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For Immediate Release
November, 01 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Domenica Ghanem, dghanem@communitychangeaction.org, 609 457 5663
Community Change Action Engages More than 13.14 Million Voters
Black and Latina voters in our universe who did not vote in 2016, are making their votes count.
WASHINGTON
With one day left until Election Day, Community Change Action along with our partners in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin have engaged more than 13.14 million voters, and made 33 million attempts. While the majority of the work to reach voters happened online, through phone calls and text messages, partners in Florida, Arizona and Wisconsin began door knocking in the final stretch. Together they knocked more than 1.5 million doors of low propensity voters. Take a look at the digital ads we're running as part of our seven figure ad buy here.
More than 92 million voters have already casted their ballots nationwide, and our voter engagement work is making the difference in key states. Black and Latina voters in our universe who did not vote in 2016, are making their votes count.
- In Arizona, nearly 33% of those voters have cast their ballots,
- In Colorado, 47.6% have voted,
- In Georgia, 23.5% of these women have voted,
- In Michigan, a whopping 76.3% of this voting bloc voted.
Unsurprisingly, women of color are leading the effort to elect a new administration and progressive candidates down ballot.
- In Florida, 28% of the people that did not vote in 2016 and that we have modeled as supporters of our ticket have already voted.
- In Minnesota, 25% of the people that did not vote in 2016 and that we have modeled as supporters of our ticket have already voted.
- In Nevada, 17% of the people that did not vote in 2016 and that we have modeled as supporters of our ticket have already voted.
- In Wisconsin, 38% of the people that did not vote in 2016 and that we have modeled as supporters of our ticket have already voted.
You can watch voters and supporters talking about why this election is critical to them here.
LUCHA, our partner in Arizona was featured in a CBS 60 Minutes segment and a Politico story about Arizona and the work they've done to flip the state since the passing of SB 1070 a decade ago. They talked to more than 14,500 voters on the doors.
In Michigan, our partners reached nearly 253,000 voters. Today, they will continue their efforts to reach Black voters with an "Ain't' No Stopping Us Now" party at the polls in Detroit. They have trained over 400 volunteers in election protection to monitor Civil Rights violations at the polls.
FIRM Action collectively talked to nearly 200,000 voters in California,Illinois, Maine, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.
The voter contact work in Florida, Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin is part of the Win Justice campaign that includes Community Change Action, Planned Parenthood Votes, Color of Change PAC, SEIU, and our local partners and affiliates.
Community Change Action is a national organization that builds power from the ground up. We believe that effective and enduring social movements must be led by those most impacted by injustice and voting is one essential lever of change.
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Joined by retired military officers and national security experts, Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen on Thursday launched a campaign targeting the nearly $900 billion Pentagon budget and the $100 billion spent on nuclear weapons and "to get our country to start funding the American Dream instead of the death of millions of people."
Standing near Union Station in Washington, D.C. beside a towering sculpture showing what $100 billion looks like, supporters of the Up in Arms campaign—a planned four-year public education and advocacy project "to bring common sense to the Department of Defense and the country's budgetary bottom line"—chanted, "Money for the poor, not nuclear war!"
"There will be no peace, there will be no security, until we start using our resources to provide for the needs of our people at home and around the world," Cohen said at the event. "And we have the money to do it, at no additional taxpayer expense. If we take half the money budgeted for the Pentagon and invested in the things people need and want, the American Dream can become a reality again."
The peace group Ploughshares, which moderated a press conference for the launch of Up in Arms, said that the faux-$100 billion installation could be the tallest protest structure ever erected in Washington, D.C.
"This is a structure that represents the $100 billion that our country spends each year on nuclear weapons," Cohen said while standing in front of the tower and embracing Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of the peace group CodePink. "Fifty percent of that is for a whole new generation of nuclear weapons."
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"Congress could make it easier for Americans to buy homes and save on gas or they could tackle the opioid epidemic–but those are clearly NOT their priorities," Up in Arms says on its website. "We have all the money we need to create a good life for all Americans. For half the money we spend on nuclear bombs, we could stop poisoning kids with lead, provide funding for public schools, and make childcare affordable."
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"We're here today to say we don't want our money spent this way, we want our money spent… on things that keep people alive, not on things that kill people," said Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and current member of the Eisenhower Media Network and Veterans Against Genocide.
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"Since World War II, we tied in Korea, we lost in Vietnam, we won the first Gulf War, we lost in Iraq, and we lost in Afghanistan," he said. "They always say we have the greatest military on earth; I don't buy it."
President Donald Trump is proposing a record $1 trillion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2026 while backing legislation that would dramatically slash spending on vital social programs in order to fund a massive tax break that would overwhelmingly benefit the rich and corporations.
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"First, he uses the starvation of children in Gaza as a tool of war, a barbaric violation of the Geneva Conventions," declared Sanders in a statement. "Now, his illegal unilateral attack on Iran risks a full-blown regional war."
Sanders said Israel's Friday bombings and assassination attacks against Iranian targets, including nuclear program facilities, "directly contravened the express wishes of the United States, which was seeking a diplomatic resolution to the long-standing tensions around Iran's nuclear program."
While a new round of diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Iran were slated to begin Sunday, said Sanders, "Netanyahu chose instead to launch an attack"—a move seen by critics as an overt effort to sabotage a negotiated agreement.
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