MoveOn is doing something it's never done in its 23-year history

Andra, I've not seen this kind of methodical, coordinated assault on our democracy in my lifetime.

Dear fellow MoveOn member, 

We face a serious risk that American democracy as we know it could come to an end in 2024.

That's not hyperbole. It's a sober recognition of a terrifying reality.  

Donald Trump has spent the past year obsessing over how and why his 2020 coup attempt failed. He blames the state and local elections officials who refused to throw out votes so that he could win the election. 

That's why, for months, Trump has been laying the groundwork to install himself in the White House in 2024 by building an apparatus of election theft at the state level. His plot centers around using the 2022 elections to install right-wing loyalists to one of the most obscure, but important, jobs in politics: secretary of state—the officials who control voter registration, oversee the counting of the votes, and declare the winners and losers of elections. 

If Trump's plot succeeds, Trump-backed secretaries of state in key battleground states will have the power to disregard the will of the people and throw out the necessary number of ballots—thousands or perhaps millions—to ensure that Trump is declared the winner. And the Trump-packed Supreme Court would be poised to uphold this gross manipulation of votes. 

You might never have heard of the office before, but today, secretaries of state are at the very center of the struggle to ensure the survival of our constitutional democracy. 

That's why MoveOn just announced it's launching a big, powerful campaign to defeat Trump-backed candidates for secretary of state and to elect individuals who will count every vote and ensure free and fair elections. 

In just the past two weeks, tens of thousands of MoveOn members have stepped up to be a part of this new campaign. Will you join them by chipping in $65 today to support MoveOn's effort to stop a Trump coup?

Trump came closer than anyone could have imagined to overturning an American election earlier this year. 

Now, he's preparing in plain sight to do it again in 2024—except this time, the effort will be more sophisticated and better funded. 

Before this year, Trump had never endorsed a single candidate for secretary of state anywhere in the country. But Trump has already endorsed several candidates for chief elections jobs in states that could play major roles in determining the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. 

Trump's aides don't deny the strategy. "Our top priority is endorsing strong fighters" who promote the Big Lie, said Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington.¹

And the Republican funding machine is taking notice. Bloomberg reports that the "once-obscure state-level job of overseeing elections has emerged as a prime target for wealthy donors."² The right-wing billionaire Richard Uihlein has already begun pumping his wealth into the secretary of state race in Georgia.³

Uihlein is helping bankroll Jody Hice, a Trump-backed candidate and sitting U.S. congressman who voted to overturn the results of Georgia's election and proudly proclaimed the January 6 insurrection to be "our 1776 moment."⁴ Make no mistake, Hice would be ready, willing, and eager to throw out ballots—especially those of Democratic-leaning voters including people of color and young people—in order to lead Trump to victory. 
 
And if we don't act, the same could be true in other key states.

Andra, I've not seen this kind of methodical, coordinated assault on our democracy in my lifetime. Please, if you are able, will you chip in $65—or whatever you can—to take down Trump's plot to put his loyalists in charge of overseeing elections?

Thanks for all you do.

–Robert Reich

Sources: 

1. "Trump endorses 'big lie' proponents for state election posts," ABC News, September 20, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159851?t=4&akid=313451%2E53570607%2E9xld_D 
 
2. "State Election Officials on Rich Donors' Radar, Thanks to Trump," Bloomberg, September 15, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159852?t=6&akid=313451%2E53570607%2E9xld_D 
 
3. Ibid. 
 
4. Ibid.

Want to support MoveOn's work? The GOP is launching an all-out campaign to take down the Democratic majority in Congress and reinstall Mitch McConnell as Senate majority leader in 2022. To defeat the GOP, MoveOn is going all-in with TV ads, a nationwide grassroots organizing campaign, and more.

Will you chip in to power our effort to defeat McConnell and the GOP in 2022?

Click here to chip in $65, or whatever you can afford.

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PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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