Indivisible Yolo newsletter

State of Our Freedom and Democracy – Post Primary Election

The March primary voting is over although counting all the ballots continues and we’re reminded that in California it’s a feature not a bug. We already know that voter turnout was extremely low across the state (26%), nearly 50% lower than the last primary in a Presidential election year. Sadly, it’s worse yet in the Central Valley and PDI reports going into election day showed both young voters and Latino voters were proportionally well under those anemic numbers.

The good news: locally, the Woodland Joint Unified School District recall appears to have been successful with 62% of the votes counted, voting “Yes”  – take a bow all who helped get this on the ballot and then followed through canvassing to get out the vote. In the Central Valley, Adam Gray (CA-13) and Rudy Salas (CA-22) are both advancing to the November general elections despite the low turnout.

After Super Tuesday, there are no remaining challengers in either party running for President, setting up a rematch of Biden vs. Predecessor. On Thursday, President Biden laid out the stakes at the beginning of his State of the Union  (SOTU) speech, referencing FDR’s 1941 SOTU, he said: “my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress, and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.”

Next Monday at our General Meeting, we will meet to take up that call.

Four years ago this coming week we came together as a community of progressives along with Sister District Yolo to open our Volunteer Center only to have it shut down a week later due to the Covid pandemic. We did  not stop working – we simply moved online, conducting most of our activities (phone banking, etc.) and our general meetings on Zoom.  And we won!  This time we can do it again – and we won’t be limited to Zoom screens.

Come to hear Patti Crane, Indivisible South Bay LA, FieldTeam6, CA Grassroots Alliance and Grassroots Messaging Works, share how we plan to win back the House majority in 2024.  Then we’ll discuss our part in that plan. Team leaders will share plans for the work we’ll be doing in the Central Valley as well as working toward electing Democratic Senators in Nevada and Arizona to protect the slimmest of majorities in the Senate and winning 17 critical Electoral College votes in these important swing states.  And we’ll learn how, in addition to being a doer, becoming a donor is a strategic form of activism.

The road to the House majority runs through California and the keys to the Blue Trifecta are all here in our region.  The 2024 election is counting on CA, AZ and NV!  No need to travel to Pennsylvania or Michigan or Georgia to be on the front lines.

When we do the work, good things follow – like in 2018, 2020 and 2022-2023.  So let’s #Do More in ‘24.

Please join us in person on March 18 at 7pm at 716 N Street, Davis, as we begin the next phase in our fight to restore the Blue Trifecta, save democracy and fend off the MAGA extremists along with their collaborators.

If you are unable to attend in person, remote access will be available via Zoom.  Please register now and we’ll see you on March 18th.

Some of Us Couldn’t Wait to Get Started

On Saturday March 9th, indivisible Yolo led a group of 20 canvassers from Yolo County and the Bay Area in canvassing in Modesto for Adam Gray, Congressional candidate in CA-13 to engage voters and reverse the low voter turnout in the primary.

After receiving training, canvassers began visiting houses of low- and mid-propensity Democratic voters with the aim of engaging in meaningful conversations. This kind of deep canvassing is proven to increase voter turnout. These conversations model the civic engagement essential to democracy and thereby motivate people to vote habitually.

All the canvassers came back reporting positive experiences, and some said it was the best canvassing experience they’d ever had! They were surprised and pleased at how willing people were to take the time to talk, including some who signed up to volunteer.

Check out future opportunities to canvass with Indivisible Yolo and the Bay Area Coalition. This basic tool of democracy, reaching out to talk with fellow citizens, is the best way to ensure we keep our democracy!  Join us on April 13th in Merced – it’s easy and, don’t worry, we’ll take care of the details!

Voter Education Protection & Engagement Team

Please join our VEPE team meeting on Monday March 25 at 6pm at the Davis Library.

VEPE’s vision is a democracy where all citizens can exercise their right to vote with no obstacles – physical, systemic/bureaucratic, or reluctance stemming from uncertainty or intimidation – and with ample information for understanding ballot choices.

VEPE’s mission is to foster a group of activists in Yolo County working together or independently in a mutually supportive way to identify and perform a variety of actions aimed at protecting and securing citizens’ right to vote, especially in purple districts where each vote carries an outsized impact.

Watch the inspiring VoProPros 2024 Launch (passcode if needed U*Ak6iv= ) to learn what’s in store for voter protection work in this critical election year, then join our March 25 meeting to get involved.

Indivisible Reiterates Call for an Immediate Ceasefire in Israel and Gaza in Response to Ruling from the International Court of Justice

Please read the Indivisible.org latest statement below calling for all the parties to do everything in in their power to enact a durable ceasefire, and then call your Senators/Representative:

Contact only your own Representative (Rep. Mike Thompson or Rep. Doris Matsui). Former Yolo County Representative Garamendi has called for a ceasefire- we want our current Representative to do the same!

Encourage Your Democratic Representative to Oppose All Extreme MAGA Policy Riders

Once again, Republican chaos has forced Congress to kick the can down the road on government funding.

Instead of passing government funding bills by the deadline that they set, Republicans have forced Congress to pass another continuing resolution. But the GOP chaos doesn’t stop there. They are still using the threat of a government shutdown to extract  hundreds of bad, non-starter policy riders as a part of the funding bills. They’re called “riders” because they “ride along” on a bigger piece of legislation, but make no mistake these are serious threats. These poison-pill riders include attacks on abortion and reproductive freedom, the LGBTQ+ community, and vulnerable asylum seekers and immigrants.

It’s not up to Democrats to save Republicans from their own chaos. They cannot give into baseless Republican threats and allow any of these extreme, unpopular riders to pass. Once a rider passes, it becomes entrenched as a legacy rider and is almost impossible to remove from future appropriation bills.

Let them know that you expect them to fight back against these outrageous Republican demands and only support a clean government funding bill without any poison-pill riders.

Interested in getting involved in Indivisible Yolo?