every political, procedural and rhetorical tool to mitigate the harm done by another four years of GOP control.
If Biden wins, does a new president radically change your strategy?
The crises we’re facing now – the pandemic, an economy rigged for the rich, a rapidly warming climate, and an authoritarian movement that wants to suppress our multiracial democracy – don’t just disappear the day Biden is declared the winner. If Biden wins, we’ll organize with intense pressure on the inside and outside to make sure he meets this moment and enacts solutions as big as the problems we face. With a growing Squad, President Biden will likely inherit a Democratic Congress that is significantly more progressive than the Democratic Congress President Obama governed with.
Many people expect the nightmare scenario: a contested election result. What’s your plan for electoral limbo?
There are a number of organizations and coalitions that are working to protect the integrity of the result. We should take seriously that Trump will likely try to contest the election results and prepare to use every possible tool to uphold the basic tenets of our democracy. We must also work to combat voter suppression. Republicans take no issue with obstructing peoples’ right to vote which means before we even arrive at the possibility of electoral purgatory, our most pressing needs are for polling workers to safely staff voting sites and accessible early-vote and vote-by-mail processes.
What’s one thing you’ll keep doing regardless of outcome?
Our strategy has always involved ushering in a new generation of diverse, working-class progressive Democrats who will fight for voters, not corporate donors. We’ll continue to primary out-of-touch Democrats with leaders just like AOC, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush to hold the party accountable. A growing bloc of legislators will always have some leverage in our political system, especially when there are massive social movements in the streets drawing urgency to issues and demands.