We’ve all heard the phrase time and again, but we say: tell that to Meghan Tubbs, an Ohio woman whose last-minute decision to vote had ripple effects that changed everything for her state.

In August 2023, Ohio held a special election on a referendum that would have made it significantly harder for voter-led initiatives to propose and approve amendments to the Ohio State Constitution.

The special election was pushed by Republicans to keep the Issue 1 ballot initiative, which would have protected significant access to abortion in the state, off the November ballot. (The ballot initiative Red Wine & Blue fought for!)

The day before the special election, Meghan was visiting her grandfather, Ronald Tubbs, in Warren, Pennsylvania. He passed away that Monday morning at the age of eighty-three.

Meghan wanted to stay and mourn with her family, but she knew the best way to memorialize her grandfather wouldn’t be in Pennsylvania. Her grandfather never missed an election, so she wasn’t about to, either.

Meghan and her husband drove nearly six hours, making it just in time to vote against Issue 1. The next day, she discovered the initiative was defeated in her county by one vote – her vote.

Meghan’s decision to vote ensured Ohioans’ right to vote on their reproductive rights initiative that November, which went on to codify reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution, including access to contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and the restoration of Roe v. Wade-era abortion access.

Any of us could be Meghan. Since 2018, Ballotpedia reports that 734 elections have been decided by 10 votes or fewer, including 104 decided by a single vote. One trip to the polls, one box ticked next to a candidate’s name could be the deciding factor in whether you have access to reproductive care, your child’s school receives funding, or whether you have a data center built in your backyard.

It’s on us to ensure that one last vote is cast – one conversation at a time.

Having real conversations with your circle, especially those who don’t always vote, are hearing disinformation, or just aren’t paying attention, could change the outcome of critical state and local elections. Research shows that voters are at least 2.5 times more likely to be swayed by a friend or family member than by a stranger – we just need to be willing to have those conversations.

Yesterday, November 1st, Red Wine & Blue brought together over 1,200 people for an in-person event in West Chester, Philadelphia. The line stretched for ages, wrapping around the college campus, with people eager to do anything they could to elect a trifecta in their state.

Red Wine & Blue’s founder, Katie Paris, put them to work. She asked the crowd to think of all the people they could talk to about voting before Tuesday’s midterms. Anyone in their lives who needed one more nudge, help with their voting plan, or had any last-minute questions about their ballot.

Attendees wrote down how many conversations they planned to have in the next two days. In the end, they pledged over 21,000 conversations with friends and family. Any one of those conversations could be the vote that flips a seat, funds a library, or turns the tide in our direction.

If you want to listen to that event with Heather Cox Richardson, you can hear it on our How To Not Lose Your Sh!t podcast! Pennsylvania was the last stop in our 4-state tour with Heather before the midterms and we couldn’t be more grateful for the thousands of Red Wine & Blue members who showed up… and, of course, for Heather herself.

LISTEN TO HCR HERE

There’s still time for you to get involved, too. Text that friend you talk politics with. Call family members who haven’t quite decided whether they’re voting.

Don’t wake up on Wednesday morning wishing you’d done more.

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If that isn’t enough sunshine for you, you can also listen to our latest live and in-person event with Heather Cox Richardson! She joined us (and over 800 Red Wine & Blue members) in Michigan last weekend along with State Senator Mallory McMorrow.

LISTEN HERE

Across the country, women in the Red Wine & Blue community have been getting together to vote and to reach out to everyone they know. And every vote counts — since 2018, more than 700 elections have been decided by less than 10 votes.

This year, friend-to-friend organizing helped Hungarians oust their fascist leader Viktor Orbán, helped Brazilians vote out their far-right president Flávio Bolsonaro, and the same thing is about to happen right here in America.

But it’ll only happen if we make it happen. If we talk to every person we know about voting in these crucial midterms. It’s what all of these amazing RWB members have been doing, from Donuts & Democracy events to appearing on Rachel Maddow!

It’s not too late to sign our voting pledge and make a difference before Election Day. We have four days — let’s do this!

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But our podcast guest this week reassured us that our votes are safe and there are procedures in place to ensure that everyone’s ballots will count.

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And who is this reassuring guest? Well, this is our last episode before the election, so we brought on some extra special. Jeremy Paris is a lawyer and voting rights expert... who just so happens to be Katie’s husband!

