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organizing
Washington Won't Save Us; Our Neighbors Might
Why the midterms will be won or lost at the community level—and what that means for how we organize now.
May 22, 2026
A recent political event at a local community center left me smiling. A Latina special educator teacher running for state legislature had gathered a room full of supporters. Labor union members, religious leaders, political activists, family, and friends showed up in the late afternoon this spring to help her launch her campaign. The fundraising pitch was co-led by a very exuberant trans performer and a buttoned-up county prosecutor, filling the space with laughter and donations.
It was just one event, but it reminded me that building grassroots power goes hand in hand with building community. Both will be needed if the upcoming midterm elections are to be the pivot we need. This is the time grassroots power can stop fascism and begin the long but hopeful journey to an inclusive, fair, and sustainable world.
What Has Community Got to Do With It?
We are bombarded by news of the disastrous policies coming out of a billionaire-led administration, following the marching orders of the tech bros; the Heritage Foundation’s corporate agenda; and, according to conjecture, such foreign leaders as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s enough to create chronic panic.
Less often discussed are the victories of the people working together in their neighborhoods and towns to push back on Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns and AI data complexes, to stand up for voting rights, and to fight to get food and healthcare to those cut off from these basic needs. These grassroots groups are also providing essential backing to the elected officials who are standing up to the Trump regime’s worst abuses.
History shows that fascism can overrun a society when people are fractured and isolated. We can counter powerlessness when we act with others where we live.
These victories don’t come from national Democratic Party leaders or celebrities. They come from ordinary people who show up; work together; and build the trust, relationships, and coordination that make further action possible.
The Midterms Pivot
This grassroots power will make the difference in the upcoming midterm elections, which could in turn determine whether fascism strengthens its hold on American life.
Poll after poll is telling us that growing majorities of Americans oppose President Donald Trump’s policies, and that his disapproval rating is reaching unprecedented levels. Still, there are strong headwinds for those working for change.
Funding for progressive grassroots work is falling short, according to a recent analysis by the Movement Voters Project. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is rolling out executive orders and court cases that can discourage voting by those who might oppose him, removing citizens from the voting rolls, raising false claims about election integrity, and putting bureaucratic roadblocks in the way of casting a ballot.
And then it got worse. On April 29, 2026, the US Supreme Court ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais case struck a near-fatal blow to the Voting Rights Act. After years of struggle for equal voting rights for African Americans, this case threatens to fracture the power of Black communities, diluting their ability to elect members of Congress and state and local officials who truly represent them. According to Black Voters Matter, the ruling threatens to create an additional 19 entrenched seats for Republicans in Congress, and 191 entrenched Republican legislative seats.
But here is what the ruling also did: It relocated the battle to exactly the terrain where organized communities are strongest—the state and local level. The people with the most power to determine what happens in November are not in Washington. They are wherever you are, deciding whether to show up.
How we organize locally could make the difference.
Building power means inviting in people who have not been active until now. It means building an agenda for a better, more inclusive future, and making political gatherings a time for community building as well as for carrying out effective strategies. It means prioritizing collaboration across races and identities and issues to build power for the common good. Now is the time—during primary season, when we have the most leverage.
Here’s what that looks like:
We Need to Keep Voting Accessible, Safe, and Fair. Restore Voting Rights
Elections are run by state and local officials, not by the federal government. The work varies by region, but wherever you are, you can work with your local, county, and state officials to make district maps fair, to ensure polling stations are secure and that eligible voters have unfettered access to the polls, and that the election process is free from bias and intimidation.
The Callais decision makes this work tougher, but it also is unleashing the unstoppable energy of those who have been excluded too often and for too long.
Organize Sustained Grassroots Power. Candidates Are Not the Whole Story
Elected officials work for us. We have the right to set the agenda, and find and elect candidates who will carry out our priorities. And we have the right to hold incumbents accountable. For the vast majority of us who lack billions of dollars, building power means organizing: creating collaborations among existing groups, creating new groups when needed, affiliating with regional and national organizations when appropriate. It means building connections and power year round, not only during election season.
