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Four Out of Six Ain’t Bad. (Thank you!)

This election cycle, we asked our fantastic New York activists to get up early and get on buses with us to hit six competitive Congressional races in New York State, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. These were all important races where policy differences between the candidates couldn’t have been more striking, almost all won within razor-thin margins. In the Hudson Valley, we helped Antonio Delgado defeat Republican John Faso. In New Jersey, we helped Andy Kim defeat Republican Tom MacArthur–and helped put victory wind in the sails of Mikie Sherrill. We also went multiple times to the Lehigh Valley to help build a competitive edge for Susan Wild.

All in all, we won FOURof the six races we engaged in, and, through district crossovers, added TWO new New York State Senators, Monica Martinez and Jen Metzger, to what is now a strong and viable Democratic majority. We have you to thank for those victories!

So thank you for coming out early in the morning on so many Saturdays, on Election Weekend, and on Election Day itself. Thank you for that money you donated, if you did donate. Together, we stood up for the future of our country and helped set the stage for an exciting 2019.

To our victory!

Vote Blue bus schedule from here to November 6th

Friends, you have been so wonderful to join us on our many Vote Blue 2018 buses to competitive congressional races in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York State. We have so many races with razor-thin margins happening nearby. So please, clear your calendars and COME CANVASS WITH US!

Click here for more info and to RSVP for any bus trip you see listed here.

For your planning purposes, here is a list of all our buses from here to Election Day, November 6th.

Saturday, October 27, we will be sending a bus to help Democrat Susan Wild in Pennsylvania’s 7th District (Philly suburbs and Lehigh Valley) and a bus to help Democrat Perry Gershon defeat Republican incumbent Lee Zeldin in New York’s 1st Congressional District (Long Island).

Saturday, November 3rd, we will be sending a bus to New York’s 19th Congressional District (Hudson Valley) to help Democrat Antonio Delgado unseat Republican incumbent John Faso, and a bus to New Jersey’s 11th District (Morris County) to help Democrat Mikie Sherrill, a wonderful female candidate facing a conservative Assemblyman.

Sunday, November 4th, we will be sending a bus to New York’s 2nd Congressional District (Long Island) to help progressive female candidate Liuba Grechen Shirley face off against Republican incumbent Peter King and another to New Jersey’s 3rd District to help Andy Kim defeat Republican incumbent Tom MacArthur.

Click here for more info and to RSVP for any bus trip you see listed here.

Our buses for Election Day November 6th are still TBD, but please let us know if you  want to campaign. The more people we know we have on board, the more buses we can book!

Competitive Congressional Races Accessible From NYC

Friends in New York City and nearby, here are some fantastic races happening in your backyard that could decide the fate of the US Congress! We’ll be pitching in with bus trips (many listed below) and encourage you to organize your friends and family to join us or take a road-trip on your own. Thank you!

Mikie Sherrill vs Jay Webber in NJ-11 (Morris County). Democrat Mikie Sherrill is a strong female candidate running against a conservative Assemblyman. This race is rated “lean Dem”and is 1h30 away. We’re sending a bus on Saturday, October 13thNote: Overlaying Senate race rated “likely Dem.”

Susan Wild vs Marty Nothstein in PA-07 (Philly suburbs and nearby counties). Democrat Susan Wild is a community advocate and attorney, who wants to strengthen unions and achieve universal healthcare.  This race is rated “lean Dem” and is about 2 hours away. Note: Overlaying governor’s race rated “lean Dem.”

Andy Kim vs Tom MacArthur in NJ-03 (Burlington and Ocean County). Democrat Andy Kim is a former military advisor facing “New Jersey’s Trumpiest Congressman” Tom MacArthur. Rated a “toss-up,” this race is 1h30 away and we’re sending a bus on October 20Note: Overlaying Senate race rated “likely Dem.”

