Back in March, Trump issued an executive order that required new designs for mail-in ballots and a new system of “state citizenship lists” through an untested federal portal. Dozens of state and local officials protested that the new requirements would be impossible to put in place in time for the November election.

Since nearly a third of Americans vote by mail, the order could’ve spelled disaster for the midterms.

Luckily, the courts stepped in. Two weeks ago, a federal District Court found the order to likely be unconstitutional and paused USPS from taking any action on it. And this week, the Supreme Court agreed! Justices Thomas and Alito dissented (because of course they did), but the other seven judges agreed that it was unconstitutional to take away so many Americans’ right to vote.

On Wednesday, a memo was sent to all postal service employees that confirmed the agency “will not be enforcing any of these new rules in the 2026 federal election… for Election Mail it is business as usual.”

This is a huge win for voting rights and democracy! Now it’s up to all of us to vote early and make sure everyone we know votes too.

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Now, onto our local wins. As usual, there are so many!

In Michigan, a Red Wine & Blue Network group called We The People Demand Justice for All recently held a supply drive for a school in Detroit. The group collected backpacks, school supplies, socks, and snacks for students at Amelia Earhart Elementary-Middle School, where most of the students come from financially struggling families.

The students and teachers were so grateful and invited the group to tour the school. They were given incredibly sweet thank-you cards written by students and got to meet the school’s principal, who the group’s leader Janet says “is a fantastic woman who clearly has the love and respect of the students.”

This is how you make a difference in your own community!

Meanwhile, other Red Wine & Blue members are making that difference by supporting local immigrant-run restaurants.

A few weeks ago, we got to talk to Julie Pospishil on the podcast about how she’s been organizing group dinners at restaurants owned by immigrants in her community. Well, Julie’s great idea has inspired other RWB members to do the same!

In Boulder, Colorado, a Network group called Badass Women of Boulder has been holding their meetings at La Catrina, a local restaurant owned by an immigrant family.

But their activism didn’t stop with delicious food. They’re putting together 200 whistle kits for people to warn others about ICE in the area as well as snack bags for families who are visiting detainees at the ICE detention center in Aurora, CO.

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And in a suburb of Pittsburgh, another Red Wine & Blue member held a meeting at a Mexican restaurant that was targeted by ICE this year. At the meeting, they chatted about how to use Rally to talk to their friends and family about voting, including their book club that includes more than 100 people!

One of the organizers said, “Butler County is a very conservative area, and there was an older couple seated near our big table. We were all kind of wary of them watching us, but when they got up to leave, they came over to us and thanked us for what we were doing. The woman signed up!”

From the Supreme Court to local schools and restaurants, positive things have been happening across the country this week. Let’s let these wins fill our sails as we move forward into the midterms!

Today on the podcast, Katie was joined by her TED coach, Kelly Stoetzel, along with Stacy Kunkel, our Deputy Program Director in PA who was on the ground at TED Democracy. They all chatted about imposter syndrome, what it was like being around so many people who are passionate about democracy, and how we can mentally prepare ourselves for the hard work of the midterms.

You can watch Katie’s TED talk here!

After Katie gave her talk about how friend-to-friend organizing is so much more powerful — and fun! — than traditional politics, the crowd at TED Democracy was so energized. It’s been a long three months, but we’re excited to be able to share it with you too.

This is how we’ll win in November: not by listening to strategists and pollsters, but by talking to each other.

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A ProPublica analysis of CDC data found that nearly 200 women died after an ectopic pregnancy between 2020 and 2025, a sharp increase from around 100 deaths in the previous six years.

The increase occurred nationwide, but death rates are significantly higher in states with strict abortion bans.

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An ectopic pregnancy occurs in the first trimester, when a pregnancy implants outside the uterus, most commonly in a fallopian tube. As it grows, it can cause the tube to rupture, leading to internal bleeding.

An ectopic pregnancy is almost never viable and must be treated by ending the pregnancy to protect the patient’s life.

With speedy medical care, women should not be dying from this. But abortion bans may be making treatment more difficult to obtain.

Even though most bans include exceptions for ectopic pregnancies, many doctors are hesitating or flat-out refusing to provide care in states where they can face criminal penalties for performing an abortion.

But waiting for a definite diagnosis can take days or even weeks. And every day a woman goes without treatment, her risk of rupture increases.

