Poor Peoples Campaign Mobilizing to Effect the Elections

 This is one example of mobilizations to effect the outcome of the November elections.

In the next few weeks, PPC people nationwide will plunge into a new action plan to reach at least 5 million low-income Americans in advance of the midterms. Learn more below; we also have updates on Apache Stronghold's Oak Flat case and two pro-worker state bills. And don't miss the report (written by one of our own) on a recent nuclear-weapons conference at the UN.

National PPC kicks off the Voting is Power Unleashed Campaign This week, the National PPC announced our new effort: a 50-day nationally coordinated push to mobilize, organize, register and educate our base for a movement that votes.   Our slogan: If we ever needed to vote for democracy and justice, we sure do need to vote now!   On September 19—just 50 days from the midterms elections on November 8—the Voting is Power Unleashed Campaign will kick off. Its goal: to ensure that the issues affecting poor and low-income people and low-wage workers are at the center of the national narrative during the election season. We will be building relationships with poor and low-income infrequent voters to encourage them to participate in the election and, as Rev. Barber reminds us, “to mobilize around issues, not personalities.”   The 2020 presidential elections saw the highest voter turnout in U.S. election history, including among poor and low-income voters. Of the 168 million Americans who cast a ballot in the general election, 58 million—or 35 percent—were low-income voters. This cuts against common misperceptions that poor and low-income people are apathetic about politics or inconsequential to electoral outcomes. As the report Waking the Sleeping Giant: Poor and Low-Income Voters in the 2020 Elections shows, PPC’s nonpartisan voter outreach drive had a statistically significant impact in drawing eligible low-income people into the active voting population.   We want to continue building on the policies, mobilizing, organizing, voter education and registration work that we have done since 2020. Our 2022 goal: to contact at least 5 million low-income voters through an array of activities including coordinated national days of action, phone banking, text banking and voter canvassing.   We’ll be providing details of how you can plug into this energizing and vital work in the coming weeks, so make sure to check back—and share the information with your communities.

Apache Stronghold’s Oak Flat case goes back to the Ninth Circuit  Day of prayer next Tuesday in San Francisco The Ninth Circuit Court announced this week that it will hold a vote on whether to reconsider Apache Stronghold’s appeal to save Oak Flat, their most sacred site. This means Apache Stronghold may get a second chance to win protection for Oak Flat in the Ninth Circuit.