Virginia Is Making Its Voice Heard (4/16/26)
Plus making the ask for May Day, spotlight on the Iowa Third, Trump's Fed nominee moves forward, and more
‼️‼️ Looking for Thursday night plans? Take your pick! You can text Michiganders to get money out of politics at 5:30 PM ET, learn how activists will be organizing during the World Cup at 8 PM ET or phonebank ALL DAY to help turn out voters for Analilia Mejia in today’s congressional special election in New Jersey! ‼️‼️
TOO LONG, DIDN’T READ
GOTV weekend arrives for Virginia redistricting
New addition to our midterms action page: phonebanking to help Lutheran minister and state senator Sarah Trone Garriott flip a competitive seat in Iowa
Interrupting Criminalization’s toolkits for blocking detention centers in our communities
Taking over Citizens Bank’s hashtags, national mobilization call for Day Two of the week of action against concentration camp financiers
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
DECISION TIME ON VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING
Get Out The Vote weekend for new congressional maps in Virginia is upon us, and it’s still up in the air whether we’ll be able to successfully push back against Trump’s effort to rig the House. A new poll by States Navigate has us up by five points among likely voters, and updated early voting data suggests turnout is climbing in Democratic strongholds in the northern part of the state. But the Republican pushback now has $27 million behind it, and Governor Spanberger’s approval numbers have dropped substantially since her sweeping victory in November. We’re going to need to put the work in.
Here’s the schedule of chances to help get out the vote in the closing stretch:
TODAY
TOMORROW
Phonebank with Activate America 3-4:30PM ET, with Rural Groundgame 4:00-6:30PM ET or with Virginians for Fair Elections 6-8PM ET
Spanish language phonebanks with the Arlington Democrats 6-8 PM ET
Textbank with the National Redistricting Action Fund 10-11AM and 4-5PM ET or with Virginians for Fair Elections 6-7 PM ET
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
ELECTION DAY
MAKING US MAY DAY STRONG, ONE ASK AT A TIME
If we’re going to make the national shutdown on May 1st matter, we’re going to have to do the slow, hard work of asking folks to make a sacrifice with us, one person at a time. 🪧 Here’s some tools we can use and opportunities to help us grow the movement in the coming days: 🪧
The May Day Strong coalition has put out a starter toolkit with guidance on how to have one-on-one conversations with folks about this strike. Let’s check it out here.
Let’s each make a personal commitment to asking one person in our lives to join us in striking on May 1st. We can urge them to sign the pledge with us here.
Many local coalition groups are canvassing businesses in their neighborhood, asking them to show solidarity by closing on May 1st. We can find guidance on how to run one of these canvasses here.
Freedom Trainers will be conducting a virtual seminar on how we can build local capacity for strike readiness TONIGHT at 6PM ET. We can sign up to join here.
United We Dream is holding a textbank to reach progressives nationwide about the May Day shutdown on Tuesday at 7PM ET. We can volunteer to take part here.
HELPING WIN A TOSS-UP SEAT IN IOWA
Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) won his Des Moines-area Third Congressional District seat by just 0.6 points in 2022, and both he and Trump carried it by just 4% in 2024. Democrats in Iowa are invigorated by a chance to flip both the governor’s office and a Senate seat at the top of the ticket, and the low-profile Nunn could be vulnerable with his votes for Trump’s price-spiking tariffs and war in Iran and devastating Medicaid and food assistance cuts in the MAGA murder budget. He claimed it was a “myth” his vote would close down rural hospitals – less than a year later, two of his state’s medical facilities have closed their doors and five more are cutting staff and services.
His Democratic challenger will be state senator Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister and former advocate for sexual assault victims who has unseated a state senate president and has emphasized lowering the cost of child care, health care and housing in her campaign. ☎️ Her campaign is the latest addition to our midterms action page, launching phonebanks every Wednesday from 6:30-9:30 PM ET. Let’s sign up to help her flip this seat here. ☎️
TRUMP FED NOMINEE GETS HEARING DATE, LIKE EVERYTHING IS NORMAL
Donald Trump has got it into his head that the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates will magically fix what he’s broken in our economy, and he’s engaging in a massive and illegal power grab that would further sabotage our future to make it happen. He’s attempted to fire governor Lisa Cook and had his henchmen at the Justice Department threaten chair Jerome Powell with a criminal indictment.