Jeremy has worked in civil rights and law for decades and he reminded us that elections are not political. The results of elections are political, but the process itself isn’t partisan. It’s written into law. There are clear rules and tens of thousands of nonpartisan poll workers whose whole job is to enforce those rules.

Jeremy explained what we can do if we see something suspicious at our polling location and how we can help after the election is over, but the most important thing he emphasized is that we don’t spread fear. The most effective way to “rig” an election is to demoralize or scare people into not voting in the first place.

If enough people vote and we see a big enough blue wave, there will be nothing that Republicans can do. So let’s all make sure we’re talking to everyone we know about voting. You can sign our pledge to get your people out to vote here.

And if you talk to someone who’s worried that their vote won’t matter, just tell them to listen to this episode!

Both UNC Greensboro and North Carolina A&T State University, the nation’s largest historically Black university, had on-campus early voting sites in 2024, which drew more than 13,000 early voters combined.

But after the Republican-controlled Guilford County Board of Elections repeatedly rejected students’ efforts to restore those sites, students had to find other ways to get to the polls.

It’s harder than it might sound. First-year students at North Carolina A&T aren’t allowed to have cars on campus, so they would have to pay for an Uber or rely on someone else for a ride. And with high gas prices and most Americans struggling with affordability, barriers are higher than ever.

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But that didn’t stop these students. Together, student leaders from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina A&T State University, and Bennett College organized a march to rally young people to vote early.

Together, they walked 45 minutes in 85-degree heat, including on roads with no sidewalks. When they arrived, many students had to wait hours to vote. But they waited as long as it took.

One student emphasized the importance of the march by saying, “This is my first time voting, so I want to make sure that my voice is getting heard.”

The movement was so successful that A&T students hosted another march a week later, partnering with When We All Vote, as hundreds more students marched to the polls for the second time since early voting began.

We’re only eight days away from the midterm elections. Let’s follow these college students’ example and get out to vote for commonsense candidates up and down the ballot – no excuses.

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We had so much fun, learned a ton, and came away feeling ready to change the world. You can be part of it by listening to the event on our How To Not Lose Your Sh!t podcast feed.

LISTEN HERE

Heather answered questions about whether Trump can rig the election, what we can do to protect democracy, why friend-to-friend organizing is so effective, and — the question on all of our minds — if she ever sleeps!

We have two more live and in-person events with Heather coming up over the next 2 weeks, and we’ll be sure to share those with you too. Don’t miss this injection of history and hope and history as we count down the days until November 3rd!

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If you missed the story, Vivek’s team put out an ad with Amy’s birth mother calling her a liar. The problem is, Amy hasn’t talked to her mom since she was 12 years old. The woman ran off with Amy’s stepfather, the man who sexually abused Amy for years, and remained married to her daughter’s abuser until the day he died.

Not exactly a reliable source on Amy’s character. Instead, the ad became a reliable source on Vivek’s character. Red Wine & Blue started a petition to demand that Ohio Republicans denounce the spot, which you can sign here.

And look, political ads have been horrible forever. It’s part of what turns people off of politics.

But this year, we have to question what we’re seeing more than ever. Not just because of videos like Ramaswamy’s, with childhood trauma repackaged as an attack ad with none of the crucial backstory. In many cases, we can’t trust what we’re seeing on screen because it literally never happened.

According to the Wesleyan Media Project, more than 220 AI-generated political ads (over $137 million dollars worth) have been released this midterm cycle. Researchers say the real number is likely much higher than 220, but it’s often hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. That’s kind of the whole problem.

More than 80% of the ads are for Republicans, and most contain no disclosure that they included AI. Some are little tweaks, like removing the background of a photo. But many are full-on deepfakes of politicians saying or doing things that never happened.

Take these for example. The above ad shows Zohran Mamdani and Kathy Hochul (the current governor of New York) strolling through a park, laughing about how they’re making New York unaffordable. Obviously, this never happened! The ad is a deepfake produced by Gov. Hochul’s opponent, Republican Bruce Blakeman. (Apparently Bruce has been using so much AI, Hochul’s campaign has nicknamed him “Bruce Fakeman.”)