Antonio Delgado vs John Faso in NY-19 (Hudson Valley). Democrat Antonio Delgado is a Rhodes scholar and Harvard-educated attorney who has already faced racist attacks from incumbent Republican John Faso. This race is rated a “toss-up” and is a bit over 2 hours away. Our bus leaves Saturday, October 13th.

Scott Wallace vs Brian Fitzpatrick in PA-01 (South Philly and Chester).  Democrat Scott Wallace is a philanthropist and community advocate who wants an assault weapons ban and Medicare for All. This race is rated a “toss-up” and is 2 hours away. Note: Overlaying governor’s race rated “lean Dem.”

Liuba Grechen Shirley vs Peter King in NY-2 (Nassau and Suffolk). Progressive Democrat Liuba Grechen Shirley has made incredible strides in what was once a “solid Republican” race that is and now rated “Lean Republican.” Our partners The Broad Room are sending a bus on October 20th.

Max Rose vs Dan Donovon in NY-11 (Staten Island). Max Rose is an Army veteran who supports the public option and protecting DACA recipients while Congressman Dan Donovan has introduced a bill to punish sanctuary cities and has courted the support of Donald Trump. This race has been rated a “likely Republican” and a “lean Republican,” depending where you look. What is clear is that it’s the closest race in New York City and a great place to put in some time.

Campaign 2016 Kickoff

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Throughout the year, you’ve helped others secure a living wage and affordable housing, expanding access to health care, limiting discrimination and disenfranchisement on the basis of color or gender, and ensuring a fairer, more ethical, more participatory democracy and government that work for us all.
This fall, all those issues and more are on the line. That’s why we’re asking you to join us in knocking on doors, making phone calls, and encouraging people to vote, participate–and move the ball forward toward a better future.
GNYCFC volunteers will be traveling to Pennsylvania to help keep that battleground state Blue and to neighborhoods in Long Island and the Hudson Valley to elect a progressive majority in the New York State Senate. It’s fun, and it’s the best way to ensure that you won’t wake up on November 9th wishing you’d done more.

SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER FOR HILLARY AND FEDERAL ELECTION CANDIDATES IN PENNSYLVANIA: Pennsylvania is a swing state on the presidential level, and we have a chance to elect the state’s first woman senator ever in Katie McGinty. In 2012, KeepPABlue helped move the election dial a few points forward to re-elect President Barack Obama; this year, buses will leave and return to Union Square every Saturday and all GOTV days starting September 17th. No prior canvassing experience is necessary.
SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER TO FLIP THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE: Our state senate races receive less media attention than the Presidential race, but much of the dysfunction in our state is a result of the continued Republican control of the State Senate. This year we have a real chance to win back the State Senate, and you can help. There will be phone banks in Manhattan and day canvassing trips to key senate districts outside the city to campaign for great progressive candidates. Free transportation is provided, and no prior canvassing or calling experience is needed.
Let’s work together this fall. We can win this, together!

Sometimes the polite way doesn’t work. Then we take to the streets.

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On June 12th, 49 LGBT club-goers were slaughtered and 53 more injured with an assault weapon in Orlando, FL. The US Congress had no response besides the usual prayers and a strangely deafening moment of silence. That’s why Gays Against Guns is replacing moments of silence with moments of action to make our elected representatives pass sensible gun reforms.
Two weeks after the Orlando massacre, and just days after Congressman John Lewis’s sit-in on the House floor highlighting Congressional inaction on gun safety, hundreds of GAGers marched in the NYC Pride Parade, 49 of them shrouded in white veils and carrying signs with the names and faces of each Orlando victim.
In early July, GAG “named, shamed, and blamed” NRA puppet Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-LI) with a demonstration in his district and a puppet in his likeness. GAG members demonstrated outside Trump Tower on the opening night of the Republican National Convention. They staged “die-ins” outside two New York City Reebok Crossfit stores after learning that the winner of an annual fitness contest would receive a Glock handgun–the same gun used against Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and 19 others in Tucson, AZ in 2011. New GAG chapters are sprouting up across the nation, with actions to shame politicians in the NRA’s pockets this election season.
We’re in. Greater NYC for Change has long fought for sensible gun safety laws–laws supported by 90% of Americans and a large majority of NRA members.
We’ve seen the massacres, but also the daily gun violence that kills 33,000 Americans each year. Other nations–the UK, Canada, and Australia among them–have responded to crisis with life-saving gun regulations. Here at home, we increasingly recognize the futility of polite lobbying of politicians. Constituents need to know who is working for them, and who is working for the gun industry.
There’s more: Gun violence disproportionately affects minority and vulnerable communities–children at Sandy Hook, worshipers at a Charleston prayer group, young Black men, and the LGBT community, itself the target of an estimated 20% of all hate crimes. Trans women and LGBT people of color are at greatest peril. But as the direct actions led by ACT UP and others in the fight against HIV-AIDS and for Marriage Equality demonstrate, the LGBT community knows how to fight–and get results.

