Nov. 3, We Vote. Nov. 4, We Work.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump debate in Nashville [Morry Gash/Pool via Reuters]

By Samantha Grasso

As the presidential election approaches, we’ve asked organizers and activists four big questions about how the outcome will change their work. Here’s what some of them had to say.

(These responses have been edited for length and clarity.)

Seed the Vote and Everyday People PAC

Jill Shenker is the 2020 campaign director for Seed the Vote, a voter outreach effort from the grassroots social justice political fund Everyday People PAC. Le Tim Ly is the director of the PAC, which is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and supports other grassroots organizations doing electoral work in swing states.

If Trump wins, what’s your group planning to do?

We’ve been part of the biggest voter mobilization effort in history because we believe in the potential of democracy and the power of our voices. Having worked so hard to turn out every possible voter against Trump, we’ll work to ensure that every vote is counted. With so much mail-in voting, it is highly unlikely we will have accurate election results on election night, yet Trump may try and claim victory. He knows he’s losing this election, so he wants to pick and choose who can vote and how votes will be counted. If, in the end, it’s determined that Trump won, we will just have to continue to fight for our people and our planet.

What’s your strategy if Biden wins?

We’ve been clear all along that we are not campaigning for a savior – we’re fighting to elect people into office who will be more amenable to the demands of our movements. If Biden wins, we’ll celebrate and lift up the organizing that brought on this victory. Then we’ll get right back to work, organizing our communities to demand that the Biden administration choose cabinet appointees that reflect our communities and our values and move an agenda for COVID relief, the Breathe Act, a Green New Deal and much more.

Many people expect the nightmare scenario: a contested election result. What’s your plan for electoral limbo?

We believe in us – our right for every vote to be counted and our collective capacity to fight back against those who want to undermine democracy and preserve the rule of a wealthy few. If the results are contested, we’ll work in coordination with other organizations across the political spectrum to take collective action demanding every vote is counted. We’ll be a source of reliable information. We’ll mobilize en masse in the streets, in battleground states and in blue states. We’ll make thousands of phone calls to voters to help them “cure” (verify) their mail-in ballot if it’s being questioned. We’ll help grassroots organizations in places where the fight is most intense call their members and supporters to turn out. And we’ll mobilize financial resources to deploy wherever they are most needed.

What’s one thing you’ll keep doing regardless of outcome?

Seed the Vote set out to defeat Trump and build our movements at the same time. We’ve carried out our electoral organizing by supporting the efforts of grassroots groups doing long-term organizing in working-class communities and communities of color. We’ve trained dozens of young BIPOC in electoral organizing through our Generation Rising fellowship program. We’ll continue to develop and deploy capacity, training and resources to the key grassroots organizations in future election cycles and build this model of electoral organizing as movement solidarity.

Extinction Rebellion DC

Miles is a member of Extinction Rebellion, an international movement that uses nonviolent civil disobedience to get governments to address climate change.

If Trump wins, what’s your group planning to do?

Whether Trump wins or Biden wins, our strategy is the same. We're demanding that government and media listen to scientists and tell the truth about the climate and ecological crisis. We're demanding an immediate end to fracking and fossil fuel subsidies. Most importantly, we’re demanding net zero emissions by the end of the next presidential term. Our politics have been corrupted by greed, which is why a citizens’ assembly must be established to decide how this target is met. We’re also demanding a just transition that protects and prioritizes communities most heavily impacted by our disastrous climate policies. This includes reparations for Black and Indigenous peoples.

Many people expect the nightmare scenario: a contested election result. What’s your plan for electoral limbo?

A contested election is not the nightmare scenario. The nightmare scenario is 2 degrees Celsius of global heating triggering the collapse of human civilization and unprecedented mass extinction. A hypothetical constitutional crisis pales in comparison to the very real climate and ecological crisis that is causing immense suffering to millions of people around the world. But a failed state will not be able to achieve the radical transformation we need for survival, and, should the need arise, we’ll join other organizations in Washington and beyond in refusing to accept an illegitimate regime through direct, disruptive, nonviolent actions.

What’s one thing you’ll keep doing regardless of outcome?

Regardless of who the next president is, we will not allow business as usual to continue until these four demands (listed in the first response) are met.

Justice Democrats

Alexandra Rojas is 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 Jamaal Bowman and Ferguson activist Cori Bush. 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’s your group planning to do?

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. 

What’s your strategy if Biden wins?

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.

The Sunrise Movement

Neha Desaraju is an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led grassroots political action organization working to end climate change. In the 2020 election, the Sunrise Movement has endorsed congressional candidates who are opposing oil company bailouts and supporting quick transitions to renewable energy or are moderates running against “fossil fuel puppets.”

If Trump wins, what’s your group planning to do?

If there’s a Trump victory on election night and it’s clear he hasn’t stolen the election, there is no likely path to pass Green New Deal policy through the federal government. This is the chance for us to regroup and frontload a new movement for the Green New Deal that meets the moment.

What’s your strategy if Biden wins?

We’ll very firmly put pressure on Biden (and) Congress Dems. We’ll plan actions in the immediate months targeting Dem leaders and lead sharp actions, as well as distributed and mass absorption campaigns (the group clarified that this would include things like sit-ins, rallies, marches and social media campaigns in ways that are appropriate for the COVID era). In order to set the groundwork for the Green New Deal, we’ll frame the terms of the debate before Biden even steps into office. We’ll deliver a mandate for 2021 that he won’t be able to ignore. 

This is our defining moment as a movement – this is what we came here to do. The movement for a Green New Deal has been leading up to this moment when we finally take back governing power.

Many people expect the nightmare scenario: a contested election result. What’s your plan for electoral limbo?

Our plan is to make sure there’s a decisive Biden victory on election night. We’re doing this by making 74,000 calls, 200K texts, writing 435K postcards, and coaching 2.5K organizers with Victory Squad (the Sunrise Movement’s organizer training and election campaigning arm). But if Trump tries to steal the election we’ll lead deescalated actions (like making sure everyone has the information they need to vote at polling locations and being present where ballots are counted to ensure accountability), especially in key states. We’ll also call for a youth strike in coalition with other progressive and youth groups, like March for Our Lives, Dream Defenders and United We Dream.

What’s one thing you’ll keep doing regardless of outcome?

Sunrise’s end goal will be to build people and political power. Regardless of the election outcome, we’ll continue to strike and organize. We’ll turn up the heat on our representatives, call for mass youth action and absorb more young people into the movement.

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