Women are dying preventable deaths. Yet there’s been no meaningful public response to this alarming increase. Instead, the federal government, the same one that champions the phrase, ‘Make America Healthy Again,’ is cutting maternal health staff and funding.

At Red Wine & Blue, we know that abortion bans are actively harming our reproductive healthcare. That’s why we’re fighting for our reproductive rights at every level, and we want you in the fight with us.

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Here are three good news stories from this week that you might’ve missed.

There are officially more women running for Governor in 2026 than ever before!

Last week, incumbent Governor Maura Healey won her primary in Massachusetts. It wasn’t a surprise — she was running unopposed — but her win set a new record for the number of Democratic women running for governor in November. There are now 17 Democratic women who will on the ballot, breaking the previous record of 16 that was set in 2022.

There are also currently 7 Republican women who will be on the gubernatorial ballot this year. 39 states will be voting for governor this year, so let’s do a little back-of-the-napkin math, shall we? 17 Democrats + 7 Republicans = 24 women running for governor out of 39 states. That means more than 60% of states will have a woman on the ballot!

This is a win for representation, of course, but it goes deeper than that. Studies show that women are more effective than men as political leaders, including the role of governor. They’re more likely to value collaboration and compromise, successfully turning their policy ideas into state law at 1.2 times the rate of male governors.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, states with women governors had both lower rates of deaths and lower unemployment rates than did states that were led by men. They’re also more likely to ensure that the residents of their state have access to healthcare, especially reproductive healthcare.

Of course, that’s not true of all women governors; Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, for example, have rolled back protections for women and children in their states. And across the nation, we’ve still never elected a Black woman to the role of governor, although Georgia could change that this year by electing Keisha Lance-Bottoms.

Let’s continue making history in November!

Meanwhile, in Texas, a nun is helping unaccompanied kids facing deportation.

Every week, 78-year-old Sister Rose Kuhn drives 40 miles to an immigration court in the border town of Harlingen, Texas, to sit beside children facing immigration hearings alone. Some of these kids are as young as four years old.

Sister Rose says, “I introduce myself as a Catholic nun. I tell them I went to Mass this morning for you, and I’m not a hearing officer. I have nothing to do with the whole process; I’m here to accompany you, to go in with you if that’s OK, and to pray for you during your appointment.”

In the U.S., there is no shortage of immigrant children who need someone in their corner. Last year, nearly 23,000 unaccompanied minors were referred to federal services — children who may walk into court without a parent, a lawyer, or anyone they know. But every Wednesday, they have Sister Rose.

In California, another woman is helping immigrant kids too. Through her nonprofit, Each Step Home, Casey Revkin has been sending $10,000 a day to families at the infamous Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.

Dilley is primarily used for detaining families with children and is known for its deplorable conditions. There have been reports of cockroaches and worms in the food, as well as kids vomiting after drinking the tap water. No humans should be kept in conditions like that, but especially not children.

As a mom, Casey couldn’t just stand by and watch it happen. Her organization now sends thousands of dollars to families at Dilley so they can buy bottled water, ramen, toothpaste, and other necessities at the commissary. They also provide legal and medical resources.

“She’s a fairy godmother,” said Kristin Etter, an attorney with the Texas Immigration Law Council. “People literally could not survive in Dilley without her.”

We’re all worried about families in ICE detention centers, but it can be hard to know how we can help. Casey’s amazing work shows us that one person can make a difference.

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But just being worried doesn’t fix anything. In fact, if we let it make us lose our sh!t, that worry can keep us from taking real action to protect our rights. Doom-scrolling, it turns out, doesn’t solve problems.

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Luckily, Stacey Abrams is *the* expert on all things voting. She joined us a few weeks ago for a virtual event where she helped us understand how extremists are trying to take away our right to vote and what we can do to stop it. Stacey shared that there are three important questions to ask:

• Can you register and stay on the rolls?

• Can you cast a ballot?

• And does that ballot get counted?

Each of these three questions comes with its own challenges and solutions, but — crucially — they help us take action.

As Stacey said, “we see the villains coming together, and we think the villains have won. But we have power too. And when you believe that we have the ability to be the heroes in our own stories, to be the hero for someone else, then we are not as daunted by the villains.”

If you missed our event with Stacey, here’s another chance to hear her grounding wisdom!

