Forward’s 1st Election Day
Hello and Happy Halloween! It’s always a big holiday in our household because our older son was born on Halloween. He’s very scary.
Election Day is next Tuesday, and it’s a pivotal day for our country. I’ve been campaigning for Evan McMullin in Utah and am going to Nevada this weekend for both local candidates and to support the ranked choice voting ballot initiative there.
What is there to be done in this final stretch? First, get out and vote! I voted early and it always feels great. Make sure you get your vote in and that your info is up to date.
Second, pick a candidate or two to support, either locally or nationally. Forward Party has endorsed 27 candidates who are Democrats, Republicans and Independents, almost all of whom are running against extremists. For example, Adam Frisch is running against Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 3rd district and the race is very competitive. It turns out most people in Colorado are turned off by Lauren’s brand of turning everything into an ideological statement.
This week on the podcast I interview Matt Shinners, CEO of Forward Party about our top priorities next week. The first is Evan McMullin, whose race could be a template for transforming our country’s politics. Evan is running neck-and-neck against Mike Lee, a Trump-endorsed incumbent in a state that Trump won by 21 points in 2020. The race is competitive largely because Democrats decided not to run a candidate, and Evan is building a coalition of Democrats, Independents, and moderate Republicans who want to move away from Trump.
How many U.S. Senators does it take to influence policy in a polarized country? Perhaps just one. Evan McMullin could be that one, while also demonstrating a new way to compete against previously untouchable incumbents. If Evan wins, the independent political movement will have a wedge in the U.S. Senate in January and will have already achieved what most think is impossible.
As an operator and movement builder, you look for high-leverage opportunities. Evan’s race is the biggest opportunity one can imagine. If you have any friends in Utah, let them know how important this race is and feel free to send Evan a few bucks here. Let’s do all we can to take advantage of this.
The second biggest opportunity is the ballot initiative in Nevada that could switch the state to nonpartisan open primaries and ranked choice voting. We saw last month in Alaska the impact of this process change when Sarah Palin lost her primary and Lisa Murkowski won hers despite voting to impeach Donald Trump. Now, Nevadans have the chance to make the same change, which could lead to more states adopting the same.
Replacing party primaries with non-partisan open primaries may be the single best way to depolarize our politics and make our leadership more reasonable, accountable and truly representative. Reformers are investing $17 million in the Nevada ballot initiative. If it passes, non-partisan primaries will continue to sweep the country. If it fails, people will think that we will truly be stuck in our party politics forever. Polling has it at 50-50 right now.
I will be going to Nevada to try to help push it over the top. If you have friends in Nevada, let them know to vote Yes on 3. And you can volunteer to call or text Nevadans every day in the run-up to Election Day.
I hope that these are half as exciting to you as they are to me. Most of our country is once again being told the sole fight is between Democrats and Republicans. We know that there’s a different struggle as well – a fight to improve our politics so that people and principles matter more than the letter next to one’s name, and to restore the connection between people and families and the leaders who are meant to represent them.
As I’m writing this, the news is coming in that Paul Pelosi was attacked in his home. We have to lower the country’s temperature as quickly as we can.
I’m pumped up for the possibilities, but they won’t happen without people working on them. Let’s work hard through Election Day. Pick something and do it.