National groups that are effective in building grassroots power include the Movement Voters Project, which supports grassroots groups building progressive power, especially in swing states, year round, not only during election season. The Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, which played key roles in organizing and mobilizing the massive grassroots campaign that won the New York mayoral election for Zohran Mamdani. Your local Democratic Party might—or might not—be helpful.
Elect Fighters!
This is the right time, during the primaries, to challenge incumbents to take strong positions supporting voting rights and the interests of all working people in our communities, not the corporations and billionaires. Ask candidates tough questions when they are on home visits or campaigning. Research their voting records. Hold candidates forums.
If the incumbent is caving in to corporate interests or racist gerrymandering, taking money from American Israel Public Affairs Committee or Wall Street PACs, or failing to fight for poor and working class people, support strong candidates who challenge them. In the general election, we may need to support any candidate who will oppose MAGA, but in the primaries, we should press for the leadership that will best serve us.
Spread Stories of Power, Not Just Fear
Many of us live with the daily drama of Trump’s latest impulses. It’s hard to avoid. But we need to remember that there is so much more to our nation’s story. Research and share news about the progressive office holders and community organizing that is making life better for everyday people. What you share on social media makes a difference. Supply your elected officials with tangible examples of successful policies to help them see a path forward. Write an editorial or letter to the editor of your local newspaper or in your group’s newsletter about wins. Mamdani’s recent successes are great examples—offering free day care for 2-year-olds, and increasing the stock of affordable housing with funding proposed through a tax on luxury second homes.
People need to see what grassroots power looks like, and so do our elected representatives. Allowing the outrages of the MAGA Regime to occupy all of our attention makes us think and feel like victims, preparing for the next blow, rather than embodying our rights to be powerful protagonists. We forget that we can get things done and that we deserve better.
Gather With Others
History shows that fascism can overrun a society when people are fractured and isolated. We can counter powerlessness when we act with others where we live. People want to make a difference—many are just waiting for the right invitation. Create spaces that foster belonging, a topic I explore in my recent zine, “Community As Strategy.” Combine the hard work with joy-filled gatherings. Hold dance parties, picnics, or fun runs. Turn protests into parades.
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We actually do have a path forward. We can defeat fascism before the remaining institutions of American democracy are corrupted and dismembered. We can do that best by joining together locally and finally offering Americans what so many want—universal healthcare, peace, protection for our natural heritage, an economy that works for working people. We have majority support for many of these positions, and the creativity and energy to make them a reality. Together, we have the power when we organize where we live.
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Silence Is Not Solidarity
If we are serious about building a world where women have equal power—economic, political, and personal—then we have to be serious about accountability within our own ranks
May 06, 2026
In the span of a month, two stories have laid bare an uncomfortable truth about progressive politics: Too many people will protect powerful men at the expense of the women they harm, whether to protect a movement, a party, or because they’ve been conditioned to believe this is how power works.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) announced his resignation from Congress last Month after multiple women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment and assault. March’s revelation by Dolores Huerta that iconic labor leader Cesar Chavez sexually abused girls and women for decades is still reverberating through communities that revered him. In both cases, the pattern is the same: Whisper networks carried warnings for years, but survivors who came forward were silenced or discredited for the sake of the “greater good.”
Why? Because Swalwell was seen as a rising Democratic star, a useful weapon against President Donald Trump. Because Chavez was a civil rights icon whose legacy anchored an entire movement. Because people convinced themselves that exposing the truth would do more damage than burying it.
They were wrong. Silence doesn’t protect movements, it protects oppressors. It tells every woman who has been harassed, groped, or assaulted by a powerful man on “our side” that her pain is an acceptable cost of doing business.
Letting people in power abuse women is never acceptable, regardless of party, regardless of legacy, regardless of how inconvenient the timing might feel.
We have seen this calculation before—the quiet bargain where accountability is sacrificed on the altar of political convenience. It never works. The truth always surfaces. And when it does, the cover-up inflicts its own damage, compounding the harm to survivors and eroding the moral authority these movements depend on.
