On the last Saturday in July, in Vista, north of San Diego, over 200 people gathered to rally for the 2018 defeat of Republican Congressman Darrell Issa. Local members of the California Assembly spoke. A caravan of union members from Los Angeles drove down to join local neighbors, 7 Indivisible groups, 7 Democratic Clubs, the county Democratic Party, national civil rights groups, and many more organizations. After the rally, this inspired army of activists walked door-to-door to educate the neighbors on Issa’s voting record (such as his votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act) and register people to vote. The results of the door-to-door outreach came back, with data on these voter interactions entered into a database for organizers to plan future voter outreach based on the day’s progress on performance metrics. It was a successful day of organizing and canvassing, achieved through weeks of communication and coordination by this network of what is now over 100 organizations.
Contrast this shining day with the day back in January when three progressive groups, one not much more than an email list, realized they had each planned separate protests on the same day at Issa’s local Congressional Office. Also in early 2017, direct door-to-door voter outreach was going gangbusters, but it was a mess. Committed volunteers were wasting their precious time by visiting the same houses repeatedly, and there was no process to report back what they were achieving with their field work.
What changed between January and July? What led these committed and energetic activists to coordinate and collaborate better? From this well-meaning mess, this multitude of organizations decided to work together, with the help of a new bare-bones organization called Flip the 49th. In March, the 49th Action Council was born. This Action Council, with its use of data and its clear strategy to win in November 2018, provides a promising national model that adds discipline and structure to the thrilling tidal wave of activism on the political left.
The work required of each volunteer, each organizer, each neighbor, to win in 2018 is too important to be left to an activism free-for-all.
A coordinating body with a commitment to a clear strategy utilizing data is not rocket science, but it is a lot of work. Communication, cross-organization decision-making, distributing the work for the many partners to lead: this was not happening in North County San Diego before Flip the 49th joined the effort. Aligning so many action-oriented groups and supporting a unified strategy requires brains and stamina, humility and discipline. The Action Council members have all these traits. Flip provided the additional support and structure to bring these strengths to bear. It’s a thing of beauty.
Neighbors in Action is Flip’s community organizing program. As any long-time organizer knows, the voter engagement ground game is challenging to do well. The work is complicated and time-consuming, and includes the work of training and managing volunteers, the use of data, and providing voter education materials. The Action Council partners have expertise in this work. Flip the 49th is doing its thing to organize the parallel efforts and provide specific services such as partner trainings, with the support of another new organization, Fight for a Better America.
Fight for a Better America uses a grass-tops approach to organizing, working with established leaders like the brain trust behind Flip the 49th and the partners of the 49th Action Council, as well as experts in data, project management, communications and social media. Fight is a new national 501c4 advocacy organization, founded by a group of friends as a response to the 2016 election. Fight supports Flip as a national model, and provides both this grass-tops expertise and funding. Fight aims to spread the Flip model of structured, strategic organizing, where all groups are rowing in the same direction and supporting one another, not arguing over voter lists or the scheduling of protests.
Flip the 49th invites anyone interested in ridding Congress of Darrell Issa in the 2018 mid-term election to join us and partner with all the players in Democratic and progressive activism in the district. Get in the big tent.
To support the development and spread of the Flip model of big-tent inclusion and disciplined strategy and management to other parts of the country, read up on and invest in Fight for a Better America.