Campaign Action
As president, Barack Obama did not always put the most effort into building the Democratic Party. As a former president, he’s working to undo some of the losses the party has suffered at the state level in recent years. Organizing for Action, which came out of his campaign, is joining with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, headed by former Attorney General Eric Holder, to do exactly the long-game, state-level organizing at which Republicans so often trounce Democrats. The effort is kicking off with Obama’s direct participation:
“OFA volunteers and supporters will provide the grassroots organizing capacity and mobilization that we’ll need to win state-level elections and move other initiatives forward ahead of the 2021 redistricting process, making sure that states are in the best position possible to draw fair maps,” Obama writes in an email set to go out to the OFA’s list that he'll call "Our Next Fight." [...]
Obama and Holder have both campaigned in New Jersey and Virginia, and the NDRC put $750,000 into the Virginia governor’s race last month.
OFA, meanwhile, will start holding house parties, community meetings and conference calls geared to helping their organizers understand and internalize what gerrymandering is, and what the processes are for changing district maps in each state.
We have a lot of catching up to do, people. For Democrats to do as well at electing lawmakers as in the popular vote, it’ll take years of effort, thanks to Republican gerrymandering.