Benton County Democratic Central Committee

Friday, July 31, at 6:00 PM

Location: Cable Bridge

Sponsored by Black Lives Matter Coalition: Tri-Cities

Recently the injustices and police misconduct of the nation found its way once again to one of our own residents of the Tri-Cities. Joe (Mike) Thornton is a local business owner, organizer of a big brother program here in the Tri, and is working on a documentary to highlight “good” cops. He was picking up food and headed home in Kennewick when he was surrounded by police cars and officers who then pulled out their weapons on him. In a case of mistaken identity Joe acted as slowly as possible in fear of losing his life. His car was searched without a warrant, his rights not read to him until he was cuffed and in custody and no one even bothered to ask his name until after he had been detained. Just like many others in our nation this could have EASILY ended in tragedy. For a man that was just bringing food to his family. We have been organizing and fighting injustices here in the Tri-Cities under the premise that systemic racism happens to all of us and police brutality could happen to ANY of us. It did this week.

Not only did this unfortunate event happen to an AMAZING and upstanding member of this community it happened it the same city that used to have a sign up saying that “Blacks were not allowed in after dark”. A sundown town.

This Friday evening we will be having a silent march for Big bro Joe. We will march from Pasco to Kennewick over the cable bridge in honor of every one of the Black lives that came before us who were not allowed to cross that bridge. We will march because it is apparent that Kennewick still has the remnants of being a sundown town. We will march because this city belongs to ALL of us and we will not wait until the tides turn in another situation like this. We will not wait for someone to die unjustly.

Please meet on the Pasco side of the bridge, if you would like to park on the Kennewick side and carpool back to Pasco that would also be greatly encouraged.
This is a peaceful protest.
We will be crossing the bridge in COMPLETE silence.

Please do not bring signs, we have very specific signs being made for this event.

Hope to see you there.

Primary ballots are due back by August 4th! We will be spending the days leading up to Election Day reminding as many voters as possible to vote for Shir when they submit their primary ballot. We are lucky to be joined by Representative Tana Senn for a night of calls on July 30th. Rep. Senn represents Washington’s 41st Legislative District and is the current Chairperson of the House Committee on Human Services & Early Learning. Hear from her about the important work her committee does in Olympia and why Shir is the absolute best choice to represent our community.

Phone banking is an easy way to get voters to return their ballots and we will provide you all the training you need to make calls.

Zoom link and calling link will be provided with RSVP.

Join Actress, Author and Activist Jane Fonda; Representative Deb Haaland (Congresswoman, New Mexico-D1); Executive Director of 350.org Tamara Toles O’Laughlin; Naina Agrawal-Hardin, National Spokesperson for Sunrise; and DNC Climate Council Chair Michelle Deatrick for a lively, insightful conversation about why it’s the right, the good and the smart thing for Democrats to run on climate.

Link to the event in Facebook

Defying Gravity

A VIRTUAL FUNDRAISER FOR TWO CANDIDATES WHO ARE DEFYING EXPECTATIONS

THURSDAY, JULY 16 FROM 5:00-6:30 PM

WITH SPECIAL GUEST, FORMER ASTRONAUT

JULIE METCALF-LINDENBURGER

Purchase Tickets Here

In conjunction with the Second Harvest Tri-Cities Mobile Market drive-thru event happening at the Toyota Center, BFT will be holding FOUR food distribution events just for transit riders at our transit centers in Tri-Cities and Prosser on the same day.

SAFETY REMINDER:
Face coverings are REQUIRED in all public spaces, including our BFT vehicles and transit centers.
————————————–FOOD DISTRIBUTION OPTIONS:
Date: Wednesday, July 15
Time: 11am (while supplies last)Ride the bus or take BFT CONNECT for FREE and head to any of our transit centers below:• Three Rivers Transit Center (Kennewick)
• 22nd Ave Transit Center (Pasco)
• Knight Street Transit Center (Richland)
• Stacy Avenue Transit Center (Prosser, starting at 11:15am)The food will be packaged in a box with handles so you can take it on the bus. However, we encourage people to bring a hand cart or something to help carry the boxes and make traveling a little easier.——————————–IF YOU NEED HELP BOOKING YOUR TRIP BY BUS:
• Use the Transit trip planner app to determine the best bus route available in your area
• Check out www.bft.org for route schedules
• Call Customer Service at 509.735.5100 and our team members can help map out your tripOR, WITH BFT CONNECT:
• Check out www.bft.org/ConnectOnDemand to learn how to use our new on-demand ride service
• Use the Via app or call BFT CONNECT Customer Service at 509.204.4189 to request a ride

July Candidate Forum

Online with the Tri-City Democrats

Time: July 10, 2020 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Primary ballots will drop around July 18, so in the interest of informing voters, we’ll host as many candidates as we can who we believe will be of interest to our voters.  This is an open-door event and we encourage Democrats, Democrat- friendly and Democrat-curious folks to attend.