We’ve spent the last two weekends knocking on doors in Fort Bend county trying to help Eliz Markowitz win a special election for the state house. If she wins, she’ll be the first Democrat to represent the district in the legislature.
But more than that, a victory on January 28th will show Texas and the country that with only 8 more seats to pick up, we are going to win the State House for the first time since 2001. And it will also mean that we are poised to deliver our state’s 38 electoral college votes to the Democratic nominee who will defeat Donald Trump.
That’s how important this election is. And that’s why Powered By People has mobilized more than 950 people to block walk in House District 28 over the last two weekends. They came from Katy and Houston, Austin and Dallas, El Paso and Longview, Lubbock and San Antonio. Some even jumped on a plane to come down from outside of Texas. And so far they’ve knocked on over 24,000 doors, initiating thousands of conversations with the voters who will decide this important election.
And you know what? I think it’s working.
After one day of early voting, we are already breaking records for turnout in a special election. By 7pm Tuesday, 3,579 people had voted at one of the five early voting locations in Fort Bend. By way of comparison, during the first day of early voting last November only 694 people had voted and there were 23 early voting locations!
That means that in an election where most pundits expected turnout to drop off from November, turnout is actually FIVE TIMES what it was in November.
That’s the power of people.
Stronger than special interests or entrenched politicians, everyday Texans are taking matters into their own hands. Direct voter engagement — person to person conversations — eyeball to eyeball — more powerful than TV, or Facebook ads, or any of that phony rock ‘n roll.
It’s real people doing the really important work that wins elections.
But we’re not done yet. We still have another weekend of action, where we hope to bring even more volunteers together to knock on doors for Eliz. And we’ll have to really step up. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is chartering buses to bring people from across Texas — with promises of free food and hotels — to try to counter our efforts.
So… no matter where you live, I really need you to help us out this weekend in Fort Bend. Our ability to win this race — and ultimately the State House — hangs in the balance. Please join our remote volunteer call team to make calls between now and Election Day (January 28th) to help get out the vote for Eliz.
And if you’d like to help fund this work, we’ll put your contributions to use helping to raise, organize and mobilize the volunteers who will do the hard work that wins elections.
Powered by People!
