Right after Donald Trump was elected and sworn in four years ago, a new group called “Indivisible” appeared on the scene. It was a grass-roots movement based on the Indivisible Guide, a playbook put together by Congressional staffers on how to make a difference in the era of Trump and Trumpism. Chapters began springing up all over the country, as everyday citizens took democracy and activism into their own hands.
Soon after that, the Women’s March took place. Besides being the largest one-day protest in U.S. history, it also turned into a movement, with ongoing actions and rallies.
Suddenly, in the midst of the worst presidency in the history of the country, with authoritarian warning signs beginning to flash red, citizens everywhere began organizing, protesting, rallying, volunteering, and running for office.
And at many of these rallies and protests, you would often hear a certain chant:
Leader: “Tell me what democracy looks like!”
Crowd: “THIS is what democracy looks like!”
The movement came to Kentucky as well: first one Indivisible group, then another, then another. A Together We Will group. A Standing Up for Racial Justice group. And not just in Louisville or Lexington, but all over the state. Kentuckians for the Commonwealth added members and staff. Teachers rallied in Frankfort as part of 120 Strong. Everyday citizens decided to run for office. Even as Kentucky looked to be getting redder by the day, these groups kept meeting, kept working, kept trying to make a difference.
At this point, it is almost impossible to list them all, or all the work they are doing. But as we head into Election Day 2020, it may be helpful, and even encouraging, to see just SOME of what A FEW of the groups have done this year, even with the pandemic making everything harder. The list of actions below is a sample of the work done by two groups, and doesn’t begin to cover it all.
- Group A
- Dropped lit at 2,850 doors for 5 different candidates
- Dropped lit at 14,850 doors to GOTV for NoMoreMitch.com campaign
- Put up two billboards near Lexington
- Hosted over 50 Meet the Candidates events
- Hosted over 20 rallies
- Created and mailed a bilingual GOTV postcard
- Provided and promoted voter information on social media
- Group B
- Sent postcards to over 50,000 non-voting women (see photo below)
- Put up 17 billboards in 7 counties around the state featuring Marc Murphys designs and voting information. Sites include Carter County, Corbin, Prestonsburg, Newport, Louisville, Elizabethtown, and Paducah.
- Purchased a “Digital Domination” package of 10 digital boards in Louisville and Elizabethtown running over the final weekend before Election Day
- Helped put together a coalition to build out a text message campaign to get people to the polls
Some photos illustrating what’s been done:
