The Grassroots Speaks With a Unified Voice

That's Power. Let's Use It.

No doubt you’ll remember where you were when you learned that President Joe Biden would suspend his reelection campaign. Personally, I was in the kitchen, fixing a snack for my 12-year-old son (anyone with tween or teen boys can attest to the near constant need to be fixing a snack).

My phone immediately blew up.

I read Biden’s announcement, then turned off my notifications to process the news.

For weeks we have been subjected to stories of Democratic division and roiling worry. Throughout, I’ve been aghast at the public treatment of Joe Biden. Pundits and podcasters and columnists wrote, and rewrote, and then wrote again about Biden’s age and a debate performance that will live in infamy… but that now, cosmically, appears to have led to what cements his legacy as a transformative leader.

I’ve been critical of people so openly calling on him to drop out of the race, in part because what we say matters influences what actually matters. Assembling into a circular firing squad didn’t seem to be in our best interests.

And perhaps what needled me more than anything was that most of the people publicly calling for Joe to step aside were white men, or folks in the so-called “donor class,” or members of the punditry. Folks who certainly want to win, and who would certainly suffer under a Republican administration, but who wouldn’t feel the full brunt of Project 2025 and – especially for those in the news industry – who might actually benefit from what the New York Times Editorial Board considered an “exciting” contested Democratic convention.

Glaringly, Black women were missing from the calls for Biden to step aside. The graphics showing the legislators calling for Biden to step aside were telling. Most were men. All were white.

I worried that even if Biden stepped aside, it wouldn’t unify the party, but do the opposite: cause further chaos and division – which would explode into political jockeying and side-taking that would extend the pain and further decrease our chances of beating Donald Trump.

Most acutely, I worried about attempts to leapfrog over Vice President Kamala Harris.

But then, something amazing happened.

You.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Late Sunday afternoon, ActBlue announced that in the first five hours after Biden’s announcement, Harris had raised $27 million from small-dollar donors. That fundraising number eventually ballooned to $81 million in 24 hours – nearly doubling the cash on hand for her campaign, and giving her runway even if the GOP challenges her ability to tap into the Biden war chest.

That record-breaking fundraising came from 880,000 donors – 60% of them new.

A video conference hosted by Win With Black Women was supposed to cap out at 1k people; it swelled to over 40k and raised $1.6 million in four hours. Win With Black Men followed suit last night, raising over $1 million.

28,000 people signed up to volunteer for the campaign.

Social media practically exploded with excitement.

And last night we learned that, less than 36 hours after Joe Biden endorsed her, Kamala Harris secured enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee.

This impressive show of unity wasn’t a foregone conclusion. But, in my honest and humble opinion, the hundreds of thousands of grassroots donors who spoke in those first five hours after Biden endorsed Harris set the tone.

A handful of pundits have complained that this process has been quick and decisive; our unity seems to have been oddly destabilizing. For once, the “Democrats in disarray” story won’t apply. They won’t have a chaotic (though ratings-boosting) Democratic convention to pick apart. They won’t be writing about the blood sport and horse race of a “mini-primary.”

They don’t get to write those stories of division and discord.

Because you wrote the story of unity first.

Friend, let this be a reminder. The grassroots community that you are part of has incredible, massive power. When we are unified in voice and purpose, we are capable of moving mountains and changing the political conversation. We just saw that happen in real time.

Our origin is an important part of this story. The grassroots machine that came together over the last two days to lift up Kamala Harris is made, mostly, of women. Women who woke up on a rainy November day in 2016 to listen to a woman in a purple suit tell all the little girls to keep dreaming. Women who began marches, attended rallies, ran for office, and created an infrastructure for activism unlike anything that the Democratic party has ever seen.

The grassroots community came together – we came together – eight years ago to fight back against Trump and the rising threat of MAGA. That Trump inspired the creation of the coalition that will ultimately end his political career is fitting.

That we came together to once again ensure a contest between Donald Trump and an incredibly qualified woman is poetic.

That she is a prosecutor, and a Black woman, is cosmic justice.

Although it feels like a year ago, it was just last week that Donald Trump strutted into the Republican National Convention to the tune of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”

Yesterday, Kamala walked out to “Freedom” by Beyonce.

We’ve got just over 100 days.

Let’s get to work.

Small Deeds to Do for the Week of July 23, 2024

Here’s the part where – if you are so inclined – we roll up our sleeves and engage in what I like to call Action Therapy. Each Tuesday I share a few “small things” – usually a Small Thing to Read, a Small Event to Attend, and a Small Call to Make or Action to Take. You can tuck these actions into your week with ease – and know that you’re doing something today to make tomorrow better.

Small Event to Attend TONIGHT:

Simon Rosenberg, the veteran pollster and author of The Hopium Chronicles on Substack, is hosting an all-Hopium community call tonight at 6pm central. Register here. While it was already scheduled before Harris became the presumptive nominee, the status of the race has obviously changed – and Simon is well-positioned to offer his own analysis of where things stand and what we can do in the next 100 days. The event will be recorded and sent to those who can’t make it live. Register here.

Small Action(s) to Take

Thank you, Joe!

H/T Jess Craven of Chop Wood Carry Water (you should subscribe to her daily if you don’t already!) who has the wonderful idea to send Joe Biden a thank you note:

Let’s send President Biden a thank you note. So simple, but so important. Not an email, either. Let’s do a hand-written card if we can. He needs an outpouring of love and appreciation right now. Let’s give it to him. Here’s the mailing address:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500

Note from me: If you’ve got kids who are in the “boring” part of summer, you could make this a summer project for them to write to their president and let him know that they appreciate the future he’s helped to create.

Sign up to volunteer with the campaign

Yesterday, the Harris campaign announced that over 28,000 people signed up to volunteer for the campaign. We’re in the sprint to the finish, friend, so it’s time to find a way to pitch in. Sign up here: https://web.joebiden.com/forms/take-action-for-president-biden-and-vice-president-harris/

Don’t want to wait? Go ahead and join a phone bank to key states with the Democrats here: https://events.democrats.org/?utm_source=jb_em_do_20240722_b11_tbh_tier1_do_do_fl_na-ac

Small Thing to Read:

Tim Alberta wrote an excellent piece in the Atlantic, called This Is Exactly What the Trump Team Feared. Although it’s already a little dated (Harris has secured enough delegates to be the presumptive nominee) it’s an excellent piece about the hubris of the Trump campaign and the strategy they’ve used thus far. That strategy will be redeployed against Harris, so it’s worthwhile to explore their thinking. Read it here: (Atlantic has a free 30-day trial if you do not subscribe.) https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/trump-campaign-biden-dropping-out/679183/

Thanks for reading, friend – I’m glad to see you here! I sure hope you subscribe and share with your network. And if you like what I do and you want to support it, consider becoming a paid subscriber. It means a lot.