This second ad shows Republican Mike Mazzei cozying up to Hillary Clinton, something he clearly never did. The ad ran during the gubernatorial primary in May and was paid for by Make Oklahoma Great Again, which supports candidates who are even more conservative than Mike Mazzei.

A patchwork of laws protects voters in some states from AI political ads. 31 states have laws requiring that AI use is disclosed within 60 or 90 days of an election, but enforcement is spotty. And on the national level, there’s no law at all against deepfakes in election ads. Several representatives have tried, like Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) with a bill called The REAL Political Ads Act, but it won’t be passed before November 3rd.

That means that more than ever, we can’t believe what we see in political ads. What we can trust is our conversations with the real people in our lives. So if a friend asks you if something they saw in an ad is true, make sure they know that many campaigns (mostly Republican) are using deepfakes, and pivot to the real values you know you share.

We have 12 days. Let’s make those conversations count.

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Jasmine is a PhD microbiologist. She’s a mom. She teaches nursing at Emory University. She co-hosted The Suburban Women Problem for four years. She’s been elected to the Georgia State House of Representatives four times. And now she’s running for US Congress!

It was so fun to catch up with Jasmine and hear all about how her kids are doing, how her Congressional race is going, and what we all need to know going into November’s midterms. When she talked about how her 18-year-old daughter just got to vote for the first time… and it was for her mom to be the first Black woman with a science PhD in Congress… we all burst into tears.

LISTEN HERE

She’s used to being outnumbered in the Georgia State House: as a mom, as a scientist, and as a Democrat. So when she tells us that there’s so much good legislation she and other Dems can pass in the next two years, even with Trump in the White House, we believe her.

Jasmine and other women like her are making history, kicking ass, and taking names. We have a little less than two weeks to bring this election home. Make sure you’re talking to everyone you know about voting!

It wasn’t that they decided to listen to doctors about how many women are dying because of abortion bans. It wasn’t that they realized politicians shouldn’t be making decisions about what we do with our own bodies.

Nope, it was simply that they wanted to pause all of that until after November 3rd. “Once the midterms are over and it’s truly lame-duck time, we’ve heard the gloves will be off,” reported one source, a conservative in touch with the administration.

Todd Blanche, who was confirmed as the US Attorney General in August, has long been against abortion rights. In his confirmation hearing, he said he opposed the abortion pill Mifepristone being available by mail. He intends to use the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that prohibits sending anything “obscene or indecent” through the mail, to make Mifepristone illegal.

For almost a century, the Comstock Act was the reason that birth control couldn’t be sent through the mail. According to a strict interpretation of the law, birth control and abortion couldn’t even be discussed through the mail. Congress removed the language about birth control in 1971 so that women could receive the medication they needed through the postal service.

But because Congress didn’t also remove the language about abortion at the same time, Todd Blanche thinks he can use a 150-year-old bill to keep women from getting the care they need. Not only could doctors not mail Mifepristone to patients who need it, drug manufacturers could be banned from even sending the pills (or surgical tools, or anything else used for abortions) to doctors in the first place.

Mifepristone does have other valid uses besides abortion care, which is why the Department of Justice ruled in 2022 that the Comstock Act didn’t apply. But Todd Blanche wants to change that. This summer, he told a group of faith leaders that he was working to ensure abortion was banned “in every single state.”

… just, you know, not until November 4th.

And the Comstock Act isn’t the Trump administration’s only line of attack on reproductive rights. They’re also looking at new “morality” rules for doctors, changes to Title X, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and the Affordable Care Act. They’ll stop at nothing to keep us from the healthcare we need, want, and deserve.

So if it seems like chatter has quieted down about abortion rights on the federal level, don’t be fooled. They know that abortion access is popular across the country, with Americans voting for reproductive freedom on ballot measures nearly every time they’re given the opportunity. Anti-choice extremists haven’t stopped — they’re just waiting.

In the November 2026 election, voters in four states (Idaho, Nevada, Missouri, and Virginia) will vote on ballot measures about abortion rights. With extremists like Todd Blanche in Washington right now, our best line of defense for women’s healthcare is at the state and local level. And hopefully, with a big enough blue wave, we can start changing things at the federal level too. 🌊

In Virginia, nearly twice as many early ballots have been cast so far compared to this time in the 2022 midterms. In the city of Nashville, voter turnout is currently 15 times higher than the last midterm. In North Carolina, more than 27,000 ballots were cast within the first few hours of early voting yesterday. And in Georgia, voters set a first day early voting record with more than 188,000 ballots cast. More than 36% of those were cast by Black voters, up 6% from 2024.

