Is the word getting out about Dem wins or about what Republicans are really doing in our world? Try our one-question quiz! Answer at the end of the newsletter.
Thank You, President Biden
The WCDP loves and honors President Joseph R. Biden for his extraordinary service to our country, and we thank him for elevating Kamala Harris – first to the Vice Presidency, and now to the Presidential race. On Tuesday night, July 23, WCDP Chair Theresa Reid joined the rest of the Michigan delegation to the Democratic National Convention to add our votes in support of her historic nomination. We could not be more proud of our country, or more grateful to our President, Joe Biden.
2024 WCDP Garden Party
THIS Saturday, July 27, 3 to 6pm
Help support the WCDP by attending or sponsoring someone else to attend our 2024 Annual Garden Party hosted by Anne and Chris Savage. Come see their beautiful organic garden, eat scrumptious, homemade food, and connect with fellow Democrats. Rain date is July 28.
With featured speaker Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel
Every dollar raised will be used to reach voters and increase turnout throughout Washtenaw County including: outreach activities, voter guides, poll greeting cards, keeping the office open, and much more.
Get tickets today! https://secure.actblue.com/donate/gardenparty-2024
August 6 Primary Voting and You!
12 days to go!
Do you know why to vote in a primary? Find the answer to that critical question, our countdown clock, and all the instructions you need to participate in the election that will largely determine who we see on the November ballot.
Fun primary facts:
- Today, Washtenaw County has more than 300,000 registered electors.
- Washtenaw County voters cast 112,000 ballots in the August 2020 primary.
As of July 17, 2024:
- 68,861 absentee ballots had been mailed
- 18,639 had been returned!
Note: Late ballot arrival typically accounts for more than 70% of ballot rejections!
Vote! Blue! Every time!
Seeking Social Media Volunteers using TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X/Twitter!
We’re looking for volunteers to help us promote MIvoter.org, your one-stop shop for personalized voting, candidate, and Dem endorsement info statewide. Check out a working version at MIvoter.org using a Washtenaw County address. We need:
- Volunteers who can help maintain MIvoter.org accounts on FB, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. A volunteer will get on the accounts twice a day, maybe a total of an hour, to do the basics: post, like, follow, reply, and purge (trolls and the like). Experience posting on these platforms is important, experience using a social media management platform like HootSuite or Buffer a plus. Hope to have a group of several volunteers doing this.
- We’re also looking for volunteers to help us identify pro-democracy social media influencers (individuals and organizations) with lots of followers who can help us reach voters throughout Michigan.
Please contact our volunteer coordinator at volunteer@washtenawdems.org
Visibility Volunteers!
Calling all volunteers to staff our WCDP tables and march in parades at events across the county! Be visible in the communities where people live, and help us remind them that Dems are here, we’re friendly, and we’re important to democracy. As you can see, it’s fun! Shifts are two or three hours long, and you don’t need to be a policy expert! Information and optional training provided. Look at your calendar and sign up for a shift today by clicking on the event title. We look forward to seeing you!
- Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market. Saturdays through November
- Ann Arbor Pride Celebration. Saturday, August 3
- Manchester Fair Parade. Tuesday, August 6
- Dexter Summer Festival. Friday, August 9 – Saturday, August 10
- Chelsea Fair Parade. Saturday, August 24
- Saline
Take Action
WCDP Summer Lit Drop has begun!
WCPD’s Precinct Organizing Committee is mobilizing volunteers across the county for our Summer Lit Drop. You decide when and where you want to walk. You’ll use the MiniVAN app on a smartphone or tablet to locate the doors. If you don’t have or prefer not to use a smartphone, consider pairing up with a buddy who does! A couple thousand neighbors’ doors have already been knocked. This is important community-building work.
Sign up now, and one of our WCDP Area Captains – the neighbor who will be organizing in your area from now until November – will be in touch to get you started.
One Campaign: Winning Up & Down the Ballot!
- Weekend Canvasses, Saturdays, 10am, Sundays, 1pm, sign up here for Ann Arbor, here for Ypsilanti, and here for Western Washtenaw (new canvass location!)
- 100 Days Out Weekend of Action! Saturday, July 27th, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, Sunday, July 28th, 1pm, 4pm, 6pm, sign up here for Ann Arbor, here for Western Washtenaw, and here for Ypsilanti
Rally against Project 2025, July 27 
Trump’s plan to take your power, your control, and your money.
After the WCDP’s Garden Party on July 27, head to the Federal Building at 200 East Liberty in Ann Arbor to show your opposition to Project 2025, the detailed fascist agenda of Trump-Vance. Rally starts at 7 p.m., with speakers Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, Prosecutor Eli Savit, and others.
Project 2025 is a blueprint for the second Trump term that every American should read and understand.
— Joe Biden, Motown, July 12
Voter Guide: Tech Skills Needed
Turf cutter to define WCDP voter guide delivery routes: Seeking volunteers who are very comfortable with detailed technical systems, using software according to very precise specifications, and repetitive tasks to create compact neighborhood delivery routes. Prior experience using NGP/VAN or EveryAction to cut turf is a bonus. This activity will require a minimum of 20 hours between mid-August and mid-September.
Please contact our volunteer coordinator at volunteer@washtenawdems.org
WCDP Endorsements & Voter Guide
Candidates: Fill Out Your Endorsement & Voter Guide Information!
Candidates endorsed by the WCDP appear in our Voter Guide (both the paper and the electronic version, MIvoter.org), informing voters all across the county.
The deadline for primary candidates to get their information in was July 15th.If you have missed the deadline, complete this form in the next few days and we’ll get you in if possible.For candidates NOT in the August primary, complete this form by August 5 to be included in the Voter Guide.
