May, 18 2020, 12:00am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Donte Donald (Color Of Change PAC), Marisol Bello (Community Change Action), Monica Robinson (Planned Parenthood Votes), Eunic Ortiz (SEIU)
Color Of Change PAC, Community Change Action, Planned Parenthood Votes, Service Employees International Union Launch $30 Million "Win Justice" Campaign to Expand the Electorate in Key Battleground States
Partnership marks massive collaboration among leading progressive groups with a strong track record of turning out infrequent voters of color.
WASHINGTON
Today, a group of leading progressive organizations, including Color Of Change PAC, Community Change Action, Planned Parenthood Votes, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), launched a $30 million campaign, Win Justice, to expand the electorate by mobilizing at least three million voters of color, young people, women, and union supporters in four key battleground states: Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, and Wisconsin. As many states shift election dates, modify polling places, and move to mail-in ballots, Win Justice will make an investment that is large enough to directly impact election results in each state and work to make voting accessible while combating systemic voter suppression. Win Justice will be particularly focused on the impact of vote-by-mail on historically marginalized Black, Latino, and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and will engage these voters so they exercise their right to vote.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the country and many face rising unemployment and lost wages, voters of color are at greatest risk of being disenfranchised, especially by Republican voter suppression efforts. The Win Justice campaign will adjust to this reality by combining digital tools with traditional methods to connect with these voters. In addition to in-person field organizing if health officials deem it safe, the campaign will engage more deeply with voters by mail and phone, sending personalized postcards, and holding one-on-one conversations. The campaign will also focus on innovative digital organizing tools and a robust paid media campaign to Get Out The Vote.
"By prioritizing people of color, women, and young people through sustained, thoughtful engagement, Win Justice has the potential to expand the realms of possibility in our politics. When these groups of people vote, they consistently vote for more progressive candidates and policies, such as climate justice, immigration, social justice, women's rights," said Rashad Robinson, Spokesperson for Color Of Change PAC. "We are excited to continue building on the success of Win Justice in 2018. Real and consistent efforts to incorporate these voters and their specific voices into policymaking and politics would not only make our communities more just and equitable, but also shift power to the people that are too often overlooked."
"The Win Justice program is groundbreaking because it upends business-as-usual politics that deprioritizes low propensity voters of color or takes our vote for granted," said Lorella Praeli, President of Community Change Action. "It's never been more important than now during the coronavirus pandemic when we have to ensure voters of color remain civically engaged and exercise their right to vote. We see time and again that when you organize black, brown and immigrant voters in our communities, whether it is online or in-person, when you reach out to us about the issues we care about and when we hear from the people we know and trust, black, brown and immigrant voters will engage and vote. This program is not just about individual elections, but about reshaping the electorate to fundamentally shift the balance of power in this country and to engage -- and turn out -- voters that campaigns or parties may not otherwise reach."
"There can be no justice until we elect champions who will fight for reproductive freedom," said Jenny Lawson, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Votes. "The stakes for abortion access and reproductive health care have never been so high, and sitting on the sidelines is simply not an option. Planned Parenthood Votes is proud to fight shoulder to shoulder with our allies in this movement. We need to reach the communities who have been targeted and silenced by this administration and the people in power -- from voters of color, to immigrants, to young people, to women. Enough is enough: While our country's health care needs continue to rise in the face of a global pandemic, it's time for the politicians who attack our health care and our reproductive rights to lose their jobs."
"Working people, whether on the frontlines of this public health crisis or struggling in this economic crisis, are more engaged in politics now than in any election in our lifetimes," said Mary Kay Henry, International President of the Service Employees International Union. "Working people are making their voices heard loud and clear in this election that we must protect all workers - especially after being asked to risk their lives by going to work without protective equipment or hazard pay. Win Justice is about prioritizing deep engagement with Black, brown and Asian Pacific Islander voters. Workers and communities of color can't afford to return to normal - we need to reject the inequality and economic pain that defines COVID but was present long before COVID. That's what this election is about. Win Justice is the first step toward a better future where we rewrite the rules, rebuild the economy based on workers' power and reinvest in communities."
"Win Justice is committed to empowering voters, building power for our communities, and standing against the incompetent leadership that is putting the lives of so many at risk - especially now during the coronavirus pandemic," said Melissa Morales, Florida State Director for Win Justice. "We built a successful campaign in the 2018 cycle that mobilized and engaged our communities and increased Democratic turnout. Our 2020 campaign will build on that success by expanding the electorate; engaging voters of color, working people, and women; and mobilizing enough voters to make a winning difference in these crucial battleground states."
This groundbreaking coalition of leading progressive organizations, each of which have a track record of running large scale voter turnout in these communities, will have a particular focus on infrequent voters of color, including young people and women. The $30 million Win Justice campaign will be multilingual and lean on trusted community messengers to mobilize voters, including a robust virtual organizing effort that includes phone, text, mail, and digital as well as paid advertising on TV, radio, and digital platforms.
Thanks to the collaboration of the partner organizations and their unique expertise, Win Justice can connect and educate voters on immigrant, worker and reproductive rights, health care, economic, and racial justice issues. Utilizing powerful messengers with lived experiences, Win Justice will have an unmatched ability to organize communities, mobilize voters, and hold elected officials accountable. Win Justice can also hold elected officials accountable for incompetent leadership that puts the lives of millions of Americans at risk, including front line workers in Black, Latino, and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
Unlike many other organizations that focus on persuading high frequency voters, Win Justice is focused on expanding the electorate to drive infrequent and new voters to the polls to fundamentally change the voices at the table and the outcome of the election. Rather than only doing a last minute "Get Out the Vote" push days before the election, Win Justice partner organizations are on the ground for the long haul, earning the trust of these communities, engaging partners on the ground, and driving toward grassroots victories -- not just in November, but for years to come.