This is all great news, but it doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels. The stakes are too high. Let’s keep this momentum going into November 3rd — all gas, no brakes!

Sign our pledge here to turn out your friends and family to vote.

In other good news, a court has ruled that Ohio’s private school vouchers are unconstitutional. The state’s “EdChoice” program uses public taxpayer dollars to fund private school tuition. Ohio actually spent more than a billion dollars of taxpayer money on private school vouchers last year.

We’ve talked before about how school vouchers are almost exclusively used for private religious schools by families who could already afford them, with the ultimate goal of defunding public education. (To learn more, you can listen to our episode of The Cost of Extremism about vouchers… or really anything says!)

Now that an Ohio appellate court has ruled that the EdChoice program is unconstitutional, the decision will be appealed even higher to the state Supreme Court. Let’s keep making our voices heard and support our public schools!

Speaking of Ohio schools, high schoolers at Copley-Fairlawn High School near Akron have raised $10,000 to put on an independent production of the play She Kills Monsters.

Students were dismayed when the school district suddenly cancelled their production because a parent complained about the LGBTQ+ themes in the play. But they resolved to perform at a local independent theater instead, starting a GoFundMe to raise the $800 needed to obtain the performance rights to the show. Within days, they raised more than $10,000!

The show must go on, and because of the generosity of neighbors and strangers alike, now it will.

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There are officially 18 days left until the midterms. Let’s use these positive stories to put wind in our sails to carry us through to the finish line. Make sure everyone you know is voting up and down the ballot. We can do this!

But Stephanie and Paula didn’t start out as rockstar group leaders. They started, like so many of us, by wanting to do something. Stephanie was appalled by what she was seeing politically so she went to meet her local city council member, who gave her some simple but powerful advice: just show up.

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When Stephanie started Make Good Trouble Reno, it was just her and her husband leading the group. She soon met Paula in the Zoom chat of a Red Wine & Blue webinar (the perfect friendship origin story, no notes) and now the two of them aren’t just co-leaders. They’re friends who inspire, comfort, and encourage one another.

You can hear more about how they’re making a difference in this week’s episode.

LISTEN HERE

With only 3 weeks left until the midterms, it’s time to follow Stephanie and Paula’s example. Make sure everyone you know is voting (early if possible). You can even throw a ballot party like Make Good Trouble Reno!

It all starts by just showing up.

Well, this week we have more Moms for Liberty drama distracting from the real work of educating students. (It even centers yet again on LGBTQ+ students. Why is M4L so obsessed with students being themselves?) This time, the chaos is happening in Wisconsin. But unlike our story in Colorado, this one doesn’t have a happy ending yet.

A Red Wine & Blue member reached out to us to spread the word that M4L candidates have been taking over school boards in Wisconsin. In the Winneconne Community School District, 4 out of 7 current school board members are endorsed by the extremist group Moms for Liberty. One of the board members is actually married to the leader of their local M4L chapter.

With this conservative majority, the board engineered the ousting of a longtime and beloved district administrator, Dr. Peggy Larson. Their charge against her? That she supported a transgender student who wanted her preferred name and pronouns used in the school yearbook and at graduation. The student’s parents didn’t support her, but Dr. Larson wanted to make sure that she felt supported and seen.

What a monster, right? How dare an educator affirm and support a student.

But the Moms for Liberty controlled school board put Dr. Larson on administrative leave and just a few weeks ago, they forced her to take an early retirement. Community members and students alike were heartbroken by her departure.

“Dr. Larson has always been there for us,” said Winneconne High School student Demarcus McDaniel. “She has always been a person when I was struggling academically, mentally, or socially, I could go to talk with her.”

In response, community members started a recall petition against two board members over their ties to Moms for Liberty. They’d eventually like to recall all four M4L members on the board, but Wisconsin law doesn’t allow citizens to recall an official until they’ve served at least one full year of their term.

They collected more than enough signatures, but Kari Flagg, the board member in charge of receiving the signatures, decided they were invalid. She’s claiming that because the petitions were delivered to the district office rather than physically handed to her, those 4600 signatures don’t count.