Every candidate can request the WCDP’s endorsement (and must request it to qualify for it). Everyone who is a member of the WCDP by July 25 can participate in the endorsement convention on August 25. Find the instructions here, and mark your calendars for August 25!
Full Endorsement Process Information:
https://www.washtenawdems.org/endorsement-process/
No August Membership MeetingNo first-Saturday meeting, so more time to canvass, make calls, and VOTE!
Let your yard bristle with democracy!
Yard signs $10 — Window signs $5
Drop by our HQ at 418 W Michigan, Ypsilanti during office hours: Tuesdays, 4-6; Thursdays, 3-6; Saturdays, 1-3; Sundays, 1-3
Shop WCDP Merch!New merchandise coming soon to the store – now available at visibility events!
Join the Michigan Messengers
Michigan Messengers is a network of Democrats statewide coordinating voter outreach and publicizing messages that help Democrats win at every level. Don’t miss this opportunity to help us win this fall!
Register today to join the community!
ICYMI: Dem news you can use
Republicans think they can hang Biden’s “awful economy” on Kamala Harris. We’re here for it. We all know the Biden-Harris economy is the envy of the world – lowest unemployment, lowest inflation, fastest growth, and so forth. In case you missed recent economic news, here are a few details.
Democratic Policies Turn “Left-Behind Counties” Into “Comeback Kids”
A bipartisan economic think tank just released a report citing a turnaround in “left-behind” counties that shocked experts. Largely located in the Southeast & Midwest, these counties suffered greater economic downturns than the rest of the country since the early 2000s. However, this new analysis shows that these counties “added jobs five times faster in the first three years of the Biden administration than they did in the first three years of the Trump administration.” Encouragingly, these communities also experienced a new-business boom, and the rate of residents leaving the counties for better opportunities slowed greatly. The success of Biden’s economic policies – building the economy “from the bottom up and the middle out” – is increasingly visible.
A Long-Awaited Trifecta? Inflation Ticks Downward 
A long-awaited trifecta of good economic news just arrived. With inflation cooling faster than expected, American consumers can now enjoy lower prices, along with strong economic growth and very low unemployment. President Biden said the report “shows that we are making significant progress fighting inflation,” but he warned that Republicans want to cut taxes for the rich and that would “reignite” inflation.
Let’s keep voting for Democrats who care about economic stability rather than voting for that “other party” who seemingly never met a tax break for the rich they didn’t like.
Biden Administration Cancels Student Debt for Public Service Workers 
President Joe Biden delivered economic relief to thousands of public service workers, including nurses, firefighters, and teachers, by forgiving over $1.2 billion in educational loans. Caused mainly by overly strict rules and mistakes by loan servicers, the massive student debt balance buried public service workers under decades of onerous loan payments. “These 35,000 borrowers approved for forgiveness today are public service workers … who have dedicated their lives to strengthening their communities, and because of the fixes we made to Public Service Loan Forgiveness, they will now have more breathing room to support themselves and their families,” Biden said. Over 4.76 million Americans have benefited from one of the Democratic administration’s signature initiatives – a program fought against by Republican leadership – to help the American people enjoy economic security.
Hey, do you have a good location for a BIG sign?
A good location might be on a county road between, say, Dexter and Chelsea, or between Chelsea and Manchester, or on main roads into Ypsilanti or Ann Arbor.
“I will make 10 big Harris /Vice-presidential nominee signs this year, so I would like to know who wants one. They are 4 feet by 6 feet, and are double-sided. They come with stands and hardware. The materials cost me about $32. But if that’s too much, you can just have the sign.”
— Cynthia Lempert, clempert@umich.edu
Candidate Partners WantedRunning for something?
Here’s how to reach 3000 Washtenaw DemocratsDemocratic campaigns can get linked on our website, benefit from our email blasts, join us on social media, and place an ad in our website ‘ad book’ reaching 3,000 Washtenaw County Democrats. This opportunity is open to all Democratic candidates and does not constitute an endorsement from the WCDP.
To sign up, visit our Candidate Partners ActBlue page.
Yes! I want to become a WCDP Candidate Partner 
Upcoming Events
Call to Convention
2024 State Nominating Convention Saturday, August 24, 2024, 9am – 5pm
Lansing Center, 333 E. Michigan Avenue, Lansing, 48933
The purpose of the MDP’s 2024 Nominating Convention shall be to select Presidential Electors and formally nominate Democratic candidates to the November General Election in the following contests:
- US Senate
- State Supreme Court
- State Board of Education
- MSU Board of Trustees
- UM Board of Regents
- Wayne State University Board of Governors
To vote in the Convention you must be a member of the MDP no later than Thursday, July 25, 2024!
Call to Convention
2024 County Endorsement Convention Sunday, August 25, 2024, 1 – 5pm
Washtenaw County Learning Resource Center 4135 Washtenaw Av., Ann Arbor, 48108
The purpose of the WCDP’s 2024 Endorsement Convention is to endorse the MDP’s slate of nominated candidates and to endorse local and countywide candidates who have won primaries and/or have requested our endorsement in the following contests:
- County Clerk, Prosecutor, Sheriff, Treasurer, Water Resources Commissioner
- County Commissioners
- City councils
- Township boards
- Several judgeships
- School boards
- Library boards
- Park commissions
See how our endorsement process works. To vote in the Convention you must be a member of the WCDP/ MDP no later than Friday, July 26, 2024.
| Got a question for the quiz? Send it to dimassell@gmail.com |
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