Consider the moment we’re in. We have a president who was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing a woman, and accused by at least 28 others, and has faced no meaningful consequences for it. A president who has made clear, through word and policy, that he believes powerful men can do whatever they want. His administration is rolling back decades of progress on combatting sexual harassment and assault in workplaces and schools; gutting protections against discrimination; and dismantling the legal infrastructure women depend on for safe, equitable workplaces. The Supreme Court, made up of one-third of Trump appointees, is the first since the 1950s to rule against women and people of color in a majority of civil rights cases.
This is the landscape women are navigating right now. And into this landscape, we are supposed to accept that the men or other abusers on “our side” get a pass? No.
If we are serious about building a world where women have equal power—economic, political, and personal—then we have to be serious about accountability within our own ranks. Not because it’s easy, but because the alternative is corrosive. Every time we look the other way, we tell the next generation that a woman’s safety matters less than a man’s career. We weaken the very movements we claim to be protecting.
The women who came forward about Swalwell, including content creators who had no institutional backing, no legal team—just their own platforms and conviction—showed extraordinary courage. So did the survivors who finally broke decades of silence about Chavez. They did what the political establishment was unwilling to do. They chose the truth.
The lesson here is not that our movements are broken. It’s that they are only as strong as our willingness to hold everyone in them accountable. Letting people in power abuse women is never acceptable, regardless of party, regardless of legacy, regardless of how inconvenient the timing might feel.
We are in a fight for women’s futures in this country. That fight requires moral clarity. It requires us to stop treating accountability as a threat and start treating it as the foundation. Good things, lasting things, come from doing what is right, even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard.
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How Long-Term Organizing Propelled Analilia Mejia to Congress
In an era defined by authoritarian escalation and billionaire consolidation, many ask whether democracy can defend itself. No, it cannot. But organized neighbors can.
May 06, 2026
When I stepped into leadership as co-executive director of Popular Democracy in Action alongside Analilia Mejia in 2021, the central question we both set out to answer was not whether the far-right was consolidating power. That much was obvious. The question, as leaders of the largest progressive networks of base-building organizations in the country, was whether we could scale our power to meet it.
How do you build enough base and narrative power to confront a coordinated, well-funded, disciplined right-wing shift? How do you move beyond reactive mobilization and build durable organizing infrastructure? How do you prepare communities not just to resist authoritarianism, but to win governing power?
For years, our organization invested in answering those questions. We refined our organizing model through practice, experimentation, and hard-earned lessons. So when the opportunity arose last November for one of our own, Analilia Mejía, to run for the open seat in New Jersey’s 11th District left vacant by Mikie Sherrill’s successful gubernatorial bid, I understood it as more than a campaign. It was an opportunity to test our theory of change.
On Monday, as Analilia was sworn into the House of Representatives as New Jersey’s newest congresswoman, there were many reasons to celebrate. She beat her opponent by at least 20 points, running a whopping 12 points ahead of 2024 presidential margins, underscoring the strength of a people-powered campaign. Not only did our movement succeed in sending a champion for the working class to Congress, but we have proven that our organizing model could hold up under today’s political conditions and win.
Building Up Guardians of Democracy
Organizers often inherit an electoral culture built on urgency and amnesia. Consultants arrive late. Mailers flood inboxes. Relentless text and phone calls. Volunteers are recruited weeks before Election Day. Then everyone disappears until the next crisis.
We grew tired of repeating a cycle that left our people feeling mobilized in the moment and abandoned afterward. So we chose a different path.
This victory in NJ-11 required deep relationship building; message discipline; and courage from organizers, volunteers, and voters alike.
We built the Guardians of Democracy program, and through it Popular Democracy in Action and our affiliates invested in leadership development rooted in political education and hyperlocal relational organizing. At its core, Guardians is a civic infrastructure strategy—one that can be replicated, scaled, and paired with other leadership pipelines to deliver material wins for Black, brown, and working-class communities.
Participants ground themselves in a worker-centered history of America—from the Reconstruction Amendments to the Civil Rights Movement—connecting neighborhood organizing to a longer arc of struggle over who counts and who governs. After a series of trainings, they practice organizing where they live. Each participant receives a list of 100 of their closest neighbors, often on their own block. They learn to initiate organizing conversations, sustain relationships, and bring more people into their local campaigns.
The goal is simple and ambitious: Build neighborhood-based leaders during non-election years who could be activated when it matters most.