The Win Justice partnership builds on a successful collaboration in the 2018 cycle when Win Justice organizers and partners knocked on more than 3.4 million doors, achieved 80 million digital impressions, sent more than 2.1 million texts, and made more than 800,000 phone calls in Florida, Michigan, and Nevada combined, increasing Democratic turnout by one full percentage point.
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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Netanyahu to Press for 'Another Round of War With Iran' in Meeting With Trump This Week
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As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Mar-a-Lago to meet with US President Donald Trump on Monday, amid a growing rift with the president and his advisers, reports say he'll seek to push the US back toward war with Iran.
Last week, NBC News reported that at the meeting, "Netanyahu is expected to make the case to Trump that Iran’s expansion of its ballistic missile program poses a threat that could necessitate swift action" and that "the Israeli leader is expected to present Trump with options for the US to join or assist in any new military operations."
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The chief of Israel's armed forces suggested earlier this week that its occupation of more than half of Gaza would be permanent, but walked those comments back after reported behind-the-scenes outrage in the White House. Meanwhile, Trump—invested in his image as a peacemaker—has reportedly balked at Israel's routine violations of the ceasefire agreement he helped to broker in October.
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As Axios reported on Friday, Trump's advisers increasingly fear that Netanyahu is intentionally slow-walking and undermining the peace process in hopes of resuming the war.
Netanyahu also seeks Trump's continued backing of Israel's territorial expansion in Syria. Earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pushed through a UN-monitored demilitarized zone between Israeli and Syrian-held positions in the Golan Heights, which Israel illegally occupies.
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US Rep. Ro Khanna defended California's proposed tax on extreme wealth Saturday after a pair of prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists threatened to launch a primary bid for his California House seat.
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While higher taxes on the superrich are overwhelmingly popular with Americans, the proposal has rankled many of California’s wealthiest residents, as well as California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said earlier this month that he’s “adamantly” against the measure.
On Friday, the New York Times reported that two of the valley's biggest powerbrokers—venture capitalist and top Trump administration ally Peter Thiel and Google co-founder Larry Page—were threatening to reduce their ties to California in response to the tax proposal.
This has been a common refrain from elites faced with proposed tax increases, though data suggests they rarely follow through on their threats to bail on cities and states, even when those hikes are implemented. Meanwhile, the American Prospect has pointed out that the one-time tax would still apply to those who moved out of the Golden State.
Khanna (D-Calif.), who is both a member of the House's progressive faction and a longtime darling of the tech sector, has increasingly sparred with industry leaders in recent years over their reactionary stances on labor rights, regulation, and taxation.
In a post on X, the congressman reacted with derision at the threats of billionaire flight: "Peter Thiel is leaving California if we pass a 1% tax on billionaires for five years to pay for healthcare for the working class facing steep Medicaid cuts. I echo what [former President Franklin D. Roosevelt] said with sarcasm of economic royalists when they threatened to leave, 'I will miss them very much.'"
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Casado replied: "Count me in. Happy to be involved at any level."
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So far, neither Casado nor Tan has hinted at any concrete plans to challenge Khanna in 2026. If they did, defeating him would likely be a tall order—since his sophomore election in 2018, a primary challenger has never come within 30 points of unseating him.
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Khanna hit back at his critics with a lengthy defense of not just the wealth tax, but his conception of what he calls "pro-innovation progressivism."
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When President Donald Trump launched a series of airstrikes in Nigeria on Christmas, he described it as an attack against "ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians."
But locals in a town that was hit during the strike say terrorism has never been a problem for them. On Friday, CNN published a report based on interviews with several residents of Jabo, which was hit by a US missile during Thursday's attack, which landed just feet away from the town's only hospital.
The rural town of Jabo is part of the Sokoto state in northwestern Nigeria, which the Trump administration and the Nigerian government said was hit during the strike.
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However, Nigerian officials have disputed claims by Republican leaders—including US Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)—who have claimed that the government is “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians.”
The senator recently claimed, without citing a source for the figures, that "since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 18,000 churches and 2,000 Christian schools have been destroyed" by the Islamist group Boko Haram.
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Moreover, the areas where Boko Haram is most active are in northeastern Nigeria, far away from where Trump's strikes were conducted. Attacks on Christians cited in October by Cruz, meanwhile, have been in Nigeria's Middle Belt region, which is separate from violence in the north.
The Nigerian government has pushed back on what they have called an "oversimplified" narrative coming out of the White House and from figures in US media, like HBO host Bill Maher, who has echoed Cruz's overwrought claims of "Christian genocide."
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Anthea Butler, a religious scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, has criticized the Trump administration's attempts to turn the complex situation in Nigeria into a "holy war."
"This theme of persecution of Christians is a very politically charged, and actually religiously charged, theme for evangelicals across the world. And when you say that Christians are being persecuted, that’s a thing," she told Democracy Now! in November. "It fits this sort of savior narrative of this American sort of ethos right now that is seeing itself going into countries for a moral war, a moral suasion, as it were, to do something to help other people."
Nigeria also notably produces more crude oil than any other country in Africa. Trump has explicitly argued that the US should carry out regime change in Venezuela for the purposes of "taking back" that nation's oil.
Butler has doubted the sincerity of Trump's concern for the nation's Christians due to his administration's denial of entry for Nigerian refugees, as well as virtually every other refugee group, with the exception of white South Africans.
She said: "I think this is sort of disingenuous to say you’re going to go in and save Christianity in Nigeria, when you have, you know, banned Nigerians from coming to this country."
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