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Memo: Stand Up America Drove Over 2 Million Actions Across Every Congressional District In 2019

In 2019, Stand Up America mobilized progressives to take over 2 million grassroots actions across every congressional district in the country to speak out against Trump’s corruption and stand up for our democracy.

Since launching in 2016, we have reached incredible milestones: driving over 940,000 constituent calls to federal and state lawmakers; leading a volunteer organizing program that has sent 2,340,000 text messages directly to voters; and empowering 75,000 activists to attend protests all across the country.

This year, Stand Up America’s 2.5 million community members helped achieve results for progressives, including:

  • Impeaching Donald Trump
  • Securing $425 million in election security funding from Congress
  • Enacting campaign finance reform in New York state
  • Texting hundreds of thousands of voters during the historic Virginia election, helping increase voter turnout by 14 points 
  • Fighting for Trump’s tax returns federally and passing the TRUST Act in New York

Here’s how we did it:

Impeached Donald Trump:

Earlier this year, Stand Up America launched a nationwide campaign demanding that Congress impeach and remove Donald Trump from office.

In the seven months leading up to Trump’s impeachment, Stand Up America:

  • Took a leading role in the more than 600 “Nobody Is Above The Law” rallies attended by 200,000 people the night before Trump’s impeachment, mobilizing Americans in all 50 states alongside dozens of organizations and celebrity partners like Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Ava DuVernay
  • Partnered with dozens of organizations to coordinate “Impeachment August” and “Impeach Now,” mobilizing constituents to attend congressional town halls over the August and October recesses to demand their representatives support impeachment and successfully pressuring hundreds of House Democrats to back it
  • Drove more than 200,000 constituent calls to the House of Representatives demanding Trump’s impeachment and another 30,000 calls to the Senate since articles of impeachment were passed to demand Trump’s conviction and removal
  • Launched StandUpCongress.com, which empowered more than 1,000 constituents to schedule in-district office visits to urge support for impeachment
  • Sent nearly 500,000 peer-to-peer texts directly to voters through our volunteer organizing program to drive constituent phone calls and turn out protestors in support of impeachment
  • Sent tens of millions of emails and texts to our 2.5 million community members urging them to take action to demand Trump’s impeachment
  • Ran thousands of digital ads promoting impeachment that targeted national and local audiences
  • Partnered with Defend the Republic to launch Impeachment HQ, a rapid response war room focused on providing resources to reporters and partners
  • Worked with the Center for American Progress Action Fund to launch TrumpAndImpeachment.com, a new website meant to educate the public about Trump’s impeachable offenses

This year, as the Senate trial begins, Stand Up America has pledged to spend at least $300,000 to pressure the Senate to convict and remove Donald Trump from office.

Won $425 Million In Election Security Funding From Congress:

Earlier this year, Stand Up America launched a six-figure campaign to pressure ‘Moscow Mitch’ and Republican senators to include election security funding in the final appropriations bill. 

Ultimately, Congress included $425 million in funding after a bipartisan group of lawmakers bowed to grassroots pressure.

Through our campaign we:

  • Drove over 120,000 constituent calls to the Senate demanding funding
  • Launched a volunteer-driven peer-to-peer text messaging program that contacted nearly 42,000 voters, including the constituents of key senators like Leader McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Gardner (R-CO), Sen. Kennedy (R-LA), and Sen. Tillis (R-NC)
  • Launched a program to help constituents visit senators’ district offices to talk about election security using our VisitThem tool
  • Hosted a billboard in Kentucky targeting ‘Moscow Mitch’ and digital ads that targeted national audiences and educated the public about the need for funding
  • Joined a coalition letter from a dozen partner organizations to Leaders McConnell and Schumer demanding funding in the appropriations bill

Enacted Campaign Finance Reform In New York State:

This year, the Stand Up America community was one of the loudest voices demanding that the New York state legislature pass bold campaign finance reform, helping establish the Public Campaign Financing Commission. 

After grassroots pressure from Stand Up America and our partners, the Commission significantly lowered campaign contribution limits and enacted public matching on campaign donations under $250.

Stand Up America’s community members played a leading role in the fight:

  • Our community members made 10,000 calls to state lawmakers in support of democracy reforms like a small-dollar matching program
  • Our community members sent over 6,000 emails directly to the nine commissioners urging them to support a robust public financing system
  • Our team texted and emailed thousands of New Yorkers to attend the Commission’s public hearings and coalition’s rallies
  • Our team ran digital ads in support of legislation to pass campaign finance reform

We also helped pass automatic voter registration through the New York State Senate, with the full legislature set to pass the legislation at the start of this year.

Turned Out Progressive Voters In Virginia:

Stand Up America’s community members played an important role in driving voters to the polls in some of Virginia’s closest legislative elections this year, and those voters flipped Virginia’s legislature to Democratic control for the first time in over two decades. 

Thanks to the work of local and national groups like Stand Up America, turnout in 2019 was up by 14 points over 2015, the last time the full Virginia legislature was up for election.

Our volunteer-led, peer-to-peer texting program sent 206,501 text messages to voters who elected one of the most progressive and most diverse group of lawmakers in Virginia’s history, including:

  • Wendy Gooditis (HD-10)
  • Danica Roem (HD-13)
  • Kelly Convirs-Fowler (HD-21)
  • Joshua Cole (HD-28)
  • Dan Helmer (HD-40)
  • Lee Carter (HD-50)
  • Hala Ayala (HD-51)
  • Dawn Adams (HD-68)
  • Schuyler VanValkenburg (HD-72)
  • Rodney Willett (HD-73)
  • Clint Jenkins (HD-76)
  • Alex Askew (HD-85)
  • Martha Mugler (HD-91)
  • Shelly Simonds (HD-94)
  • Ghazala Hashmi (SD-10)
  • John Bell (SD-13)

Led The Fight To Release Donald Trump’s Tax Returns:

At the federal level, Stand Up America has been one of the leading groups pushing Congress to obtain and release Trump’s tax returns since the first Tax March on April 15, 2017. 

In January 2019, Stand Up America joined several progressive groups in sending a letter to Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal demanding he immediately request Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns from the Treasury Department. After Secretary Mnuchin refused to comply with this lawful request and Donald Trump continually attempted to block their release, Stand Up America continually renewed calls on Chairman Neal to immediately file a lawsuit to force compliance.

In New York, we also organized the coalition that passed the TRUST Act, which could provide Congress with Trump’s state taxes. We launched a statewide campaign that drove thousands of calls to state lawmakers demanding its passage.