Q&A: UU the Vote’s Nora Rasman Talks 2024 Election Strategy and Beyond

Nora Rasman, UU the Vote’s first democracy strategist, was hired not just to support its 2024 program, but to shepherd its move toward year-round efforts to resist authoritarianism and build a multiracial democracy.

Rasman spoke to UU World about UU the Vote’s essential work and the value of partnerships.

What is the democracy strategist’s role, and how does it relate to UU the Vote?

The democracy strategist role is envisioned to root our electoral work in a year-round commitment to building democratic structures that work for the many, not the few.

This means the work of UU the Vote includes traditional electoral work such as voter contact and registration, election defense, and building partnerships with frontline organizations. It also means growing our collective understanding and practice of participatory forms of democracy within our communities.

It is my hope that we can develop programs that support and deepen our relationships with campaigns and organizations building democratic practices—from participatory budgeting and ballot measure initiatives to cooperative economics—growing our skills to create systems beyond white supremacy and capitalism toward a more liberated world.

Why is partnership central to the work of UU the Vote?

Relationships inform, drive, and make our work more accountable, more sustainable, and more powerful. Centering partnership requires time, attention, and commitment to build trust, develop shared goals, and take collective action. We seek to be in partnership with organizations and social movements for justice and liberation, led and informed by communities most impacted by systems of oppression and domination. We cannot expect democratic outcomes without democratic process. We are building whole, inclusive, and collaborative communities to grow a pro-democracy majority.

Doing our work in partnership requires self-assessment of who we are and what we believe. We must be clear about what we can offer and what we must risk to move away from cynicism, isolation, and individualism and toward abundance, reciprocity, and humility. Our organizational partnerships keep us aligned with broader demands and assessments of the political terrain while cultivating space for Unitarian Universalists to take grounded, bold action.

What makes issue work (including protecting abortion, ranked choice voting, direct democracy ballot initiatives) powerful?

Our existing structures of government are failing to meet the basic needs of so many members of our communities. Instead of tending to and centering folks’ health, healing, and well-being, our local and national budgets fund war and militarism, policing, and p​​​​rivatization of social systems of care.

Some of the ballot initiatives we are supporting this year are a welcome reprieve from this dynamic. Ballot initiatives are a practice of direct democracy—one person, one vote to make urgent material changes in people’s lives. In Arizona, Colorado, and Florida, UUs are showing up to protect, defend, and expand access to abortion care. In Idaho, UUs are coalescing to grow democracy by winning open primaries.

Through these and other local issue campaigns, UU the Vote is demonstrating that we can and do win when we work together. We are fighting to change the material conditions today as we build a just future.

How is the work of UU the Vote connected to the broader vision and work of Side with Love programs?

UU the Vote is one of many vehicles within the UUA’s Side With Love public advocacy campaign to build relationships, grow skills, and take collective action. Ongoing democracy work is one of Side with Love’s core program pillars, alongside climate justice, decriminalization, and reproductive justice and trans rights. These pillars demand that we grow our analysis and act with an understanding that each of these is deeply intertwined with the other.

UUs fought to protect abortion care in Ohio in 2023 and won, allowing us to build more power to defend abortion in 2024. We took action to demand the closing of the Folkston ICE detention center in Georgia, deepening relationships with the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights.

Our vision of collective liberation requires that we combat systems of oppression while building a liberatory world that leaves none of us behind. Side with Love is strengthened through collaboration within our staff team, our colleagues at the UUA, and in partnership with other organizations. This requires that we build a broad popular front, using the many tools and strategies to make change in our world. This is how to build power in our movement. We show up across issues, in the streets, and at the polls knowing that together we are all making the road toward our collective liberation.

How can people join and increase their involvement with UU the Vote?

In 2020 we engaged over 4,500 UU volunteers. We need even more people involved to build sustainably.

Download the UU the Vote 2024 guide at uuthevote.org. Take action with our national community by joining one of our events. Power the Polls by signing up to be a poll worker or election defender. And look to frontline community partners and recruit a few friends to join a local action.

No matter what you do, share your work and stories with us using the 2024 UU the Vote Report form to get counted toward our collective goals. We need all hands on deck to continue to grow the relationships and skills we will need no matter what happens on November 5.