LISTEN HERE!

Two months ago, the boy who had escaped unimaginable violence in Haiti was graduating with honors from high school in Springfield, OH. He posted Instagram photos of himself in his JROTC uniform, playing soccer with his team, holding awards he had won. He was excited to start Wright State University to study neuroscience.

Pierre had his whole life ahead of him.

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But just after he started classes at Wright State, he and his family had their Temporary Protected Status stolen from them by the Trump administration. ICE agents labeled him “illegal” and forced him to wear an ankle monitor.

He was made to feel like a criminal.

The final straw came when he showed up to pick up his college JROTC uniform, ready to serve his adopted country, only to be turned away.

After a phone call to his father, in which Pierre said he was being bullied for wearing the ankle monitor, he stepped into highway traffic and died.

One of Pierre’s last social media posts summed up the cruelty of the Trump deportation machine perfectly:

“I came to this country to pursue my education. I didn’t come here to commit a crime or hurt anyone. Yet now I’m walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation that I never imagined I would experience. I came here to study, to build my future, and to live a better [life,] not to be treated like a criminal. So now, how am I supposed to play college sports with a GPS monitor on my leg?”

Pierre’s family is going through a devastating loss, and they need a community to stand up for them more than ever.

That’s why we started the Moms for Good campaign – to show that we will not stand by while our government attacks innocent people seeking a better life for themselves.

Friends of Pierre’s family have set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral costs and support through this difficult time. 100% of your gift will be passed through to the Pierre Damas Bel GoFundMe.

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But that makes it all the more important to remember that good things are also happening. There are always wins to celebrate, especially on the local level. Here are a few that are giving us hope right now.

In Virginia, students successfully sued their school board for renaming their schools after Confederate generals like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

The names were undeniably racist to begin with: the schools were first named in 1959 to resist federal rules requiring integration. As public sentiment turned towards racial justice, the school board changed the names in 2021. But in 2024, in the wake of Trump’s win, the board reinstated the old Confederate names. Apparently, they thought that the anti-DEI sentiment of the Trump administration meant that it was fine to glorify the Confederacy once again.

Black students pleaded with the board, but they didn’t listen. Imagine being a Black student in 2026 forced to attend Stonewall Jackson High School.

Last September, U.S. District Court Judge Michael F. Urbanski sided with the students, writing that the school board violated their First Amendment rights and that Jackson’s name “is expressive as a symbol of racial exclusion in public schools.”

Now, just last week, the judge said the school board also broke civil rights laws, including the 14th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act, and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act. He ordered them to immediately remove the Confederate names and replace them with new ones that are “racially nondiscriminatory.”

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton just lost his Senate primary after having abandoned his transgender constituents. In 2024, he told the New York Times, "I have two little girls, I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I'm supposed to be afraid to say that." He went on to support bans on transgender youth in sports, laws that often include genital inspections for children.

His opponent, incumbent Senator Ed Markey, did not flinch in his support for the LGBTQ+ community. At Boston’s No Kings rally last October, Markey said, “We’re going to stand for the right thing, and we are going to win. Because here in Massachusetts, we stand for what is right. We stand with trans people because trans rights are human rights.”

And win he did! Markey beat Moulton 65 to 35 this past Tuesday. Since Moulton gave up his House seat to run for the Senate, he will hold no elected office next year. It just goes to show that dividing communities doesn’t pay. We don’t have to turn against each other to fight against extremism.

Finally, a mom in Texas named Laura built an online map that tracks contractors and banks who are profiting from ICE detentions. Countless activists have used her site to organize protests across the country and pressure the companies to stop making money on the suffering of immigrants and refugees.

Their efforts forced Citizens Bank to break its contracts with ICE detention centers this July after concerned customers withdrew more than $350 million from their accounts.

For Laura, it’s not just the right thing to do. It’s personal. Her two sons are part Guatemalan and she’s seen how differently they’re treated than their white peers. “I’d be lying if I said I’m not angry about all this or afraid about what it means for my own kids,” she said. “The egregious, dehumanizing rhetoric the administration relies on… was always going to ripple out and hurt people, including kids.”

Even after the success with Citizens Bank, her work continues to inspire activists across the country. Laura’s website includes a map of ICE’s contracts with other major U.S. companies, including AT&T, Comcast, Dell, Deloitte, FedEx, Motorola, and Palantir. It also includes 450 candidates across the country who have taken campaign contributions from some of the three biggest government contractors working with ICE: GEO, CoreCivic, and Management and Training Corporation.