If that sounds like nonsense, it is. The district office is the address of record for all school board members, and because none of them are physically present during business hours, this kind of drop-off is totally normal. And once the petitions were handed to an assistant at the district office, Ms. Flagg was informed immediately. Lawyers say that it’s completely legal to deliver recall petitions to school district offices, so this is nothing but a stall tactic.

Oh yeah, did we mention that Ms. Flagg is one of the four Moms for Liberty school board members? She just happens to be one of the members who hasn’t served a full year and thus can’t be recalled yet herself.

Right now, families in Winneconne are waiting for Ms. Flagg to do the right thing or they’ll pursue legal action. If all goes well, the recall petitions will be accepted, and the community will get the chance to vote for new school board members. Hopefully, they’ll disrupt the Moms for Liberty majority and bring in new members who care about all students in the district. They might even be able to bring back Dr. Larson.

This story yet again shows the importance of voting for our local school boards. With enough turnout, Winneconne could’ve prevented the Moms for Liberty bloc in the first place and a beloved educator would still have her job. It’s not too late to make that difference in your own community — let’s make these last 3 weeks before the midterms count!

Take our get-out-the-vote pledge here.

Our tale begins in 2023, when a realtor named Brett Mitchell won his election to the Buena Vista school board. It was a close election — Mitchell won by only 72 votes. He was endorsed by the Republican Party, the Colorado Conservative Patriot Alliance, and yes, Moms for Liberty.

From that list of endorsements, you can imagine his values and policy positions. It all came to a head this summer when the school board voted to recognize June as Pride Month. After casting his lone dissenting vote, Mitchell threw what a parent or teacher might call… a tantrum.

He read a long statement about how the school board was making a “political scene” and “pushing ideology” rather than supporting students. But, in fact, the resolution was explicitly passed to support students! The district has been dealing with racist and homophobic bullying, with one parent even filing a Civil Rights complaint.

A proclamation recognizing Pride Month is certainly not enough to fix such a complicated and sad issue, but the five other school board members thought it would be a helpful gesture to let LGBTQ+ students know they’re seen and supported. Brett Mitchell did not agree.

After reading his inflammatory statement, Mitchell quit on the spot and stormed out of the meeting.

Enter Nancy Paricio. She’s the leader of a Red Wine & Blue Network group called Stand Out Buena Vista and worked as a teacher for more than 30 years.

When there’s an unexpected vacancy on the school board in Buena Vista — like, say, when a member abruptly quits over the concept of Pride Month — the rest of the board appoints a new member to fill the vacancy. They reviewed the qualifications of several applicants and listened carefully to public comment. Nancy stood out for her dedication to public education and making sure every student is supported.

The board voted to appoint Nancy to the open school board seat in September. The drama isn’t completely over, as one remaining conservative member of the board preferred a businessman to an educator, but at least nobody quit mid-meeting! And on September 28th, Nancy was sworn in as the newest member of the Buena Vista school board.

We’re so excited for Nancy and all the students in the Buena Vista school district. It’s clear just how much she cares.

“I know the value, firsthand, of education,” she said. “I know, even more importantly, the value of public education that includes every single child. Children with disabilities, children with no money, especially. I will always advocate for children who don’t have parents who are willing or capable of advocating for themselves.

I think my background provides a perfect opportunity to continue to advocate for students. It really is my life’s journey, my life’s mission, my life’s passion, to ensure that all kids are taken care of at every level.”

She’ll serve out the remainder of Mr. Mitchell’s term and will hopefully run for re-election in 2027 to continue serving the families of Buena Vista.

It’s a positive turn of events after the drama and discrimination seen this summer. But it also goes to show just how important it is to vote for down-ballot candidates like school board members. Moms for Liberty Mitchell won his election in 2023 with only 72 votes. This whole circus could’ve been prevented in the first place by a few people texting their friends about voting.

It’s amazing news that a passionate teacher like Nancy is now on the board! But you can prevent the next Moms for Liberty candidate from winning in your community. Sign our pledge to reach out to your friends and neighbors about voting in the midterms!

Liuba became the first federal candidate to be allowed to use campaign funds for childcare, but she didn’t stop there. She went on to found Vote Mama, an organization dedicated to helping moms build political power.

