SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A woman wears a jacket that reads 'November Is Coming' as protestors rally against in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, September 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
With #MarchToThePolls in Chicago, Women's March Aims to Channel 'Outrage and Energy' to Defeat Trump Agenda on Election Day
"It's a culmination of the last two marches with one primary goal: making sure every single voice is heard at the ballot box."
Oct 12, 2018
Energized by the outrage that resulted from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination and confirmation in recent weeks, the Women's March Chicago will hold a rally and literal "march to the polls" on Saturday, with marchers walking to early voting sites to cast their ballots in the midterm elections.
The 2018 March to the Polls will follow Chicago's 300,000-strong Women's March on January 20, 2018, offering resources and information to first-time voters as well as musical guests and speakers including Heather Booth, founder of the pre-Roe v. Wade underground abortion collective Jane.
Offering a model to other communities nationwide, organizers say the event aims to mobilize voters in Chicago and all over the country to go to the polls in record numbers on November 6--and before if early voting is available to them--to fight the Republican Party's anti-woman, anti-immigration, and anti-healthcare agenda.
"The stakes are sky-high this November," Women's March Chicago board president Jessica Scheller said in a statement announcing the event last month. "We need every single woman--from first time voters to great-grandmothers--along with every single ally to take to the streets and converge on the polls. We have been practicing for months. Now it's time to channel our outrage and energy and truly make our voices heard through our votes in greater numbers than ever before."
Before rallying in Chicago's Grant Park, newly registered voters will be invited to "mingle with elected officials, community leaders and others" at a "First Time Voter Experience" area hosted by the grassroots group Chicago Votes.
"The purpose is to start the midterm elections in Illinois the best way we possibly can, by celebrating first-time voters and making sure they're all eligible to get registered and cast a ballot in the upcoming election cycle," Rudy Garrett, a Women's March Chicago board member and the co-deputy director of Chicago Votes, told WTTW on Thursday.
"The stakes are sky-high this November. We need every single woman--from first time voters to great-grandmothers--along with every single ally to take to the streets and converge on the polls." --Jessica Scheller, Women's March Chicago
Attendees will later proceed to early voting sites in downtown Chicago.
The March to the Polls comes amid reports that, with many galvanized by the Women's March in 2017, women are running for office in record numbers this year. A record-setting 256 women won primary races this year, qualifying for general elections next month. The vast majority are Democrats, and the number of women of color who are running this year is up 75 percent from just six years ago.
The event also comes at the end of a year in which issues affecting women were at the forefront of political news--from states' efforts to roll back reproductive rights to the #MeToo movement and the Republican Party's support for multiple powerful men who were credibly accused of sexual assault and abuse, including Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, Kavanaugh, and President Donald Trump.
"This last year we saw an undeniable shift in how we tolerate sexual harassment and how we talk about it," Anna Eskamani, a Democrat running for a seat in Florida's State House, told Rewire News this summer. "These lived experiences fueled my decision to run for office and serve as my own moral compass. The 2016 election inspired me to run for office, but it was the Women's March in 2017 that further solidified my aspirations to do this work, and it was the #MeToo movement that reminded me that it's so important that we not only run but that we win."
With Chicago's March to the Polls, the Women's March aims to drive more voters to the polls across the country.
"You see this movement growing nationwide, and it's only getting bigger," Garrett told WTTW. "It's a culmination of the last two marches with one primary goal: making sure every single voice is heard at the ballot box."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Energized by the outrage that resulted from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination and confirmation in recent weeks, the Women's March Chicago will hold a rally and literal "march to the polls" on Saturday, with marchers walking to early voting sites to cast their ballots in the midterm elections.
The 2018 March to the Polls will follow Chicago's 300,000-strong Women's March on January 20, 2018, offering resources and information to first-time voters as well as musical guests and speakers including Heather Booth, founder of the pre-Roe v. Wade underground abortion collective Jane.
Offering a model to other communities nationwide, organizers say the event aims to mobilize voters in Chicago and all over the country to go to the polls in record numbers on November 6--and before if early voting is available to them--to fight the Republican Party's anti-woman, anti-immigration, and anti-healthcare agenda.
"The stakes are sky-high this November," Women's March Chicago board president Jessica Scheller said in a statement announcing the event last month. "We need every single woman--from first time voters to great-grandmothers--along with every single ally to take to the streets and converge on the polls. We have been practicing for months. Now it's time to channel our outrage and energy and truly make our voices heard through our votes in greater numbers than ever before."
Before rallying in Chicago's Grant Park, newly registered voters will be invited to "mingle with elected officials, community leaders and others" at a "First Time Voter Experience" area hosted by the grassroots group Chicago Votes.