But activists aren’t the only ones who are paying attention. Laura’s work also caught the attention of the Department of Homeland Security. They flagged her website as a domestic terrorism threat that could be used by “local anarchist extremists”… while acknowledging that her site is a perfectly legal expression of her First Amendment rights.

Laura isn’t letting DHS intimidate her. “At first, my stomach dropped,” she said. “But then I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it.” Her website continues to inform and inspire activists across the country.

It just goes to show what one mom and a laptop can accomplish.

Only a human conversation can pull out that deeper information. And that real-time person-to-person intelligence is the key to actually winning elections.

On the podcast this week, our guest, Karen, told us about a day when she was out walking in her community. A friend from her RWB Network group waved her over with good news: another neighbor, Jean, was interested in joining their group.

The wrinkle? Karen knew from looking at voter files that Jean was a registered Republican.

Instead of saying, “Of course Jean can’t join our group,” Karen was excited. Because it meant Jean was against extremism too. It meant that Jean agreed with her group’s work to support public schools and immigrants in their community. And the more Karen chatted with Jean, the more she realized they had in common.

If you know anything about Red Wine & Blue, you know that we’re kind of obsessed with friend-to-friend organizing. Not just because having conversations and connecting with our neighbors is good for our spirits and our communities, but because it works.

Can you commit to talking to your friends, family, and neighbors about voting before the midterms? If it sounds intimidating, we’ve got your back. Rally, our Get Out The Vote tool, helps you track who you’ve talked to and gives you tips on how to start those conversations, too.

With all the voting-rights shenanigans we’re already seeing, friend-to-friend organizing is more important than ever heading into the midterms. We won’t win by preaching to the choir. We’ll win by chatting with Jean.

The idea started when Karen heard another Red Wine & Blue group member talk about a poetry reading event she’d recently held. Karen thought, “Hey, I know a friend who writes poetry, I could do that!”

But then, another one of her friends volunteered his band to play. Another neighbor offered to do stand-up comedy, and another contributed her traditional Indian dance skills. Soon, Karen’s fundraiser was set to highlight 15 community members’ talents. She was a little nervous, saying “it was a risk, because I’d never done anything like this before.” But of course the show was a rousing success — not just a fun opportunity for neighbors to bond with one another, but to support immigrants and refugees in their community.

It would be inspiring enough to see Karen organize a creative event to benefit immigrants, but there’s another layer: she was going through a really difficult time in her personal life as her husband was in hospice for cancer.

Karen cared so much about this fundraiser, it took both her sister and an RWB organizer to convince her to postpone it from the spring to this summer. She told Katie and LaFonda on the podcast that she was just so upset about what had been happening with ICE in Minneapolis, she was determined to do something… no matter what was happening in her own life. Luckily, she listened to her loved ones and pushed the event to July.

LISTEN HERE

So often, women focus so much on taking care of everyone else that we forget to take care of ourselves. As we get closer to the midterms and the stakes get even higher, make sure to check in with yourself and the other “givers” in your life. We CAN do this work without burning out.

Karen’s story is the perfect example of one woman’s desire to help paired with her community’s talents and the support of her loved ones. Let’s keep this going through November!

If you want to find a Red Wine & Blue Network group like Karen’s, you can check for one in your area here.

Two unvaccinated people in Pennsylvania, including an infant, have died from measles-associated complications, the first fatal cases seen in the commonwealth in 35 years.

These deaths occurred in Lancaster, the same county that RFK spoke to in 2021, when he told a group of event attendees that treatment for measles only requires chicken soup and vitamin A.

(Medical experts and public health agencies agree that there is no cure for measles.)

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By spreading health disinformation and anti-vax sentiments, RFK Jr. and the Trump administration are putting families and children at risk for their own political gain.

Nearly 2,800 measles cases have been reported nationwide this year, the highest in decades. According to the CDC, 93% were among people who were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.

Being a parent is hard enough without having to navigate a flood of misinformation. We should be able to trust our doctors, trust the proven science, and know that our kids’ health comes before politics.

That’s exactly why Red Wine & Blue created Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard — to cut through the noise, push back on health disinformation, and fight for a future where everyone can get the care and trusted information they need to stay healthy.