YOU can join us. Email gagnyoutreach@gmail.com and “like” GAG  on Facebook. You don’t need to be gay to join GAG. All you need is a healthy disgust at politicians who won’t do their most fundamental job: ensuring our safety and protecting us from danger.

This could be it — the tipping point.

One day, we may look back on this summer as the time when our nation resolved it would no longer tolerate racialized policing. The time when we took the first concrete action to change the way law enforcement agencies engage communities of color. When we reminisce, perhaps we will scratch our heads and wonder what took so long for us to even acknowledge the problem.

Many of us will be proud to say that we were there and helped do it. Together.

No matter what the coming days hold, let us never forget the lives lost to one of the most horrific manifestations of institutionalized racism. Dear Ally for Justice, step back and allow space for people affected by discriminatory policing to grasp and discuss the real possibility that they, too, could become a hashtag one day. Let’s listen openly and refrain from derailing these dialogues by centering other policy agendas.

Most importantly, let’s be mindful. Black Lives Matter is an affirmation of equality, not a demand for supremacy. This outcry is not preceded by an invisible “only,” nor does it exclude other, unspoken lives. If you’re tired of hearing and seeing Black Lives Matter, be thankful that your survival does not depend on this pledge becoming a reality.

  I N   M E M O R I A M  

Philando Castile, 32, had worked for the St. Paul, MN public school system since the age of 19. Recently promoted to a supervisory position in Nutrition Services, he was working as a cafeteria manager at the J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet School at the time of his murder.

The kids called him “Mr. Phil.” In the words of a co-worker, “Kids loved him. He was smart, overqualified, … quiet, respectful, and kind. I knew him as warm and funny; he called me his ‘wing man.’”

On the news of his death, a parent wrote, “Every day he fist-bumped my kids, even when they were acting up. He knew every single [student] by name, pushed extra food in them like a grandma, and sneaked extra graham crackers into my son’s bag because [he] got a kick out of it. My borderline autistic son hugged him every day….This was a good man.”

Alton Sterling, 37, was raised by his aunt, Sandra Sterling, who called the large, jovial man a “generous giant.” The father of five children, he had his own struggles with law enforcement, but was respected, kind, and deeply loved by his family. At the time of his fatal encounter with police, he was living in a shelter run by a church group in Baton Rouge, LA and making his living selling music CDs. He was widely known as a “people person” and called “Big A” by his customers.

His cousin, Elliott Sterling, said, “If somebody asked for blues or country music, he’d know it all. He couldn’t make it in a regular job, but he could make it selling CDs. He could converse with everybody.”

An aunt, Regina Adams, remembered: “When he was little, I used to always tell him to go home. I wish I could tell him to go home now.”

TAKE THE #M4BL PLEDGE, and share widely to help end the systemic violence that visits Black communities every day.

GNYCfC SUPPORTS CAMPAIGN ZERO to end police violence in America by limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability. Its ongoing review of police union contracts is available here.