The Balancing Act
Balancing the outrage, work, and self care has never been more important.
Dear Fellow Democrat,
We must use the outrage as fuel for the work that is critical to winning back our country. And gods know there is plenty of that particular type of fuel! Every day I get multiple calls asking if I've heard or what are we going to do about the latest breaking news... these last few days have been particularly overwhelming with the new unredacted news coming out from the Epstein files - or as our Bridge Protest Team puts it: Epstein is in the Trump Files! His name appears over one million times in the files. It's truly inconceivable, in the most literal sense. But what I'm telling everyone - and now YOU, dear Reader, is that we cannot directly affect anything to do with those global outrages... what we CAN do is LOCAL!!!
As we talked about last week, we have lots of opportunity and responsibility right here in Richardson to support races that will make a huge impact on our day-to-day lives. The state representatives - Orlando Lopez for HD33, Zach Herbert for HD112, and Keenen Colbert for SD2, as well as Dan Barrios for CD32 at the Congressional level - have the opportunity (just like SD9 winner Taylor Rehmet) to win in an unprecedented way. With Taylor's win, we know that working hard in this outrageous time is a formula to win again! Incumbent Representative Mihaela Plesa is going to be working HARD and needs our help! And today, we are rolling out our 2026 RAD Primary Endorsements - so there are LOTS more races that we can work on!
Speaking of Self-Care... we have a women's group who are meeting monthly called Kindred Table and this month we'll be meeting on the 15th from 2-4 at Arapaho United Methodist to learn more about Somatic Practices. If you want to join us, you can find out more here. If that's not your thing (or if you're not a woman), I hope you're doing things that fill your tank - take a walk in nature, laugh out loud with friends, read some Good News, or whatever brings you joy. Remember that there is always something to be consciously thankful for, even (and especially) in these dark times.
And speaking of THANKFUL... We are up to 160 registered for our upcoming RAD Happy Hour!! Gina Hinojosa for Governor (who just released a new poll that shows her within 3 points of Abbot - a statistical tie!!!) will be joining us, along with Vikki Goodwin for Lt. Gov, Jose Loya for Land Commissioner, and Michael Lange for Comptroller! I expect our new location at Northside Drafthouse (by UTD) to be filled to overflow capacity, so plan to get there early AND BE CAREFUL TO PARK ONLY IN RETAIL SPACES or back in the DART Silverline parking lot and take a nice stroll in the amazing February weather! Please register for details - you do NOT want to miss this meeting! And not to bury the lede, but after eight years of working towards this, I'm so excited to announce that BETO WILL BE JOINING US AS WELL!!!! Come hear how you can get involved with Powered by People and help get new folks to the polls!!
And speaking of POLLS... Early Voting starts on Tuesday, February 17th! Fellow Democrat, if you have EVER felt that voting early was important, let me assure you, THIS TIME??, IT IS MANDATORY!!! Especially in Dallas County - you can vote anywhere in the county during Early Voting, but on Election Day, you have to vote in YOUR Precinct... and the Democrat voting location is different than the Republican voting location... it's a (MAGA) MESS! In Collin County, the new voting on paper ballots by hand will make the process much slower. In both counties, the best way to get it done with minimal issue is to just vote early. ALSO ~~~ if you usually vote by mail, PLEASE consider voting in person. Even if you need to vote curbside, just do it if you can. If you HAVE to vote by mail, BE SURE you get it hand postmarked!! If you just drop it in your mailbox or at the local mailbox, you cannot be assured that it will be postmarked, much less delivered in time to be counted. MAGA Republicans continue to do everything they can to disenfranchise voters! We have to step up our voting game in every way. They can't win on their policies, ideas or extremist candidates, so they are making it harder and harder to vote.
As usual, we continue to show up weekly, ROARing on the bridge and with our signs! We are now FIVE months into our weekly protests, and they continue to be a fun and effective way to be inspiring to others and to lift our spirits in community. You can join the ROAR Bridge Brigade on Thursday evenings from 3:30 - 5:30 and Saturday mornings from 9-10 on the Collins Blvd Bridge over I-75 (park at Cafe Max on the east side and walk up!); they are always happy to have more hands to hold the banners and flags and wave at the honking cars on Central! We also meet every Saturday morning from 10-11 on the southeast corner of Campbell & 75 to let our community know that there is a resistance in Richardson! Join Us!
This is just the beginning, folks. It is going to be a LONG year to get to the midterms and it will require everything of all of us. Buckle up, focus on what we CAN do, what we MUST do, and TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.
~ See You Soon ~
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Once again, if you haven't done so yet, we invite you to join or renew your membership in Richardson Area Democrats. Your suggested donation of $10/month will help us continue to build this inclusive community! Thanks for all you do.
