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
For Immediate Release
January, 06 2021, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Denali Nalamalapu
(347) 504-1057
denali.nalamalapu@350.org
350 Action Responds to Georgia U.S. Senate Runoff Results
Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeated Senator Kelly Loeffler and Senator David Perdue in Georgia's twin Senate runoff races. Democrats now hold 50 seats in the Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as a tie-breaking vote.
WASHINGTON
Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeated Senator Kelly Loeffler and Senator David Perdue in Georgia's twin Senate runoff races. Democrats now hold 50 seats in the Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as a tie-breaking vote. This grants Democrats unified power over the executive and legislative branches. Both of the winning candidates have climate platforms and neither have endorsed a Green New Deal. This news arrived yesterday amidst an attempted coup in the U.S. Capitol by white supremacist insurrectionists. Soon after, Congress officially certified Biden's presidential win.
350 Action Campaigner Betamia Coronel gave the following response:
"This election season, Black women, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian-Pacific Islander communities, youth voters, and many organizers showed up in Georgia to save our democracy and planet. Together, we are shifting the balance of power -- first by electing Biden and Harris, and now by electing Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. This election was about upping pressure on elected officials to enact real progress at the federal, state, and local levels. Now, we will hold them accountable to the communities who elected them.
"This is our chance to push real climate legislation through the Senate, including a Green New Deal and a just recovery from the pandemic, racial and economic injustice. On a state level, we expect both Senator-elects to unyieldingly prioritize housing, racial, and climate justice, including by backing a Green New Deal and the Thrive resolution. Ossoff must act on his support for renewable energy investment and green jobs through his infrastructure plan, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and reversing Trump's environmental rollbacks. Warnock must fulfill his commitment to a renewable energy transition that centers low income and BIPOC Georgians, prioritize environmental justice, and ensure investment in climate resiliency."
Throughout the election, 350 Action held phone banks, ramping up efforts in Georgia ahead of the run-off elections.
350 Action is the independent political action arm of the non-profit, non-partisan climate justice group 350.org.
LATEST NEWS
100+ US Campus Protests to Call Out Trump Attacks and Unaffordable Education
"Trump's higher education policies have been catastrophic for our communities and our democracy," said one union leader as the president pressures universities to sign a "loyalty oath."
Nov 04, 2025
Aiming to "organize millions of students to disrupt business as usual and force our schools and our political system to finally work for us," progressive groups and labor unions are planning a nationwide day of coordinated protests at over 100 US campuses on Friday, November 7.
Planned by Students Rise Up, in coordination with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and Higher Education Labor United (HELU), the upcoming demonstrations "will be the first in a series of nationwide days of protests leading up to student strikes and worker actions on May Day 2026," according to organizers.
In addition to the unions, groups backing the effort include Campus Climate Network, College Democrats of America, Gen-Z for Change, Indivisible, Jewish Voice for Peace, March for Our Lives, and Sunrise Movement, whose executive director, Aru Shiney-Ajay, stressed in a Tuesday statement that "everyone deserves an accessible, affordable, and quality education."
"Everyone deserves to be safe at school—no matter their race, gender, or immigration status," Shiney-Ajay said. "Everyone deserves the freedom to peacefully protest. We're joining with worker allies to demand our administrations and politicians start fighting for an education system that works for our generation."
We demand an end to student debt! We're disrupting business as usual on Nov 7 to demand college affordability, the freedom to teach & learn, and safety for the most vulnerable on our campuses. Signs made by Josh MacPhee 🔥 grab one when you protest this Friday! #DefendHigherEd#EndStudentDebt
[image or embed]
— AAUP (@aaup.org) November 4, 2025 at 11:14 AM
The plans for the protests come as campus administrations are considering President Donald Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education," which schools can sign for priority access to federal funding and other "positive benefits." Critics have condemned it as "authoritarian" and an "extortion agreement," and some top universities have declined to sign on.
Alicia Colomer, managing director at Campus Climate Network, said Tuesday that "young people are making their message very clear: Universities should be a place of learning, not propaganda machines. That's why students, workers, and alumni around the country are taking action."
As part of Friday's protests, organizers said, participants will urge campus leaders to reject Trump's "loyalty oath" and, more broadly, "commit to freedom of expression, college for all, and security for all at school."
Asked to comment on the day of action, Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the US Department of Education—which initially offered the compact to a short list of prestigious universities—repeated previous statements, telling Inside Higher Ed that "the Trump administration is achieving reforms on higher education campuses that conservatives have dreamed about for 50 years."