Learn more and join us at: redwine.blue/taking-healthy-back/

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Our issue? A new state law that requires voters to provide additional proof of citizenship in order to cast a ballot. We, along with the Ohio Alliance of Retired Americans, argued the new law violates the National Voter Registration Act — and this past Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. agreed.

Judge Oliver ruled that Ohio’s new law unfairly limits folks who are eligible to vote but don’t have easy access to the ID documents the state is now demanding. A 2025 University of Maryland study estimated that 21 million Americans don’t have access to the documents required to prove citizenship. And what do you know, most of those 21 million are women, people of color, and lower-income communities.

Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the new voter ID law in March 2025 as part of a transportation bill, slipping in new rules that would make it harder to vote. But Ohioans noticed! Secretary of State Frank LaRose is appealing the decision (of course), but the clock is ticking before the Buckeye State’s voter registration deadline of October 5th.

No matter what state you’re in, let’s make sure everyone we know is registered to vote! You can check your registration here.

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In other good news, Meta (the company that owns Facebook and Instagram) agreed on Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and make their platforms safer for kids.

The changes Meta agreed to include daily usage limits and “enhanced age assurance measures.” There’s more work to be done to protect young people from the damage that social media does to their mental health, but this is a good start. In the meantime, the money will go toward youth mental health programs and crisis intervention services.

The case was brought by a bipartisan group of 29 Attorneys General, from California to Kentucky, and it’s an important example of the work that state Attorneys General can do. When you see an AG race on your ballot, make sure you don’t skip it!

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And just as opposition to Meta knows no party lines, so does opposition to data centers. Turns out, most Americans care more about their health and household budget than they do about making tech billionaires even richer! Shocking, right?

This week, the win was in deep red Vermillion County, Indiana. (And when we say “deep red,” we mean it — the county voted for Trump in 2024 by 71%.) County commissioners voted 3-0 to reject a data center proposal during a meeting on Tuesday night with more than 350 neighbors in attendance.

Public comment at the meeting lasted for more than three hours. Every person who spoke was against the data center, concerned about noise, water pollution, energy costs, and more. “We’ve been showing up for months and months and months and kind of growing in numbers,” said one resident. “This is the first time that where people felt like they were listened to.”

Real change is happening, especially on the local level! We don’t have to wait for the midterms to see it — it’s happening every day across the country. If you want to find a local squad to help you make change in your area, just look for a Red Wine & Blue Network group near you.

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Experts estimate that around 90% of the capital city Port-au-Prince is controlled by gangs, and more than 600 people have been killed in gang violence just in the past 5 months.¹ Gender-based violence, including sexual assault, has also skyrocketed. In simple terms, Haiti is not a safe place to live right now.

This is exactly what TPS is supposed to be for. It protects refugees from being forced to return to a country that is actively dangerous. But since it wasn’t renewed last month, Haitians across the country are now terrified that ICE could swoop in and deport them at any time.

It’s a well-founded fear, because that’s exactly what’s happening. In Springfield, Ohio, home to 12,000 Haitian immigrants, dozens of people have been deported just in the past few weeks — including pastors and parents. Families are afraid to go to church, the grocery store, and even the hospital. Just last Thursday, beloved Pastor Gilbert Joubert Adrien was arrested by ICE at a gas station.

Living in fear and uncertainty has been taking a toll on families who have done nothing wrong.

“What hurt our hearts the most was hearing children crying in the background. Some of these children were asking their mothers for food,” shared Vilès Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield. “Their innocent minds could not understand why their fathers were suddenly gone. They could not understand immigration enforcement, detention, deportation, or government policy. They only knew that their father was no longer there and that the family was hurting.”

But faith leaders from across the country are stepping in to help. They’re traveling to Springfield to protect Haitian immigrants from being arrested while they attend church or shop for groceries to feed their families.

We can’t stop talking about what’s happening in Springfield and across the country. Refugees are not criminals. So let’s stop treating them that way.

^{1. The InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights}

Our guest this week, Bennett Rea (aka Cookin’ With Congress), is doing something a little different. He’s putting the “ick” back into politics. But not in the way you think! He’s not platforming billionaires or feeding the outrage machine.

Instead… he’s cooking.

