Finding Blue in a Sea of Red
by Janet Singer, CGB Political Director
Crimson Goes Blue is still a small organization, though we aspire to be much bigger! The majority of our members live in Blue states. New York, Massachusetts, and California are well-represented. We are working to build our membership in battleground states—Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. For the foreseeable future our work (particularly our remote work) will be focused on the battlegrounds, but we will also support all our members in lifting their voices wherever they are and wherever they have influence.
Recently I’ve had a couple of conversations with members living in Red states who aren’t sure whether they belong or how they fit in at Crimson Goes Blue. I want to be clear that we value and encourage activism anywhere by members committed to our mission of forging a more just American democracy. And the shared learning that happens in the CGB community comes from all of us with our varied experiences. Working toward Democratic victories will take longer in places like Kentucky and Mississippi and Idaho, but voices promoting democracy are needed everywhere. Seeds need to be planted in what looks like inhospitable soil for change to occur and so that when opportunities arise, there is a force ready to respond—consider the energy that has arisen in Tennessee in the last 2 weeks! Connecting with other like-minded alums is one way to till that soil and we are behind that 100%.
Local activists working in Red states are playing the long game and it’s hard to do that when every election feels like the house is on fire. Of course, we must focus where we think our group can have the most impact—winning the Presidency, holding the Senate, winning back the House—but the continuing strength of the anti-MAGA movement in the battlegrounds (witness the landslide victory in the State Supreme Court justice election in the 50/50 state of Wisconsin) means activists who support Democratic candidates can work on races that we wouldn’t previously have had the resources (both volunteer time and money) to contest.
In our community of activists, we can learn from each other—during our Community Conversations on Zoom and in our Crimson Goes Blue Facebook Group, in upcoming workshops on talking to voters and voter registration, and hopefully in this newsletter. Our community seeks to be a place where we can all gain wisdom, and support the work of our members wherever we live.
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