Despite this setback for the John L. Lewis Act, there are some important takeaways from  UUSJ’s Democracy Action Team’s collaboration with many national groups pushing for passage of this important legislation

• The coordinated and collaborative work included hundreds of groups, all with the same goal. It was an important milestone for the broader democracy movement to unite our work and become more powerful.
• Through our collective efforts, millions of people in the U.S. became aware of the threats to our democracy and strongly supported our work. This creates the opportunity to expand our support base for the upcoming midterm elections.
• The Democracy Action Team (DAT) built relationships with congressional offices through the more than 40 Zoom visits with Senate and House staff members. DAT learned a lot from the staffers and also about how best to engage. This was the Team’s first full year of advocacy.
•  UUSJ strengthened its organizing skills by collaborating with UU the Vote (now part of Side With Love) and the Faithful Democracy coalition of faith-based organizations.
•  DATraise broader awareness of democracy concerns through six action alerts that resulted in 4,637 messages to members of Congress; authoring a UU Action of Immediate Witness (AIW) Stop Voter Suppression and Partner for Voting Rights and a Multiracial Democracy; and organizing two separate UU events to make congregations aware of the AIW, as well as two expert briefings for the Write Here! Write Now! actions.

Looking ahead, there is talk of breaking up the two voting rights bills into smaller pieces and seeing where there’s enough bipartisan support to overcome a Senate filibuster. There does appear to be bipartisan support for reforming the Electoral College Act, to prevent actions like those used in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.  

There may be other opportunities as well. DAT will be following the progress of these and other democracy-related bills and checking on where the large national democracy groups are putting their attention.  

In addition,  the Team plans to sponsor educational events to build support for democratic reforms. On February 17 at 7:30 pm EST, we invited State Rep. Donna Howard from Texas to speak to us on the topic “State Of Our U.S. Democracy: A UU View From The Texas Legislature” (RSVP).  Rep. Howard is a Unitarian Universalist and one of the legislators who went to Washington, DC to protest the Texas voter suppression legislation and encourage passage of the national voting rights reform bills. 

There will also likely be opportunities to promote and support local election work in various states, perhaps as part of the UU the Vote program.