Over the last few years, we've trained 12,430 leaders across the country. We've mapped strategic geographies and have worked closely with our affiliates to refine the model: Train members deeply, anchor them locally, and maintain consistent outreach long before ballots are even printed.
This is the kind of quiet, patient, disciplined organizing infrastructure that can become an organization’s secret weapon.
Moment of Truth: Organizing to Elect One of Our Own
In a crowded field of 13 candidates in NJ-11, with virtually no district-wide name recognition and a firm commitment to reject corporate PAC money, Analilia entered the race as a clear underdog. From the moment the seat opened, colleagues, movement peers, elected officials, and community leaders urged her to step forward. For me, her candidacy represented a proving ground. Could our organizing infrastructure pass this stress test?
As one of the first races of the 2026 midterm cycle, the outcome in NJ-11 carries significant weight in the broader narrative wars shaping this political moment. Would voters in a district long represented by establishment figures choose a movement candidate running unapologetically on Medicare for All, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and taxing the wealthiest individuals and corporations?
Then there was the question on building power in strategic geographies: Could long-term relational organizing—rooted in political education and neighborhood leadership—overcome the gravitational pull of big money and name recognition?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Success Story: Make the Road Action New Jersey
Analilia’s victory in NJ-11 was powered by more than any single organization. Labor unions, local and national movement organizations, progressive elected leaders, and grassroots networks across the district consolidated quickly and decisively around her candidacy. Organizers who have been fighting for housing, healthcare, immigrant rights, and worker power recognized the stakes of this race and pulled their weight, aligning people and resources behind a shared vision.
But any honest accounting of this victory would be remiss to not center the extraordinary organizing efforts of Make the Road Action New Jersey (MRANJ).
For years, MRANJ has built deep relationships with working-class voters, immigrants, and communities of color across NJ-11. Their members are not seasonal volunteers. They are leaders formed through a common fight for housing, economic, and immigrant justice.
When Analilia’s campaign began, the organizing muscle was already there.
Over the course of the campaign, Make the Road Action NJ led a relentless, people-powered field operation—knocking 25,100 doors in freezing winter and spring sun alike, making 154,430 calls to voters across the district, and organizing 1,078 volunteer canvass shifts. Popular Democracy in Action supported this work by mobilizing our national network, deploying staff to coordinate volunteer operations in the district, hosting national phone banks, and aligning resources with the strategy on the ground. In the lead-up to the primary on February 5, we helped fund targeted outreach, including mobile billboards in key areas and a free party bus to the polls in Belleville to boost turnout.
But numbers alone do not tell the story.
What mattered was that many of the people knocking those doors were Guardians—leaders trained in prior years to organize their own neighborhoods. They were not strangers coming into the turf. They were familiar faces. They were neighbors.
Relational organizing is often dismissed as a buzzword. In practice, it is slow, trust-based work. It means your neighbor opens the door because they know you. It means you can have a conversation about rent hikes, losing your healthcare, or fear of ICE raids because of shared lived realities.
This is what years of investment in people looks like, and it went a long way in this campaign.
Organizing Gets the Goods
This victory in NJ-11 required deep relationship building; message discipline; and courage from organizers, volunteers, and voters alike. It required labor partners, grassroots organizations, and national networks pulling in the same direction. And it required the steady leadership of Make the Road Action New Jersey, whose long-term base building anchored the work on the ground.
During these last few months, I have seen firsthand the unique power of our network.
We proved that investing in hyperlocal leaders during non-election years must come first. We proved that narrative power and base building, developed patiently over time, can withstand the test of a competitive race. Most importantly, we proved that organized people can defeat better-funded opponents without surrendering their values.
In an era defined by authoritarian escalation and billionaire consolidation, many ask whether democracy can defend itself.
No, it cannot.
But organized neighbors can.
Analilia’s victory in NJ-11 is not the end of a story. It is evidence of what becomes possible when movements invest in long-term organizing models. For organizers across the country, the lesson is clear: If we want material gains—universal healthcare, immigrant rights, wages that keep up with inflation—we must invest in leadership, relationships, and narrative power long before the next fight reaches the ballot box.
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