On Cookin’ With Congress, Bennett makes historical recipes from presidents, first ladies, and Congresspeople. And many of these recipes are inarguably... icky. We’re talking mayo and jello salad, possum, and more liquor than you can imagine. His goal is to show how these powerful figures, from Andrew Jackson to RFK Jr., are really just people at the end of the day. Weird people with strange tastes, maybe, but people all the same. They’re not untouchable. And actually, maybe someone who eats fish jello shouldn’t have had so much power in the first place.

Sometimes, Bennett does the opposite and eats like an average American. His audience submits everything they eat in a day and Bennett follows their directions to a tee. He shares their congressional district, but doesn’t mention their gender or politics. And although of course there’s considerable variation across the country, the message is clear. We have far more in common with each other than we do with almost anyone at the top. By being in community and listening to each other, we can actually make a difference.

LISTEN HERE

Katie and LaFonda had such a fun chat with Bennett. But it wasn’t all laughs — we also discovered how a show that isn’t technically partisan can actually be very political. We all have a role to play in strengthening our democracy… Bennett’s just happens to involve a lot of mayonnaise and jello.

We also started a new segment on the podcast this week with Good News You Might’ve Missed! Americans across the country have been winning against MAGA in school board races, cancelled Flock contracts, and so many other places that aren’t making headlines. Positive political news, laughter, and community are all helping us not lose our sh!t right now — hopefully it helps you too.

First touted as a political movement focused on improving Americans’ health, it was easy for millions of Americans to buy into the idea. Why wouldn’t they? We all want to be healthier!

But as Trump’s second term progresses, one thing has become clear: the administration doesn’t care about our health. They care about pushing an agenda fueled by disinformation and the undermining of proven scientific evidence.

In the process, staying healthy has become harder than ever.

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In recent months, there’s been a noticeable increase in food safety issues and foodborne illness outbreaks, with the number of cases linked to these outbreaks five times the annual average from 2021 to 2025, with approximately 7,400 cases reported so far this year.

This means that the U.S. is on track to have one of the worst outbreak years yet.

But this isn’t a fluke. The decisions made by the Trump administration have brought us to this moment.

The federal government has cut budgets for food inspection, lost or fired staff at the USDA, FDA, and CDC, disbanded multiple advisory committees meant to keep food safe, and reduced the number of microbes they track.

State and local health departments have also lost grant money that allows them to conduct traceback investigations.

… oh, you thought that was it? Nope, there is a lot more.

By the Numbers: Public Health Cuts

• The CDC lost 25% of its staff.

• The CDC used to have 11 scientists tracking food parasites; now it’s three.

• FoodNet – a joint venture of the FDA, CDC, USDA, and 10 state health departments – used to track 8 microbes. Now it tracks only two, and Cyclospora is not one of them, though it used to be.

• Foreign food-facility inspections by the FDA fell by nearly 13% in fiscal ​2025, while imports have continued to rise.

Families shouldn’t have to worry when they visit the grocery store, questioning which foods are safe – that’s why Red Wine & Blue started Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard.

If you want to get the facts on women’s health, invitations to upcoming events, and easy ways to take action in your community, join us.

The desire to be healthy is something we all have in common, regardless of political affiliation. We welcome everyone who cares about these issues to join us in our fight to make it easier and more affordable to be healthy in America.

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Here are a few of the wins you might not have heard about.

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In Sarasota Florida, a community just voted out their Moms for Liberty school board.

For years, the Sarasota school board has been synonymous with Moms for Liberty. One of the organization’s co-founders, Bridget Ziegler, has served as Board Chair since 2017 and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis personally endorsed and financed the board’s most conservative members.

The school board put so many harmful policies into place, from banning books to working with ICE to the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” rule. But this week, neighbors pushed back against the extremism and voted in two new members: Megan Tennimon and Beth Mayberry, both former teachers and both strongly opposed to the Moms For Liberty playbook.

For the first time in years, the school board is majority Democratic and we are so excited to see what changes are in store for students and parents in Sarasota.

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Meanwhile, in a special election near Pittsburgh, a Democratic candidate for state legislature flipped a Trump-leaning district… by only 88 votes. Every vote counts!

PA’s District 12 doesn’t just slightly lean Republican. They voted for Trump by 18 points in 2024. Registered Republican voters outnumber Democrats by 2 to 1, but lately Democrats have made gains in — where else?? — the suburbs.