"The purpose is to start the midterm elections in Illinois the best way we possibly can, by celebrating first-time voters and making sure they're all eligible to get registered and cast a ballot in the upcoming election cycle," Rudy Garrett, a Women's March Chicago board member and the co-deputy director of Chicago Votes, told WTTW on Thursday.
"The stakes are sky-high this November. We need every single woman--from first time voters to great-grandmothers--along with every single ally to take to the streets and converge on the polls." --Jessica Scheller, Women's March Chicago
Attendees will later proceed to early voting sites in downtown Chicago.
The March to the Polls comes amid reports that, with many galvanized by the Women's March in 2017, women are running for office in record numbers this year. A record-setting 256 women won primary races this year, qualifying for general elections next month. The vast majority are Democrats, and the number of women of color who are running this year is up 75 percent from just six years ago.
The event also comes at the end of a year in which issues affecting women were at the forefront of political news--from states' efforts to roll back reproductive rights to the #MeToo movement and the Republican Party's support for multiple powerful men who were credibly accused of sexual assault and abuse, including Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, Kavanaugh, and President Donald Trump.
"This last year we saw an undeniable shift in how we tolerate sexual harassment and how we talk about it," Anna Eskamani, a Democrat running for a seat in Florida's State House, told Rewire News this summer. "These lived experiences fueled my decision to run for office and serve as my own moral compass. The 2016 election inspired me to run for office, but it was the Women's March in 2017 that further solidified my aspirations to do this work, and it was the #MeToo movement that reminded me that it's so important that we not only run but that we win."
With Chicago's March to the Polls, the Women's March aims to drive more voters to the polls across the country.
"You see this movement growing nationwide, and it's only getting bigger," Garrett told WTTW. "It's a culmination of the last two marches with one primary goal: making sure every single voice is heard at the ballot box."
Energized by the outrage that resulted from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination and confirmation in recent weeks, the Women's March Chicago will hold a rally and literal "march to the polls" on Saturday, with marchers walking to early voting sites to cast their ballots in the midterm elections.
The 2018 March to the Polls will follow Chicago's 300,000-strong Women's March on January 20, 2018, offering resources and information to first-time voters as well as musical guests and speakers including Heather Booth, founder of the pre-Roe v. Wade underground abortion collective Jane.
Offering a model to other communities nationwide, organizers say the event aims to mobilize voters in Chicago and all over the country to go to the polls in record numbers on November 6--and before if early voting is available to them--to fight the Republican Party's anti-woman, anti-immigration, and anti-healthcare agenda.
"The stakes are sky-high this November," Women's March Chicago board president Jessica Scheller said in a statement announcing the event last month. "We need every single woman--from first time voters to great-grandmothers--along with every single ally to take to the streets and converge on the polls. We have been practicing for months. Now it's time to channel our outrage and energy and truly make our voices heard through our votes in greater numbers than ever before."
Before rallying in Chicago's Grant Park, newly registered voters will be invited to "mingle with elected officials, community leaders and others" at a "First Time Voter Experience" area hosted by the grassroots group Chicago Votes.
"The purpose is to start the midterm elections in Illinois the best way we possibly can, by celebrating first-time voters and making sure they're all eligible to get registered and cast a ballot in the upcoming election cycle," Rudy Garrett, a Women's March Chicago board member and the co-deputy director of Chicago Votes, told WTTW on Thursday.
"The stakes are sky-high this November. We need every single woman--from first time voters to great-grandmothers--along with every single ally to take to the streets and converge on the polls." --Jessica Scheller, Women's March Chicago
Attendees will later proceed to early voting sites in downtown Chicago.
The March to the Polls comes amid reports that, with many galvanized by the Women's March in 2017, women are running for office in record numbers this year. A record-setting 256 women won primary races this year, qualifying for general elections next month. The vast majority are Democrats, and the number of women of color who are running this year is up 75 percent from just six years ago.
The event also comes at the end of a year in which issues affecting women were at the forefront of political news--from states' efforts to roll back reproductive rights to the #MeToo movement and the Republican Party's support for multiple powerful men who were credibly accused of sexual assault and abuse, including Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, Kavanaugh, and President Donald Trump.
"This last year we saw an undeniable shift in how we tolerate sexual harassment and how we talk about it," Anna Eskamani, a Democrat running for a seat in Florida's State House, told Rewire News this summer. "These lived experiences fueled my decision to run for office and serve as my own moral compass. The 2016 election inspired me to run for office, but it was the Women's March in 2017 that further solidified my aspirations to do this work, and it was the #MeToo movement that reminded me that it's so important that we not only run but that we win."
With Chicago's March to the Polls, the Women's March aims to drive more voters to the polls across the country.
"You see this movement growing nationwide, and it's only getting bigger," Garrett told WTTW. "It's a culmination of the last two marches with one primary goal: making sure every single voice is heard at the ballot box."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.