Welcome to this week’s Update from the Women’s Democratic Club!
I am Diana Conway, and I am honored to be your president for the next two years to pursue WDC’s goals: electing Democrats and promoting our shared Democratic agenda.
As is often said, America’s diversity is her strength. I ask you to join me and our Board, to make WDC stronger through diversity-- a personal priority of mine. This will mean reaching more people who will bring geographic, age, racial and socioeconomic diversity. It means expanding our network, coordinating with other transformative organizations, building community with them, and working together to amplify our collective voice.
WDC will do this by keeping you informed, engaged and active. All this work will be led by our new and returning Board members. These intrepid women generate ways to pitch in that work for you. Learn about our work here and volunteer for a committee HERE.
Today‘s political scenery is pretty stark. We have to make the most of every opportunity between now and November 2020. One key opening is right on our doorstep: Virginia’s November 2019 state legislative races.
These Virginia elections matter. Two years ago, a coin toss determined the winner in a tied Virginia state race. The Democrat lost that coin toss and as a result every committee gavel in the Virginia House went to a Republican. A single additional Democratic voter could have changed all that and bypassed the coin toss.
One upcoming Virginia race shows why it should matter to WDC: A Republican incumbent has repeatedly blocked the ERA from getting out of his committee despite the support of 81% of Virginians. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in 2017 “I would like to be able to take out my pocket Constitution and say that the equal citizenship stature of men and women is a fundamental tenet of our society like free speech.” The ERA would empower women --at the federal level-- to take on wage discrimination, domestic violence, sexual harassment and more. The incumbent Republican delegate has blocked it 11 times from getting to the full House where last cycle it HAD the votes. Now a first-time candidate is challenging him -- a Democratic woman named Jess Foster. She and her fellow Democratic candidates can flip or hold individual seats in the Virginia House, and we can help them do it. That is emblematic of WDC’s drive: working to take back state legislatures and governorships across the US, to hold the US House, to retake the Senate, and of course deliver a crushing win for the White House.
So what you do matters. WDC’s committees galvanize our work. If you haven’t already, sign up to volunteer with a WDC committee at the top right of our home page www.womensdemocraticclub.org. Who better to take this on than hundreds of highly motivated Democratic women and like-minded men? (#RealMenJoinWDC)
Everything is on the line – our environment, our right to choose, racial equity, criminal justice, and more. Speaking of justice, how about those judges and justices we’ve been getting? Also at stake: our international relationships, our place in the world economy, and our standing on moral and human rights issues from caging children to denigrating veterans.
In times like these, I believe the opportunity to engage becomes an obligation to do so. That includes an obligation to rebuild a moral ecosystem by electing good people. That means giving what you can, however you can: your time, your talent, your treasure.
The great biographer Robert Caro said, “Power doesn’t always corrupt. What power always does is reveal." This president has revealed who he is. Let’s choose this time to reveal our strength. By doing. Join us to engage, get active, and amplify our voices from now through November 2020. Nothing less than our democracy is at stake.
See you in the trenches!