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How we build political power: Lessons from Texas and Florida organizers
10/11/2022
How we build political power: Lessons from Texas and Florida organizers
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 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.
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