This was a special election to replace GOP state Rep. Stephenie Scialabba, who resigned in April, and voters will have to elect Brandon Dukes again in November. It won’t be an easy battle — this week, he won by less than 100 votes out of almost 17,000 cast — but with this win, we’ve proven that it’s possible.

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In Ohio, the state Supreme Court just unanimously dismissed a lawsuit challenging the reproductive rights amendment to their state constitution.

Red Wine & Blue fought alongside Ohioans to pass the amendment in 2023. It enshrines the right to contraception, fertility treatments, and abortion care in the Ohio state constitution and was voted for by a wide majority, 56% to 43%. Despite this clear mandate from Ohio voters, there have been many challenges to the amendment since it passed three years ago.

But with this latest victory from the state Supreme Court, the reproductive rights of Ohioans continue to stand.

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In neighboring Michigan, the good news this week is that an amendment won’t make it on the ballot. Americans for Citizen Voting, a group pushing for proof of citizenship and tougher Michigan voter ID rules, failed to collect enough valid signatures to get their measure on the ballot in November.

The proposal would require verification of citizenship for all voters and tighten voter ID laws, measures that have been proven to disenfranchise lower-income and nonwhite voters rather than prevent election fraud. Time and time again, studies have shown that voter fraud is vanishingly rare in this country.

But it looks like the Americans for Citizen Voting’s petition won’t be successful. Many signatures appeared twice, and many more didn’t match the district they claimed to be registered in. Attorney Bob LaBrant, who challenged the group’s signatures, called it “a very, very sloppy petition drive for a group that had all sorts of financial resources.” Those resources include Restoration of America, a dark money group that encourages Americans to “turn to God” and “enforce just laws.”

Because of the issues with the signatures, the Michigan Bureau of Elections staff recommended that the petition shouldn’t appear on the ballot. The state’s bipartisan Board of State Canvassers is expected to reach a similar conclusion next week, which will officially keep the bad faith “voting security” measure off the table in November.

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Across the country, communities are standing up for democracy and winning! There’s still so much work to do, but these wins show us that when we band together with our community and stand up for our values, winning isn’t just possible. It’s inevitable.

Find an RWB group in your area

In an age where “influencers” are often (rightfully) dismissed as shallow or opportunistic, Sara is doing the real work and making a serious difference. She shared how the personal messages she receives give her the hope to keep going, how she approaches political disagreements with a MAGA family member, and how she spurs her followers into taking tangible political action.

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More than anything, we came away from this conversation in awe of the power of women. Our country is in a tight spot right now, but we know women can figure this out — women like Sara, her team, her local candidates, and the generations who have fought for our freedom. Sara pivoted from one career to another and from not being politically involved to being a powerful voice for change. It’s never too late to lead with your values!

The order would cut the number of vaccines recommended for all children from 18 to 11, dropping routine vaccines for COVID-19, flu, RSV, hepatitis A and B, and more.

It also calls for splitting the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella) into three separate shots and spreading vaccinations across multiple visits, despite no evidence that suggests spacing out vaccines is safer or more effective.

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Major medical groups are pushing back, arguing that doing so could increase the risk of infection, confuse parents, cause kids to miss doses, and raise vaccination costs due to additional visits.

The proposed three separate vaccines are also not currently licensed in the United States or approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Politicians campaigned on promises to make America healthy, but they haven’t lived up to them. Instead, they’re too busy signing executive orders that put our kids’ health at risk.

If you agree that being healthy shouldn’t be this hard, visit redwine.blue/taking-healthy-back. We welcome everyone who cares about these issues to join us in our fight to make it easier and more affordable to be healthy in America.

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In Virginia, a Navy veteran had been witnessing an ICE operation when she suddenly heard her full name barked into a loudspeaker. An ICE agent that she’d never met before in her life repeated her name and told her to leave the area.

“My heart was pounding,” she said. “I was scared. ICE mentioned my name out of the blue, and I had no idea how they knew my identity.”

She learned that Flock cameras had tracked her car more than 100 times over just three days and realized that’s probably how the creepy ICE agent knew her name. She shared her story at a city meeting and implored council members to cancel their contract with Flock.

