Yes We Did!

November 9, 2018: Led by women living with HIV, Positive Women’s Network – USA chapters turned up this election cycle! An estimated 114 million people voted in this election–up from 83 million in the 2014 midterm–including more young people and women. The results speak volumes, and we could not be prouder of our chapters’ work in mobilizing new and infrequent voters!

• PWN Colorado registered nearly 300 voters, knocked 800 doors, and phone banked 2300 voters. On election day, they gave rides to the polls and brought water, snacks, and food to help folks stay in line to vote.
• PWN Louisiana stationed themselves at HBCUs and collaborated with Black Greek organizations and local clinics to register young voters in high priority precincts. They educated voters about key propositions on the Louisiana statewide ballot.
• PWN Pennsylvania registered hundreds of new voters at block parties and on buses. They canvassed and phone-banked hundreds of voters in Philly and nearby (swing) Lancaster county. Three members served as poll workers in Philly on Election Day.
• Through door-knocking, lit drops, phone banks, and non-traditional get-out-the-vote efforts, PWN Texas contacted nearly 5,000 voters in Dallas and Houston with information about what was on their ballot. They worked large apartment buildings in low turnout precincts and monitored polls and gave dozens of rides to voters on election day.
• PWN New York registered new voters and got pledges to vote at community events like Pride and at colleges and residences. They texted, emailed, and called their voter lists, helping voters understand their ballots, check their registrations, and find their polling places.

PWN members and chapters documented and reported irregularities, such as polling places that were not open on time, did not have registered voters on their lists, and that had accessibility issues, to the Election Protection Hotline.

All told, our chapters reached well over 10,000 voters, many from underserved and low-turnout communities, ensuring they knew their rights as voters, what and who were on their ballots, and how to make sure their votes counted.

But we didn’t just start this work a few weeks ago. PWN’s regional chapters have been building power and organizing their communities around HIV, health care, and reproductive justice issues for years. Following PWN’s 2018 National Leadership Summit in April, chapters added electoral organizing as a component of their work, and in the process, have built new relationships with community leaders, candidates, other social justice organizations, and newly elected officials.

We are incredibly proud of our work reaching our neighbors and making sure they understand the importance of elections and their own role in winning – all the way down the ballot.

And win we did!

Colorado elected a slew of progressive leaders for their state legislature, as well as the first openly gay man elected governor in U.S. history. An openly trans candidate is leading by 12 votes in one state House district—eye-popping evidence that literally every single vote is critical. And ballot initiatives assigning redistricting to an independent panel passed–as well as Amendment A, which finally removes the slavery of incarcerated individuals from the state constitution.

Democrats picked up 12 Texas House seats and for the first time ever, Texas is sending two Latinas to Congress. Two judges responsible for a quarter of all minors (96% of them racial minorities) sent to juvenile prisons in Texas were ousted, and Dallas replaced their conservative District Attorney with a progressive. In Houston, 19 Black women were elected to judgeships.

In Pennsylvania, four women are headed to Congress.

In New York, proud progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, took 78% of the vote and will become the nation’s youngest Congresswoman ever. Dreamer Catalina Cruz was elected to the New York State Assembly as well.

Louisiana passed a ballot initiative that will require a unanimous jury verdict for felony convictions (current law requires only 10 of 12 jurors agree).

These successes come on top of a national election cycle that, amid violence and hateful rhetoric saw record numbers of women of color run and win, including a number of firsts: two Native American women (in Kansas and New Mexico) and two Muslim women (from Michigan and Minnesota) elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Importantly, with the GOP no longer controlling the U.S. House, the threat of Affordable Care Act repeal is no longer imminent.

While recounts are getting started in Florida’s governor and Senate races, the state voted for Amendment 4 by 64%–well over the 60% required to pass—meaning that as of January 2019, nearly 1.5 million Floridians convicted of felonies in the past who have completed their sentences will be able to vote again. In a state infamous for razor-thin margins of victory and where 20% of otherwise eligible Black citizens and as many as 40% of Black men were disfranchised as of 2016, this change, which clearly enjoyed healthy bipartisan support, could tilt the balance of power for generations to come.

We are just getting started. Click here to support our work.

PWN is proud of our role in some of these success stories, but the 2018 election is just the beginning. Electoral organizing does not begin in September and end in November—to be effective, it must be year-round, local, and grassroots.

We are planning an intensive electoral organizing bootcamp for PWN members in 2019 to prepare for even more transformative work in 2020.

We are fully committed to deepening the relationships we are building in our communities to form a long-lasting power base that will effect meaningful change.

Stay tuned for ways you can participate and click here to support us in continuing to mobilize the HIV vote!