How we build political power: Lessons from Texas and Florida organizers
Release Date: 10/11/2022
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As The South Votes, Episode 4. 'Don’t boo, just vote' is a tired refrain. It takes more than an election to save ourselves—let alone Democracy. Groups that employ continued, year-round civic engagement in the South walk us through the connection between electoral power and creating real opportunities for our communities to thrive. It will take more than a single electoral victory or an additional pro-people candidate elected to change the status quo. Voting is just one of many tools in our toolbox to affect meaningful change in the South. At the start of episode four of , we are joined...
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How we build political power: Lessons from Texas and Florida organizers
As The South Votes
As The South Votes, Episode 3. Instead of simply focusing on get-out-the-vote campaigns behind particular candidates, these groups are building for the long haul. Organizers in Texas and Florida share what it means to build power outside of traditional electoral campaigns. “Building political power” and “people-powered movements” are two phrases that have become organizing buzzwords over recent years. But what exactly do either of them mean? We dig deeper into both in the third episode of . Brianna Brown, Co-Executive Director of the Texas Organizing Project, walks us...
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How we fight gerrymandering in the South
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How we organize around elections: Lessons from Mississippi organizers
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As The South Votes, Episode 1. For electoral and civic engagement organizers, there is no off-cycle. Catching up with Mississippi Votes about what it means to organize young leaders to shift the balance of power in a state still combating deeply entrenched white supremacist power. In this first episode of , we hear from Arekia Benett and Velvet Johnson of Mississippi Votes, an intergenerational organization cultivating a culture of civic engagement and political empowerment in impacted communities across their state. Arekia and Velvet share that as an organization, Mississippi Votes...
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As The South Votes: 2022 teaser!
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In this season of As The South Votes, Scalawag and Anoa Changa team back up to talk about what's working, what's not, and what lessons Southern organizers have learned in their efforts to make the region we love a more just place. Learn more and revisit past episodes at: https://scalawagmagazine.org/vote/
info_outlineAs The South Votes, Episode 3. Instead of simply focusing on get-out-the-vote campaigns behind particular candidates, these groups are building for the long haul.
Organizers in Texas and Florida share what it means to build power outside of traditional electoral campaigns.
“Building political power” and “people-powered movements” are two phrases that have become organizing buzzwords over recent years. But what exactly do either of them mean? We dig deeper into both in the third episode of As the South Votes.
Brianna Brown, Co-Executive Director of the Texas Organizing Project, walks us through what it looks like for her, as a fifth-generation Texas, to build political power across predominantly Latinx and Black communities in the state. Brianna spoke to us about what it means to grow a voting block, and how TOP has created intervention points that can break through the status quo and help achieve meaningful changes in people’s lives—getting deep into TOP’s value alignment,how they work cooperatively with community members, and the reality of doing this kind of work in the Lone Star State.
In the second half of the conversation, we check in with Dwight Bullard, Senior Advisor at Florida Rising, while he was en route to the state capitol in Jacksonville.
As a result of the merger of two leading Florida organizations, Organize Florida and the New Florida Majority, Florida Rising engages in 13 counties across the state. The organization hopes to become a political “home” for folks who feel the existing political system does not work for them.