Hello Democrats and what a week of news! This email is absolutely jam-packed! Please read it all, because there is so much to share with our friends and our neighbors about the work Democrats are doing right now!
State of the Union – What a night – President Biden laid out a powerful, compelling, progressive vision for our country, and I’m excited to take this message to our Washington voters in the midterms!
If you missed it, you can watch it here or read the speech here. We also put together a short highlight video featuring some of the big wins that Democratic leadership has delivered over the past year – check it out:
I’m also linking some fact sheets on what Democrats have delivered, and will be doing next, on some of the big issues facing America. These are great for providing good information to share on social media, in conversation, or around the kitchen table:
- Economy Fact Sheet
- Infrastructure Fact Sheet
- Climate Fact Sheet
- Opioids Fact Sheet
- Safer Communities Fact Sheet
- Rural Fact Sheet
- Mental Health Fact Sheet
- Veterans Fact Sheet
- Nursing Homes Fact Sheet
Protecting the Right to Abortion – We know that Republicans are targeting Roe v. Wade this year, with a 6-3 conservative US Supreme Court ready to overturn a person’s choice about their own body, their own health care, and the fundamental right to have an abortion. (Because “freedom” is only about not having to wear a mask, right?)
I’m glad that we have our Sen. Patty Murray working hard to try to defend that right, and this week she pushed for the Women’s Health Protection Act in the Senate to enshrine the right to an abortion into law. We hosted a statewide call for reporters with Rep. Suzan DelBene, state Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, and Planned Parenthood CEO Jennifer Allen talking about the WHPA, Sen. Murray’s work, and the danger of Murray’s opponent, Tiffany Smiley. You can watch the “highlight reel” of that call here:
Remember – Smiley ENDORSED the Texas anti-abortion bounty hunter law, the most restrictive abortion bill in the country. We can’t let her represent us in the Senate!
While the WHPA vote failed in the US Senate, we had action here at home. The State Senate joined the House in passing HB 1851, sponsored by Rep. My-Linh Thai of the 41st LD. The bill authorizes physician assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners, and certain other medical providers acting within their scopes of practice to perform abortions and prohibits the state from taking action against a health care provider for assisting an individual in exercising the right to reproductive freedom. This bill will help make sure that Washingtonians – and the people who come to Washington seeking abortions because their own state has limited these rights – can get the care they need.
Note that this bill passed the Senate on a party line vote – every single Republican was opposed! The GOP is an anti-choice party and Washington is a pro-choice state. With Roe under threat like never before, we need to make sure voters know that access to reproductive health is actively under attack!
County Auditors – News in Spokane County – super-conservative GOP Rep. Bob McCaslin announced that he won’t be running for re-election to the legislature and will instead run for Spokane County Auditor. McCaslin was a Matt Shea supporter and one of the GOP legislators who’s spent the last year spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and hanging out with the “MyPillow guy” Mike Lindell and his election fraud disinformation events.
It goes without saying that we CANNOT have people like this running our elections. Not only does it put the fairness and freedom of Spokane County at risk, but it would set McCaslin up to run for Secretary of State in the future – a position in which he could do even more damage.
We have to make sure we are ready for fights like these for election administration positions up and down the ballot! Trump has been criss-crossing the country recruiting candidates and raising money for conservative election administrators who’d be willing to help him steal an election. Conservatives like McCaslin stepping up here in WA is part and parcel of that strategy. We MUST fight back.
That means supporting folks like Vicki Dalton, the Spokane County Auditor, all the way up to our new Democratic Secretary of State Steve Hobbs. Consider getting your local party organization to do an early endorsement of Secretary Hobbs, along with our other incumbents like Sen. Patty Murray and our Democratic Members of Congress. We need to support these folks sooner rather than later!
Capital Gains Tax Update – The capital gains tax on the profits from stocks and bonds of the ultra-rich that the legislature passed in 2021 was overturned in a court case this week in Douglas County. Rob McKenna, the attorney representing the very wealthy plaintiffs, shopped around for the most sympathetic judge he could find, and he got him. We will see this case appealed to the state Supreme Court by our Attorney General Bob Ferguson, so we’ll continue to track this and see what happens next.
What’s for certain is that none of us are giving up on the work to fix our upside-down tax code. We have the most unfair tax system in the country and it’s long past time that the rich pay their fair share. I was glad to see that just this week, the Senate joined the House in passing HB 1876, which would require that Tim Eyman-style anti-tax initiatives would include information on what government services would be cut under the initiatives right in the ballot description, so voters are better informed about what they’ll be voting on. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I’m confident people are ready for a better, fairer tax code in Washington state.
Flex Your Democratic Muscles – With so much going on, I’m excited about all the action that local parties across Washington are taking to spread the word about what our Democratic leaders are doing and the importance of voting in these upcoming midterm elections. Folks across Washington are phone banking, doorknocking, and sharing information with their networks. I’m thrilled to see it happening. Groups like the North-Central Washington Democrats, the 26th LD Democrats (they have a super-competitive state Senate race this year!), the 23rd LD Democrats, and more are already active and contacting voters with the Coordinated Campaign! You can find an event near you at www.wa-democrats.org/organizingevents or send an email to organizing@wa-democrats.org to start a new phone bank or canvass!
With that, thank you all for reading! Let’s get to work and get it done!
With gratitude,
Tina Podlodowski
PS – I want to remind everyone that our organizers are working hard around the clock to ensure that every single Democrat statewide turns out to vote this November, but they still need your help. By becoming a recurring donor in our Blue Washington program, you will be supporting every single Democratic candidate in our state, driving progressive voter turnout, and ensuring we maintain our blue majority!
Our Blue Washington program specifically helps us build our organizing team and fund the resources they need to fight voter suppression and turn out every single Democrat. The more resources we have, the more we can accomplish!