Weary knuckles, amazing conversations, and the look forward

We know how you're feeling. There's no way to sugarcoat it. But, we wanted to share the silver linings we saw in this election.

 Our issues got major play:

• Our work to protect Iowa’s water and stop factory farms showed: the issue made it into key debates and was included on candidates’ platforms.
  • Jodie Hoadley is now county supervisor in Adair County -  she ran publicly opposing factory farms while her opponent was 100% pro factory farms. She won by 17 votes – a great reminder that every vote counts, and that members can make the difference.
• Nationally, four states passed a raise the wage referendum at the same time they elected Republican Senators.

We took huge steps forward organizationally to build our political power:

• Our first ever, amazing electoral canvass team and over 100 dedicated volunteers had 5,000 conversations on raising the minimum wage by knocking on 20,000 doors in Des Moines, Waterloo, and the Quad Cities.
• We turned out voters – even took some to the polls!
• We built a base of minimum wage justice fighters that we are going to organize and engage in the governing process, developing new and more leaders for our communities.

Created with flickr slideshow.

  This work, this hard work that requires perseverance and hope, would not have been possible without your help - thank you to everyone who worked to GOTV!We made progress. We have plans to achieve much more and we have you, the perfect members to do it: passionate and persistent.Take that big, deep breath of “we’re more ready than ever”, and gear up for all of the opportunities in front of us, from the 2015 legislative session to the buildup for Iowa's 2016 caucuses.I’d love to hear your thoughts on the election and what you’d like to see done moving forward. Just reply to this email. 

We would love to hear your thoughts on the election and what you’d like to see done moving forward. Just give us a shout.