It’s not just a matter of fairness. It’s how we get good policy. When only rich white men are in power, they make laws that benefit other rich white men. It doesn’t even have to be malicious — it’s the nature of legislating based on your own experience. But with more moms in office, we can get better policies that support families, like paid parental leave and better healthcare for everyone.

LISTEN TO THE POD HERE

On today’s podcast episode, Liuba, Katie, and LaFonda also chat about how we can talk to our kids about the horrible things we’ve been seeing in the news... and how we can deal with all that bad news ourselves too. As Liuba said back in January, “Meaningful work is the only thing getting me through this shit.”

Honestly, same.

The good thing is that saving the world doesn’t have to feel like hard work. With the right people by your side (whether they’re a mom or not), advocating for a better country can actually be fun! You can learn more about Vote Mama and their “Moms Night Out” program at https://votemamafoundation.org/.

Officials from the Trump administration appeared more focused on supporting insurance industry leaders, pharmaceutical companies, and AI firms than on making healthcare more affordable for American families.

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Bloomberg even reported that some companies were offered access to Trump administration officials in exchange for a fee. That’s not fishy at all, right?

The highest-level sponsorship, offered to some sponsors for $300,000, included a speaking slot at the event, “meaningful input on the panel composition and topic,” and a private dinner with Kennedy and Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Featured companies include UnitedHealth, Elevance Health, Walmart, GRAIL, Compass Pathways, Hims & Hers, Noom, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, AI joined the party.

The summit, sponsored by multiple AI firms, repeatedly touted AI as the future of healthcare. RFK Jr. went further, stating that AI should be used to challenge or reject medical experts and established public health guidance, arguing that the technology could “free us from medical tyranny.”

It’s an interesting choice, given that AI data centers emit significant air pollution that can increase asthma and even cancer rates. The noise and light pollution can also damage nearby residents’ hearing and disrupt sleep. And of course, AI wastes vital water resources and contributes to climate change.

So much for making America healthy again.

If you want to help make America actually healthy again, free from AI and corporate influence, join us at Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard. We are organizing women to advocate for affordable, healthy food, clean air and water, real science, and accessible healthcare — all the things the Trump Administration should be doing but isn’t. 

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This wasn’t your typical political event. It was a room full of real conversations, real connections, and people ready to make a difference in their communities. And by the end, the women in the audience pledged to contact 12,000 people about voting in the midterms!

You can join them by taking that pledge online right here.

If you’re still feeling a little FOMO, don’t worry — there are a bunch of ways you can still get involved. We’ll be doing more in-person events with Heather in North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania over the next couple of weeks. And you can listen to each of those events on our How To Not Lose Your Sh!t podcast!

LISTEN HERE

After you listen, make sure you’re ready for Election Day: check your voter registration, make your voting plan, and help your friends and family make theirs too. Change is in the air, but it’s not inevitable. It’s going to take all of us.

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This week, Katie and LaFonda had a fascinating conversation with Emily on our podcast about the environment and whether you need to be an optimist to work for change. Emily started her Substack, Heated, back in 2019 — almost the exact same time that Katie started Red Wine & Blue — and while the climate is such an important issue on its own, it can also stand in for almost any cause we care about when it comes to what motivates us to work for change.

LISTEN HERE

As Americans (even those who voted for Trump) seem to be turning away from MAGA, personally we’re starting to feel… dare we say, a little optimistic?… about November. Then again, we also felt optimistic in 2024 and got our hearts broken.

If appealing to hope and optimism makes you feel nervous, or even annoyed, that’s okay. You don’t have to believe that everything is destined to turn out all rainbows and sunshine to work for what you believe in. You just have to do the work.

We love good news and hope around here, but there’s no shortage of causes that can feel hopeless, from climate change to fighting corruption to women’s rights to racial equality. If we waited to know for certain that our efforts would pay off, no one would ever take any action at all!

Not to mention, the people in power want us to feel hopeless. There’s nothing they’d like more than for us to all throw up our hands and stay at home doomscrolling instead of standing up for what we believe in. And that’s exactly why we have to keep fighting.

As Emily said, “the future is still being decided and I’m not gonna surrender my part in deciding it.” We couldn’t agree more.

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And then one day, they get off a plane and ICE takes them away.

That is what happened to three brothers in Alabama.