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Unfortunately, Norfolk hasn’t removed their surveillance cameras yet. But dozens of other cities in Virginia have canceled their contracts with Flock over the past year. Staunton, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Elkton, and Floyd have all ended or pledged not to renew their contracts with the license plate reader company.

This change didn’t happen by accident. It happened because community members spoke up at city council meetings and made sure their local representatives heard their concerns.

It’s not limited to Virginia either. Across the country, 95 municipalities have canceled or rejected contracts with Flock after pushback from neighbors. And when their representatives refuse to listen, some locals are taking matters into their own hands by vandalizing or cutting down cameras in the middle of the night.

In a nation divided by politics, opposition to Flock cameras crosses party lines. “We had work boots and Subarus in our parking lot, and they were united in their position against the Flock cameras,” said one Republican commissioner in North Carolina. “This is a bipartisan issue within our community.”

That means that Flock cameras are a great issue to discuss with folks in your life, regardless of their political affiliation. We all want safer communities, but AI-powered surveillance by tech billionaires is not the way to achieve that. Not when police officers are using it to stalk their ex-girlfriends, ICE agents are tracking the movements of legal observers, and innocent citizens are being falsely arrested.

If you want to learn more about how Flock works, how the data moves between agencies, and what it means for our privacy rights, Red Wine & Blue is holding a live virtual event next Tuesday with all the answers you need. We’ll be joined by computer scientist and privacy researcher Jen Golbeck as well as local residents fighting to get Flock cameras removed. You can learn more and RSVP for the event here.

It might feel overwhelming, even pointless, to fight against the likes of ICE and powerful tech billionaires. But in communities all across the country, people are doing just that… and they’re winning.

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Carrie lives in Georgia and her group includes many women who feel outnumbered, outvoted, and totally alone in their rural red communities. But the truth is, you’re never alone. You can always find at least one person who shares your values and feels the same way that you do. In the case of Carrie’s hugely successful group, you can find 240 of them!

But there’s no denying that being surrounded by MAGA supporters can be demoralizing. Carrie herself is married to a 3-time Trump voter, and she admits it can be difficult. But that doesn’t stop her from going out and doing good work in her community, like organizing protests and encouraging folks to be poll workers.

She says she wishes she could say she’s converted her husband, but in the meantime, she’s working hard to make sure they don’t just cancel each others’ votes out in a contest of 1 against 1. Instead, she’s found 240 friends who are each talking to their own friends about voting, multiplying that 1 vote by hundreds or even thousands.

The fellowship and emotional support she receives from her group members isn’t just icing on the cake. It’s the foundation of her political work. As RWB founder Katie Paris said during the interview,

Life is rarely simple, and all the more so for a political organizer in the South. But with the help of her friends, Carrie is doing more than canceling out her husband’s vote. She’s creating a movement.

It’s not too late to join a Red Wine & Blue Network group before the midterms. You can search for one in your area here!

These are people who had Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and have no criminal records. Now, after being summoned for in-person “check-ins” with the Department of Homeland Security, many are being told they must wear an ankle monitor and stay within 75 miles of their homes.

And if they want to go farther? They have to call ICE and ask for permission.

This comes after the Supreme Court ruled in June that the Trump administration could end TPS protections for roughly 350,000 Haitians. TPS protects immigrants from countries facing dangerous conditions – conditions that still exist in Haiti.

These are people who have spent years building lives, creating jobs, and contributing to their communities.

One man who was forced to wear an ankle monitor, Monsanto Maler, collapsed in tears when he walked out the door after his appointment.

Maler first arrived in Springfield in 2023 after fleeing Haiti due to gang-related violence. He showed off a scar on his head and said, “The reason why I fled the country is because I wasn’t feeling safe. I was chased by people who hit me on the back of the head.”

For Haitian immigrants, these check-ins and ankle monitors are a painful reminder that the lives they’ve built can be threatened at any moment. But they’re not facing it alone.

More than 500 Ohioans gathered outside the federal immigration office in Blue Ash to show their support for Haitian immigrants.

Rally-goers held signs supporting immigrants, cheered and applauded as Haitian immigrants from Springfield entered the office for their appointments, and chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here.”

If you want to follow in their footsteps and do everything you can to be ready to protect your neighbors if ICE comes to our community, Red Wine & Blue’s ‘Moms for Good’ guidebook has lessons from women who’ve been involved in other cities, resources, and best practices.

You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to be willing to do something.