Thankful for our grassroots

This Thanksgiving season, we are all especially aware of the way our lives touch and interconnect with each other.  We are mindful of what we must do to keep each other safe, even if that means not visiting family this year.    

I’m thankful for this spirit of generosity and compassion, which I know is shared by the entire NOW community.  And I’m filled with pride in what our chapters, grassroots and activists have accomplished this year, particularly during the election. 

As Stacey Abrams and the many grassroots activists in Georgia have shown us, when we mobilize, organize and maximize voter participation, we can achieve stunning results. This is how the state turned blue for the first time since 1992. 

NOW chapters from coast to coast did the daily work of democracy with get-out-the-vote efforts that turned the tide in close elections. And now, our members are ready to help make history again in the January Senate runoffs.   

Chapters including Nevada NOW, for example, are working with VoteEqualityUS to fundraise and help register voters in time for the election. Illinois NOW worked tirelessly to elect NOW PAC endorsed candidates, ensuring that Rep. Lauren Underwood won re-election by a narrow margin.   

Southwest Idaho NOW organized a postcard campaign to turn out voters “to get a Senate majority that believes in science,” and North Carolina NOW held a post-election discussion as part of their “White Women, Can We Talk” project, to examine why Trump received 2% more of this vote than he did in 2016.  

Projects like these are at the core of NOW’s mission.  We know that every action, march, protest, conference and public campaign we support makes us stronger, both on the national level and in communities like yours.  

So however, you mark Thanksgiving this year, I hope you’ll join me in holding a special thought and giving thanks for the spirit of grassroots activism that has always been at NOW’s core.  I know that in the months ahead, we will continue to do great things—together.