Meet The Most Powerful Pro-Democracy Group You Never Heard Of - Rachel Maddow - MSNBC

[Rhiannon12866]

David Donnelly, founder and lead strategist for the Pro-Democracy Campaign, talks with Rachel Maddow about his below-the-radar organization lending significant financial support to existing voting rights and pro-democracy groups across the United States. - Aired on 12/12/2022.

[Faux pas]

1. I

think David Donnelly is my new hero.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Same here!

[SheltieLover]

3. Excellent! 👏👏👏👏

[Rhiannon12866]

4. They were a little late uploading this, but it's important news!

[SheltieLover]

5. It sure is!

Ty for sharing!

[Rhiannon12866]

6. Rachel led last night with the news that everyone's reporting on today

[summer_in_TX]

7. Fascinating!

I actually got a little overwhelmed trying to figure out which pro-democracy effort would be best to volunteer for. One involves monitoring social media misinformation and submitting it for tracking and message counter-programming. Another was monitoring social media for problems voting, and making sure those with serious problems had access to lawyers, and knew to call 1-866-OUR-VOTE for help. Yet another was party-specific and involved checking our friends and neighbors against the database of those who'd voted already and reminding folks to vote.

I spent some time with all of those efforts, but couldn't figure out what was the best use of my time. Maybe it was all good, but I felt a little scattered and that didn't help my anxiety about the potential of losing our democracy any.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Anything that we can do is sure to help, I think our strength is in numbers

Kudos to you!

[summer_in_TX]

9. That's reassuring!

Texas didn't do so well (except my county flipped blue, so it wasn't all bad).

Part of my problem was I was working on voting info on the local League of Women Voters website and social media messaging, which had me too busy to really focus and learn the process well for the other efforts. I thought it would be the same as 2020, but it wasn't. I didn't leave myself enough time to train and pace myself.

But thank goodness so many folks were engaged and doing what they could!

[Rhiannon12866]

10. League of Women Voters do a wonderful job here in my New York district

They put out voter information before elections (which I depended on when I was first voting) and they sponsored a debate for my congressman (who I was working for) and his Republican challenger. Kudos to you for taking action, too few people do. In my district, it's a challenge just to get out the vote!

[summer_in_TX]

11. There are lots of barriers to voting.

• Lack of familiarity with each step in the process.
• Not knowing how to find out about the candidates on the ballot.
• Messages that their vote doesn't matter.

Lots to overcome to get people to the polls.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. From what I've seen, #3 is a big one.

That's why GOTV is so essential. And, of course, letting voters know what candidates really stand for. That's got to be the biggest problem in my district. They inexplicably reelected Elise Stefanik last month - who ignores constituents and the needs of the district in favor of her own ambition. Not to mention, after the district lines were redrawn, she no longer lives in the district.

[summer_in_TX]

13. Good grief!

Yes, I left out that and another big one: misinformation.

[Rhiannon12866]

14. Just before the election, she held a rare phone Town Hall

And we learned after the fact that she blocked comments and questions from constituents who didn't agree with her positions. Not to mention, I also learned that on election night she declared victory early on - and took the opportunity to endorse TFG for 2024.

[summer_in_TX]

15. Ugh.

I wish I could point to one good national representative for my state or region. Instead, I've got Cornyn, Cruz, and Chip Roy.

But Stefanik is bad news.

[Rhiannon12866]

16. Yeah, New York is supposed to be a "blue state"

Apparently that's news to Stefanik. New York-21 was represented by a moderate Democrat for years, and when he retired I made GOTV calls for his chosen successor who I met and liked. But he inexplicably lost to Stefanik who, despite the protesters who follow her around, has only gotten worse ever since.