Everyday Election Activism: The Opportunities

An opportunity for every mood! ☺️ 😺😡 😜 😱 😼 💥 💪 🫠 🤔 😎

Click here to read the Insider’s Guide to Everyday Election Activism! (next post coming soon)

Greetings!

It’s been more than a month since my last update. I’ve taken time to travel, recharge, and regain perspective. Jumping back in, I see the important things have not changed - the urgency and moral drive of our cause, the wide range of opportunities to make a difference, and our collective will to oppose the destruction of democratic institutions and revitalize a culture of caring.

Even as we grieve for the harms caused by the current regime to people and institutions, we grow stronger. More and more of us are standing together with arms interlocked, living out our shared values and turning our hopes for the future into reality.

CHANGES to ‘The Opportunities’

Going forward this document will focus exclusively on how to amplify our voices - all the ways we can engage other people to participate in democracy. I’ve removed information about how to make calls on your own, and instead include only ways we can empower other people to take direct action, hold their elected officials accountable, and vote in every election.

NORTH CAROLINA. As before, I include a North Carolina-focused section at the top. I live in North Carolina, I care about North Carolina, and we all know that politics in North Carolina is a microcosm of the power struggle between MAGA Republicans and the rest of us. We shall win, for our state and for the sake of the whole country, so help us out wherever you live!

The Opportunities

Part 1: North Carolina

Part 2: National - Holding Elected Officials Accountable

Part 3: National - Critical Elections Across the Country

Part 4: National - Fighting Misinformation & Lies

NOTE: Starred Actions (*) are Virtual

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PART 1: NORTH CAROLINA

Building the Resistance and the Democratic Party: Phone Banks

Amplify your voice by inviting voters across NC to join us in holding Congress and the state legislature accountable.

• * Protect Medicaid by making phone calls with Down Home NC! Invite North Carolinians impacted by potential loss of Medicaid to call their Congress members and get involved. Receive deep canvassing training and make calls every Thursday from 6-8 pm EDT (6/12, 6/19, and 6/26). Click here.

• * Protect the Department of Education by joining a phone bank with Down Home NC! Make calls to ask folks across the state to let their elected officials know that we do not want the Department of Education to be eliminated. Sign up for phone banks on 6/18 and 6/25, 6-8 pm EDT. Click here.

• * Phone bank with the Durham County Dems every Wednesday evening, inviting people who attended recent protests to help canvass other voters and hold Sen. Tillis accountable. Sign up here.

• * Phone bank with County2County/Neighbors on Call to connect voters with their Democratic representatives in the NC legislature. For the rest of June make calls for Rep. Pittman, and starting 7/8 (and the rest of July), make calls for Sen. Everitt/Rep Cohn. Sign up here.

• * Phone bank with the NC Democratic Party to recruit volunteers across the state for upcoming Project 100 and direct voter contact events! Sign up here for phone banks Wednesday evenings and Thursday afternoons.

• * Make phone calls to NC voters with Democracy NC, a nonpartisan organization devoted to voting rights and access to the ballot. Join their monthly Monday evening phone banks. The next ones are on 6/23 and 7/28. Sign up here.

Building the Resistance and the Democratic Party: Canvasses

Face-to-face conversations are the best! That’s how we tailor our words to connect to each individual we meet. That’s how we learn what people care about and what they know, whether they are engaged with political news and elections, and what barriers they face to voting. Below are opportunities to canvass with organizations that either serve the entire state or work in multiple counties.

Hold Senator Tills Accountable, Flip the NC Courts, and Recruit Dem Party Volunteers. A note about the courts: In 2026 we need to elect (or re-elect) Democrats, including Justice Anita Earls to the NC Supreme Court and three Democratic judges on the Court of Appeals. Winning these seats will position Democrats to retake the court in 2028, so we can protect public education, healthcare access, voting rights, and fair redistricting!

• Join a canvass with local county Democratic Parties across the state. Some canvasses are asking voters to hold Sen. Tillis accountable, while others are recruiting Dem Party volunteers. Check here for details, dates and locations.