"Institutions are once again committed to enforcing federal civil rights laws consistently, they are rooting out DEI and unconstitutional race preferences, and they are acknowledging sex as a biological reality in sports and intimate spaces," Biedermann added, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Meanwhile, AAUP president Todd Wolfson put out a statement taking aim at the president's assault on higher education.
"From attacks on academic freedom in the classroom to the defunding of lifesaving scientific research to surveilling and arresting peaceful student protesters, Trump's higher education policies have been catastrophic for our communities and our democracy," he said. "We're excited to help build a coalition of students and workers united in fighting back for a higher education system that is accessible and affordable for all and serves the common good."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Going to Make Their Lives Hell': Trump Plans All-Out Pressure Campaign on GOP Senators to Kill Filibuster
"Republicans are rubber stamps for Donald Trump on everything else," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen. "This may be the one area where they've decided not to play ball."
Nov 04, 2025
President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to escalate his campaign to eliminate the filibuster in the US Senate.
According to a Tuesday report from Axios, Trump plans to relentlessly harass Republican senators until they accept his demands to kill the filibuster, which imposes a 60-vote threshold for closing debate on most legislation in the Senate ahead of a final vote.
One Trump adviser told the publication that the president plans to be relentless in lobbying Republicans to end the filibuster in a way he never was before.
"He will call them at 3 o'clock in the morning," they said. "He will blow them up in their districts. He will call them un-American. He will call them old creatures of a dying institution. Believe you me, he's going to make their lives just hell."
Another adviser told Axios that Trump is "really mad" about Democrats being able to force a government shutdown—now tied for the longest in history—even when Republicans have control of the US House, Senate, and presidency.
The official White House account on X even got into the action on Tuesday with an all-caps post demanding that GOP senators "TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!!!"
Even so, there so far is no indication that enough Republican senators are going to obey Trump's orders on this issue, especially since three of them—Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine)—voted to convict him at his second impeachment trial in 2021.
Many Republicans, including former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have long taken the view that the filibuster is a net benefit for their party given that it gives them the ability to indefinitely stall most progressive legislation.
In fact, Fox News reported on Tuesday that current Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) believes there are at most a dozen Republican votes in his caucus in favor of scrapping the filibuster.
In an interview with Axios, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) expressed confidence that Republicans wouldn't really walk the plank for Trump on this issue.
"Republicans are rubber stamps for Donald Trump on everything else," he said. "This may be the one area where they've decided not to play ball."
During former President Joe Biden's term, 49 Senate Democrats voted to eliminate the filibuster but were blocked from getting to the majority by then-Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), both of whom would eventually leave the Democratic Party to become independents.
Keep ReadingShow Less
To Check Trump's Power Grab, Progressives Make Final Push for Prop 50 in California
"It's our way of fighting back against all of the the racist gerrymandering happening across the country," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Nov 04, 2025
Election watchers across the country and even overseas were anticipating the results in New York City on Tuesday as progressives hoped for a victory for state Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani and his mayoral campaign that's relentlessly focused on the needs of working people, but democracy advocates also urged attention on a key ballot measure in California aimed at countering Republican gerrymandering.
The grassroots group Our Revolution was sending canvassers out to advocate for a "yes" vote on Proposition 50, which would throw out the state's current district map in favor of one that could give Democrats five additional seats in the US House of Representatives.
If approved, the ballot measure would pass the Election Rigging Response Act "to counter [President] Donald Trump’s scheme to rig next year’s congressional election and [reaffirm] California’s commitment to independent, nonpartisan redistricting after the next census."
Trump has called on Republican-controlled states including Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina to redraw their district maps and employ racial gerrymandering to increase the likelihood that the GOP will win more seats in the House.
"Trump’s GOP is rigging maps to steal Congress. Prop 50 is how we fight back," said Our Revolution.
On Monday, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)—who has previously spoken out in favor of Prop 50—addressed her nearly 10 million followers on Instagram in a video regarding the New York City election, the president's attacks on federal food assistance, and the ballot measure in California.
"It's our way of fighting back against all of the the racist gerrymandering happening across the country," said Ocasio-Cortez, who is reportedly considering a Senate or presidential run. "Approving Prop 50 in California helps balance the scale against all of the attacks on communities across the country."
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) also campaigned for Prop 50 on Monday, saying at a rally that after passing the measure, Democrats "are going to win the midterms."
"And when we win the midterms, we are going to cut our time in hell by half," he said.
Saikat Chakrabarti, who is running to unseat former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in 2026, said that Prop 50 is one thing that he and the longtime congresswoman "actually agree on."
"This," he said, "is how we fight back against Trump."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular