“We need to build our collective power and synthesize our stories, dreams, and skills. To do this, the Kentucky Movement Assembly (KMA) was born.”
Hear SURJ’s Alex Flood talk about the campaign to re-elect Governor Beshear with statewide partners!
“Beth Howard is the Appalachian People’s Union Director of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), which focuses on engaging White and working-class voters around racial and economic justice issues. Howard said SURJ ran the largest field program opposing Amendment 2 in 2022 and successfully persuaded voters to cross party lines.
Erin Heaney joined Color of Democracy founder Steve Phillips and Journalist Tia Mitchell on C-Span’s Washington Journal to talk about the goals of the White Stripe Project.
“The party needs a sober, empirically grounded analysis of what we really know—and don’t know—about how best to expand support among white voters.”
The initiative — dubbed the White Stripe Project — aims to woo white voters in greater numbers to liberal causes and supply empirical data to challenge the conventional ways Democrats traditionally engage with this crucial voting bloc.
“Over 60 parents and other community members gathered outside the Durango VFW hall last night to voice their opposition to a far-right extremist group leader the La Plata County Republicans invited to speak at their monthly meeting.
“Kathi Johnson, a Democrat, spends her time knocking on doors in her part of far-northeastern, deep-red Kentucky, talking about divisive issues like abortion and inflation.”
That’s why I love what Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) is up to. They build, what they call, “people power” in multi-racial communities across the country. Today, they have 200 chapters taking on a range of deeply local projects, as well as a big, ambitious national strategy to fight authoritarianism. I am so grateful they have their eye on the prize.
“Rural places get labeled as red and conservative, but they are disenfranchised places that are being left behind. People are complicated. So when you knock a door, most people are not going to fit into political parties the way that we’ve defined it.