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Roberto and Lola Avalos came to the United States legally from Mexico in 2015 while their daughter, Karina, was battling breast cancer.

When Karina died in 2017, they adopted her three sons, Marvin, Orlando, and Acxel, and raised them for years.

They built a life together in Alabama. They had work authorization and got jobs at a local Chick-fil-A. Neither has a criminal record. And when Marvin, the oldest boy, turned 18, he sponsored them for permanent residency.

Those applications were still pending when Roberto and Lola flew home from a family reunion in California. TSA passenger information tipped off ICE, so when they landed in Birmingham and got off the plane, agents were waiting.

Now Marvin, who is only 22 years old, is trying his best to take care of his younger brothers.

These kids had already lost their mom. Now they’ve lost the only parents they’ve really ever known. The ones who stepped in and raised them.

When we talk about immigration enforcement, it can get reduced so quickly to numbers, policies, and talking points. But then you see what it actually looks like…

A 22-year-old suddenly responsible for his younger brothers.

Two teenagers waiting for their parents to come home.

And a family that had already survived one devastating loss, being separated all over again.

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They knew success was possible because earlier this year, community groups demanded the same thing at Boeing Field International Airport in Washington… and they won.

Boeing Field Airport, located five miles south of downtown Seattle, began tracking ICE activity last month. The airport even created an official position called “Flight Monitoring and Outreach Coordinator" to watch and record ICE deportation and relocation flights at their airport. The airport shares the livestream of its camera feeds and publishes weekly passenger logs on its website.

“The feedback we got from the community was we want more transparency,” said Cameron Satterfield, the spokesperson for Boeing Field. “We want you to log how many people are coming on and off the flights, when they’re coming in, what’s happening on these flights. We’re just trying to bring more transparency into something that’s been a furtive, in the shadows kind of thing.”

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Another RWB Network group has been making good trouble in Virginia… for 86 weeks in a row.

Back in October of 2025 (that’s right, almost a year ago!), we wrote about the Roanoke Social Circle’s weekly rally in front of Republican Rep. Ben Cline’s office. Every Monday, they gather to protest Rep. Cline’s support of President Trump, ICE, rising prices, and more. The weekly gatherings usually attract between 125-150 people, with attendance sometimes reaching up to 300 people!

This past week, their weekly protest was joined by Beth Macy, the woman running against Ben Cline in November. Beth is a mom, a former reporter, and the author of Dopesick, an award-winning book about how opioid executives preyed on vulnerable communities. Best of all, she credits the Roanoke Social Circle’s weekly rally as the reason she’s running against Representative Cline in the first place.

And for an example of the great legislation that Democratic women leaders can make, look no further than Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts. Last month, she signed a Freedom to Read law that keeps book bans out of her state’s schools and libraries.

Signed at the Franklin Public Library, the oldest public library in the United States, the law establishes a fair and transparent process for reviewing books while strengthening protections for teachers and librarians.

“We have always believed that our communities are stronger when people, especially young people, have access to knowledge and a free exchange of ideas,” said Governor Healey. “This bill is about protecting the freedom to read, to learn, to ask difficult questions and to encounter ideas we might agree or disagree with. It’s also about protecting our teachers and librarians and allowing them to do their jobs. At a time when President Trump is defunding education and trying to censor any ideas he doesn’t agree with, it is more important than ever that states step up to lead. That’s what we’re doing here in Massachusetts."

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Here’s hoping that come November, we’ll have even more powerful women leaders supporting families and families at all levels of our democracy!

Kate also knows about hope. After watching Clinton lose in 2016, and then Harris in 2024, it would be easy to become cynical and jaded. But in politics and in romance, hope is crucial. It keeps us open to new love (whether it’s a date or a candidate) and the possibility that things can get better for ourselves and our communities.

Both women candidates and romance novels are too often dismissed by the establishment — in no small part because they take women out of the passenger seat and into a position to lead the way. So let’s keep putting women in the driver’s seat!

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And if you’re a fan of reading (and against banned books), we’re also co-hosting a special event tomorrow evening with authors like Judy Blume and Ann Patchett!

During the event, we’ll help you speak up by calling our representatives together and sharing our commitment to the Freedom to Read. Let’s make our voices heard all at once in this collective call to action. Learn more and RSVP here!

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