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While this year’s federal election yielded huge setbacks for Unitarian Universalist justice priorities and shared values, state elections, especially those where people are empowered to make law directly via ballot questions, yielded victories in many realms.
Voters in seven states enshrined abortion rights in their state constitutions. Among these states were Arizona and Colorado, where UU the Vote (UUTV) and in-state partners led in-person training and canvassing operations to inform residents about key ballot questions and rally them to vote.
Arizona voters also defeated multiple initiatives designed to suppress democracy, including barriers to all future ballot initiatives. UUTV work in Arizona, Colorado, and other states included door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, public rallies, educational events, and community meals.
UUTV also provided ground support in Florida, where an abortion rights amendment won 57 percent approval from voters, but fell short of the 60 percent threshold after opponents unleashed an array of dubious tactics to undermine support, including sending election police to question those who signed an abortion ballot petition and the Florida Department of Health threatening a TV station with legal action for running an amendment ad.
Dozens more progressive victories across the country included expansion of LGBTQ+ rights, strengthening environmental protection, several economic justice initiatives, and defeating initiatives that would hurt public schools by diverting funds to private education.
UUTV’s focus on in-person events in 2024 also built capacity for the challenges ahead through developing the connections and skills of UU volunteers. Vicki Linter, who participated in UUTV’s Phoenix actions with a squad of UU volunteers from Oregon, had never canvassed before. “I was absolutely intimidated at the outset, but the training prepared me well and helped put me at ease,” says Linter. “It’s been so impactful.”
Phoenix was one of eight cities where UUTV partnered with local groups and UU State Action Networks to train and deploy squads of volunteers for neighborhood-level outreach.
“Our work is embedded in building relationships with local organizations rooted in racial and economic justice that do year-round power-building beyond electoral cycles.”
The Good Trouble Congregation program, in which participating UU groups commit to meeting an ambitious set of benchmarks for election-year outreach, grew to eighty congregations across the country in 2024.
But UUTV’s work is no longer just election focused. For the first time, it now has a permanent staff person, Unitarian Universalist Association Democracy Strategist Nora Rasman. “Our work is embedded in building relationships with local organizations rooted in racial and economic justice that do year-round power-building beyond electoral cycles,” says Rasman.
Rasman notes we’ll be confronting new challenges. “Many of us are familiar working within existing U.S. governance structures. Now we must learn how to defend and advance justice when many governing bodies are effectively not petitionable,” says Rasman.
Building relationships may sound simple but maintaining them will take tremendous dedication in a landscape where people are scared and face genuine threats to their safety, autonomy, and wellbeing.
“The months ahead will require us to stretch,” says Rasman, “and those of us with privilege because of our race, gender, class, ability, or immigration status must protect the most vulnerable among us.”