• Canvass for judicial races with Flip NC, a volunteer-led Durham-based group that works statewide to turn out left-leaning voters, reduce ballot dropoff in state court races, and spread the word about the importance of our state courts. Join a monthly canvass in Durham (6/29 is the next one!). Click here for details and sign up.

  • Bonus for Durhamites! Join a party on 6/12 in Durham to thank our Democratic Justices on the NC Supreme Court. Sign up here.

• Canvass for judicial races with the Democratic Party across the state, asking voters to protect our Courts and re-elect Justice Anita Earls in 2026. Sign up here for Durham County Dems (events every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) and check here for similar canvasses across the state (Alamance, Buncombe, Burke, Nash and numerous others!).

• Canvass with County2County/Neighbors on Call to hold Sen. Tillis accountable and to support Democrats in critical state legislative seats so we can build Democratic Party power (and break the Republican supermajority in the NC Senate). Join an accountability canvass on 6/21 or a canvass for Sen Everitt/Rep. Cohn on 7/12. Sign up here.

  Help NC Voters Register to Vote, Obtain Photo IDs, and Get Rides to the Polls

• Join an in-person voter registration drive with You Can Vote to register and educate voters about elections. Attend a most excellent online training (6/24, 7/8, or 7/9) and then sign up here for an event in one of many locations around the state.

• * Write postcards to register voters in NC with Field Team 6, the largest partisan voter registration organization in the country. Attend an info session about Field Team 6 any Wednesday at 2 pm EDT. Sign up here to write NC voters, and if you like a party, sign up here to write postcards with others every Monday!

• * Support NC voters to get state-issued photo IDs with VoteRiders, the only nationwide organization that provides free 1:1 assistance. They have a presence in Charlotte but provide virtual assistance to voters anywhere. Volunteer 1-3 hours/week. Click here to receive info or sign up here for the next training session, 6/17 at 7 pm EDT.

PART 2: NATIONAL - HOLDING ELECTED OFFICIALS ACCOUNTABLE

You are already contacting your elected officials know what you expect of them, right? Now you can also help others do the same! Here are some ways you can boost calls to state and Congressional elected officials.

• * Sign up to make “Calls with Friends,” a creation of Swing Blue Alliance. By joining, you will have access to materials and weekly calls to action that you can use to urge people you know in red or purple states to speak out. Sign up here.

• * Make phone calls with Indivisible, “calling voters and connecting them directly to their Senator. Together, we’ll urge Republicans to oppose the Trump Tax Scam—a reckless GOP tax plan that prioritizes billionaires like Elon Musk while selling out working families.” Phone banks are held every Wednesday and Thursday, 11 am - 12:30 pm EDT. Sign up here.

• * Make phone calls with Common Cause to “mobilize voters to take action against dangerous legislation in state houses around the country. We will focus on the most urgent campaigns that need our help to ensure voters across the country call their state representatives and demand they protect the freedom to vote.” Sign up here for phone banks every Tuesday and Thursday evening.

• * Make phone calls with the Working Families Party. Join a team to jump into action when accountability is most needed and to support WFP candidates in local elections! Sign up here to stay in the loop.

• * Join the “Please-Grow-a-Spine Training” with Field Team 6! Use social media to hold elected officials accountable and ask them to stand up against corruption. Let’s amplify our messages on social media and bombard them with feedback! Attend a training on a Monday or Thursday afternoon. Sign up here.

PART 3: NATIONAL - CRITICAL ELECTIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Equip Voters to Vote: Registration, Photo IDs, and Rides

Voter Registration, Virtually!

• * Write postcards with Field Team 6, the largest partisan voter registration organization in the country. Sign up here to attend an info session about Field Team 6’s strategy any Wednesday at 2 pm. Sign up here to write postcards to GA, NJ, GA, PA, AZ, CA, or NC. And if you like a postcard-writing party, sign up here to write postcards with other activists every Wednesday.

• * Join a text bank with Field Team 6 to register voters in swing states most Thursdays (6/12, 6/19, 6/26, 7/10, and 7/24). Sign up here.

