An FDR-sized presidency + invite to a live post-VP-debate chat!
By Ezra Levin, Indivisible Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director
Think about it: In about five weeks we get to stop obsessing over GOTV — and start obsessing over using our new Democratic Congress and presidency to codify reproductive freedom and pass democracy reform. It’s a good thought — let’s make it a reality. Welcome to the bi-weekly-ish newsletter, where I get to share some reflections on what I’m seeing, brag about what the Indivisible movement is doing, and engage in some genuine discussion — and occasionally share adorable pics of our kids (read on). With that, let’s start with a quick summary:
The News: This week, Harris became the first presidential candidate in history to run on reforming the filibuster as a means to passing a transformative legislative agenda. This is good policy, and smart politics, that shows she’s not just serious about winning, but serious about governing too.
The Brag: The arc of this fight for filibuster reform has been long, but it’s bent towards us winning the damn thing. Indivisible has been on the forefront of this fight for years — taking it from impossible to nigh on inevitable.
The Discussion: I heard from hundreds of you about Harris’ performance and what your GOTV plans are. There’s a lot happening on the ground, and the first and only VP debate comes this Tuesday. Why don’t we chat about it live the next day? Register for another Q&A coffee chat this Wednesday at 3pm ET/noon PT — and if it’s your first time, let us know and we’ll make extra effort to get to your questions.
The News: The “F” word I was waiting to hear on the campaign trail
I can’t tell you how thrilled I was at the news this week.
The first presidential candidate in history to take this on. Some are reporting that Kamala Harris isn’t after an “FDR-sized” presidency. But Harris herself contradicted that on the campaign trail this week when she became the first presidential candidate in history to campaign on filibuster reform as a means to enacting a transformative policy agenda! Harris is pursuing a very specific and practical kind of F-D-R presidency: Filibuster reform, Democracy legislation, and Reproductive rights.
Harris is building an electoral mandate for the legislation and reforms she wants enacted as president. The Biden-Harris campaign launched earlier this year with its first ads focused on January 6th and the need to protect our democracy, and Harris has committed to passing the democracy reforms to ban gerrymandering, get money out of politics, and protect voting rights. On reproductive freedom, Harris started the campaign season with a nationwide tour on reproductive freedom, and a commitment to restore these rights is part of just about every speech she gives.
Harris took a big step further when she became the first presidential candidate in history to campaign on reforming the filibuster this week. “I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back into law the protections for reproductive freedom.” This would be an odd move for someone planning to play small ball as president, but it’s a perfectly reasonable move for a presidential candidate taking serious steps to enact an ambitious legislative agenda with a small senate majority.
Reforming the filibuster is an unskippable first step to reproductive freedom and democracy legislation. Without filibuster reform, much of her legislative agenda is impossible, for the simple reason that Republicans — even in the minority — could veto it with the filibuster. Republicans in the Senate will not give Harris the votes to codify abortion rights; to protect IVF and birth control; to end gerrymandering; to get money out of politics; to project and expand voting rights. Similarly, raising minimum wage, preventing gun violence, protecting union rights, and economic proposals like childcare that don’t fit neatly into the annual budget process are all DOA in the absence of filibuster reform.
If you need any other evidence that this was an excellent move by Harris, read about Mitch McConnell crying about it. He knows this is smart, he knows it unlocks the potential for an historic legislative presidency, and he is not happy about it.
That’s big news, and it’s news I particularly delight in seeing given the Indivisible movement’s long history in the fight.
The Brag: From impossible to inevitable
This brag has been a long time coming.
Indivisible has taken this fight from the fringes to the forefront. In 2018, Leah and I started writing the Indivisible book with one clear first policy recommendation: reform of the filibuster. At our first national Indivisible convening in 2019, we brought Indivisible leaders together from all across the country with trainings on democracy and filibuster reform. We interviewed presidential candidates and asked all of them: would you amend the filibuster? And when Democrats secured the presidency and Congress in 2021, Indivisible immediately shifted into a national campaign to reform the filibuster. Everyone was, in short, really tired of hearing us talk about the filibuster.
Over the course of these last six years this issue has moved from the fringes to the frontlines of politics. When we first started talking to presidential candidates in 2019, none of them were in favor of filibuster reform publicly. Elizabeth Warren became the first, and some — though not all — followed. As a candidate in 2020 and early in his presidency, Joe Biden declined to endorse filibuster reform. In the summer of 2021 in a eulogy for civil rights legend John Lewis, Barack Obama embraced reform for the first time, calling the filibuster a “Jim Crow relic.” Towards the end of 2021, as negotiations stalled around the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and related democracy legislation, Biden relented and finally supported reform. But by then it was too late — the vote to reform the filibuster in order to pass democracy reform failed by two votes — with then-Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema siding with Mitch McConnell against the proposal.
But that’s history, and campaigns are about the future. And the future Harris is campaigning on is clear: The filibuster is on the way out.
Since 2018 when we started this campaign, we’ve moved essentially the entire Democratic Party. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that there will be no more pro-filibuster Democrats elected to higher office. Sinema and Manchin — the last opponents who caucused with Democrats — are both retiring from Congress this year. Sinema is likely to be replaced by Ruben Gallego, a pro-reform senator endorsed by Indivisibles across the state last year. And every single other candidate running in a competitive Senate election against a Republican this cycle — in Montana, Ohio, Florida, Texas, and Nebraska — is publicly running on filibuster reform.
All of those are tough races, but none of them is impossible — and only one of the pro-filibuster reform candidates needs to win to secure the 50 votes necessary for reform. As Senator Jeff Merkley, one of the key architects and historians of filibuster reform, told me in an interview earlier this year: If Democrats hold the Senate, we’ll have the votes for reform.
After we win, we have to run through the tape. Even if we elect Harris, and even if we manage to retake the House and hold the Senate, the fight won’t be over. In response to Harris’ comments this week, some sitting Democratic senators who have supported filibuster reform in the past are pumping the brakes now.
Here’s my commitment: For the next 37 days, we’re going to do everything we can to secure the White House, House, and Senate. Then we’re going to protect the results from inevitable Trump shenanigans that will fail. Then we’re going to celebrate. And then we’re going to get to work using grassroots pressure to push our newly elected Democratic trifecta to finally finish the filibuster job. If you’re into that, you can support that by clicking here to pitch in.
The Discussion: GOTV, VP Debate, October surprises — let’s talk about it live!
This election is within the “margin of effort.” Thank you for the hundreds of quite detailed responses you sent to my last questions about the presidential debate and about what you’re doing on the ground for GOTV! Here’s something that will not shock you: Indivisibles believe Harris crushed Trump in the debate. And also, Indivisibles are doing a TON of postcarding, textbanking, phonebanking, canvassing, and Neighbor2Neighbor-ing in battleground states and across the country.
In 2020, we won the election by 44,000 votes across three states. This year, the polls are just as close (if you believe them). This election is, as we say, within the “margin of effort.” I am so proud of this movement taking nothing for granted and leaving everything on the field.
There’s lots going on, and the first and only VP debate is this coming Tuesday, so let’s talk! Leah and I will host another Q&A coffee chat the day after the debate at 3pm ET/noon PT to debrief and chat about the status of campaigns. If you’ve never come before — welcome! These chats are pure Q&A to discuss organizing, strategy, messaging, and anything else on your mind 5 weeks before the election.
Here’s my ask to you: If you have come before, bring someone new to build this community. Folks can register and submit questions ahead of time here, and we’ll aim to make sure folks who are first-timers get their questions considered. As always, we’ll also take a lot of questions live.
I’ve filibustered enough. Hope to see you out there on the campaign trail!
