Greetings, readers, Deanna here: Welcome to our new mini-series, “Friday Hope Fest.” Back when we were producing the print version of the Hightower Lowdown (yes, we still miss it, too!), we often used our November and December issues of major election years to share stories of electoral success that might not have hit your radars. And in years where we’d felt, ahem, despair and rage at the national results, it really helped to see that the work we truly believe in—grassroots, neighbor-to-neighbor organizing on strong progressive values and solidarity—is not only happening, but is working.

We’ll be spending our Friday posts from now through the end of the year sharing these stories with you, and we also want to hear of wins from your end of the world. And by “win,” we don’t just mean winning races—we want to hear about places that held back against the Republican-leaning national trend, or where a progressive ran in a race that had been uncontested for years, or what-have-you. What’s happening out there?

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How Did These Local Democrats Do It?!

Last night, I joined a RuralOrganizing.org online gathering to debrief the election results. To be honest, I wasn’t feeling up to any of it; I was having a hard time breaking out of the cynicism and paralysis I’d sunk into by the end of last week. Hearing from four organizers who worked on the most recent elections in Republican-heavy districts finally pierced through all of the frustration I’ve been feeling with the hot-takes that are a constant stream of news right now.

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