Photo IDs: The lack of an acceptable Photo ID is another form of voter suppression.

• * Support voters to get state-issued photo IDs with VoteRiders, the only nationwide organization that provides free 1:1 assistance. VoteRiders has a presence in a few locations and provides virtual assistance to voters anywhere. Volunteer 1-3 hours/week. Next training session is 6/17 at 7 pm EDT.

Rides to the Polls - A year round effort to make sure voters know rides are available (and then give rides at election time).

• * Spread the word about Ride Share to Vote has Thursday phone banks year round to spread the word about the availability of rides, reaching out to voters likely in need of transportation. Sign up here to make calls 6 pm EDT every Thursday. (To get involved and give rides in your state, look for volunteer sign-ups here.)

Elections in 2025 and 2026

2025 is not an off year for elections! We are already working on 2025 Special Elections, Primary Elections, and Runoff Elections, and gearing up for the Fall 2025 municipal elections, plus statewide elections in a few states. At the same time we are laying the groundwork for the 2026 midterms. Democrats have been racking up wins and flipping districts as people react to the new regime, so let’s keep going!

Virginia

• * Make phone calls with the Center for Common Ground, to reach out to “Black voters in Virginia, encouraging them to vote and providing resources that make it easier to check where they are registered and find the voting information they need.” Join a phone bank here to make calls on 6/12 and 6/17 from 6 - 8 pm EDT, or click here for info about making calls on your own.

• * Make phone calls with Sister District to help elect top-priority Democratic candidates to the VA House of Delegates, drive votes up the ticket to help flip the VA Governor's mansion, and send a powerful message to Trump and the GOP in November: not in our commonwealth. Click here for weekly national phone banks on 6/12, 6/14, 6/18, 6/21, 6 pm EDT. Click here for a ton of additional phone banks supported by Sister District groups around the country.

*Join Phone Banks to voters in NY, VA, AZ, and PA

• * Make phone calls with the Environmental Voter Project. A great organization to know about! They turn environmentalists into consistent voters. Call for NY (6/12, 6/17, 6/18, 6/20, 6/23, 6/24), VA (6/16), AZ (6/25, 6/26, 6/30), and PA (6/28). Click here to sign up.

* Write Postcards and Letter for Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey

• * Write postcards to voters of color in Virginia with Reclaim Our Vote, a project of the Center for Common Ground. Sign up here for postcards to be mailed 9/15 - 10/20.

• * Write postcards to voters in Virginia with Postcards4VA. Send “hard hitting messages to women who … haven't voted in past elections. Our goal is to wake these women up … and get them to pay attention.” Sign up here.

• * Get ready to write innovative postcards with Postcards to Swing States. Sign-up here to write postcards to Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. You can also click here for the newest campaign, sending news headlines to Democratic-leaning voters to combat disinformation and make sure they learn about how harmful the Trump/GOP agenda is.

• * Write letters to Pennsylvania voters about the Supreme Court race with Vote Forward. Choose a campaign - write either to historically underrepresented voters or help turn out Democratic voters. Write to send in September and October. Click here to sign up.

• Join a new Voter Support Team with Vote Forward. Become a trained volunteer to respond to queries from voters who will be receiving letters that include a phone number. Volunteers will respond to calls and texts, providing non-partisan voting information and sharing their perspective on why voting matters. Sign up here for this new, innovative and experimental opportunity!

• * Write postcards with Postcards to Voters. Their current campaign is to encourage Florida voters to sign up for Vote By Mail. Sign up here to send anywhere from 1-50 postcards. Write the cards within three days, and then request more!

PART 4: NATIONAL - FIGHTING MISINFORMATION & LIES

• * Join a Truth Brigade with Indivisible. Learn how to share and amplify unified, factual messages to those who trust us, in order to shift the narrative. Sign up here for a session on the second Wednesday of the month “to learn where we are most vulnerable, and how we can heal disinformation-driven divisions and fears through persuasive communication. Leave each call inspired, clear-headed and focused on taking meaningful action.”