So far it hasn’t worked. The Fed has refused to change direction in the face of this pressure. The judiciary has blocked Cook’s termination and quashed the subpoenas in the Powell investigation. Key senator Thom Tillis has responded to Trump’s effort to punish or blackmail the Board by refusing to vote to confirm Kevin Warsh, the crony he would like to make Powell’s replacement, effectively putting a hold on his selection. Powell has announced he will remain at the Fed until the inquiry into him is dropped. Trump is responding to these setbacks by doubling down, announcing this week that he wants to continue the probe and insisting he will fire Powell (illegally!) if he won’t step down when his term as chair ends in May.
Meanwhile, in the midst of an unprecedented and dangerous attack on the independence of our central bank and the rule of law, Senate Banking Committee chairman Tim Scott has set a confirmation hearing for Warsh next Tuesday, like everything is normal. It’s not. Apparently some folks need a reminder. 🗣️ Let’s reach out to our senators and insist they vote no on putting Trump’s puppet on the Federal Reserve, and use every power available to stop any Fed nominee from moving forward until the White House stops its power grab. We can find scripts and language to use here, or send this email by texting SIGN PWOQTZ to 50409. 🗣️
In other news on Capitol Hill: Speaker Johnson canceled votes on the “clean” extension of warrantless wiretapping authority yesterday, although they still hope to make progress on Section 702 by the end of the week. The Senate again blocked an Iran war powers resolution by essentially the same margin as the first three votes (all Dems plus Paul vs all GOP plus Fetterman). The House is set to vote on a similar resolution today. 🗣️ We can find language to use to oppose our reps giving the Trump regime free rein on mass surveillance here and to demand an end to Trump’s wars here. 🗣️
TOOLS FOR BLOCKING DETENTION CENTERS
Communities across the country are fighting back against ICE’s plans to purchase nearly two dozen warehouses to convert into privately run detention camps for migrants that would double current detention capacity. The effort is part of a DHS strategy to move away from utilizing smaller, scattered detention facilities primarily operated by private companies or renting bed space at local jails towards buying and retrofitting warehouses that would be operated by federal contractors like GEO Group. DHS describes this as a "hub and spoke model" of detention, in which fewer extremely large detention centers are each serviced by several smaller nearby processing centers. Or, in the words of ICE officials, "like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings." 🔨 Interrupting Criminalization maintains several toolkits for folks who want to keep these detention centers out of their neighborhoods. Let’s check them out here and put them to work. 🔨
🪧 We can also connect with folks who are doing this work during the upcoming Communities Not Cages Day of Action against ICE warehouse detention on April 25th. Let’s find an event near us here. 🪧
#DEICECITIZENSBANK WEEK: HASHTAG TAKEOVER
The digital week of action urging Citizens Bank to drop their financing of concentration camps is rolling on. For Day Two, we’re turning up the pressure by hijacking their hashtags, ensuring that anyone who sees a Citizens marketing post knows exactly who else they’re in business with. #️⃣ Let’s check out the toolkit for sample images and language we can post along with the hashtags #MadeReady, #CitizensHelpingCitizens, #CitizensOfNY and #CitizensColleague, or find some of the heartbreaking photos from GEO Group and CoreCivic facilities and make posts of our own. #️⃣
✊🏽 Want to deepen our involvement in challenging this ICE enabler? Join a national mobilization call TONIGHT at 7PM ET here to learn more about next steps and the coalition’s plans for next week’s shareholder meeting. ✊🏿
👀 KEEPING AN EYE ON… 👀
NEWS: Felony assault charges dropped against teen protesters in Quakertown choked by police chief
NEWS: Alabama Indivisible protester found not guilty for refusing to remove penis costume
Push back against a Republican gerrymander in Florida with phonebanks TODAY, tomorrow and Tuesday
Text to build support against MAGA rep Eli Crane Tuesday at 7PM ET
Get trained on community strike readiness with Freedom Trainers 4/22 or 4/27
We’re now just 15 DAYS AWAY from the May Day shutdown - commit to joining, find events near us, and convince more people to be part of it
Public Citizen identifies 446 hospitals at risk thanks to the MAGA murder budget, let’s make sure folks in our community know we’re in danger and who’s to blame
Looking for ways to get engaged in the midterms? Here’s a full list! And here’s some ways to help with the spring elections!