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Liza Hameline's avatar

I am exhausted, knocking on so many doors, no one has ever knocked on these doors. And I am unleashing voters and guess what else, in 2 days I have recruited 3 precinct chairs and 2 block walkers right out of the door. Why? Because I talked to them about what mattered and made this election about them. I have so much to say both good and bad about what is happening in my City in this run off. We have 77 precincts. And we have 6 precinct chairs actually lifting more than a finger. I have not even been sworn in and I am working so many doors. Why? Cause I actually know what the fuck a precinct chair is supposed to do because I learned it from Kelly Blackburn, the Democratic chair in Ellis County, and a very special man that I met two weeks ago has helped me focus my energy on what actually works.

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Michelle H. Davis's avatar

I’m friends with Kelly, and I love her. Maybe I need to interview you about tactics we should be using everywhere.

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Liza Hameline's avatar

100% yes. What is happening in my city is what will happen to every other city and every democratic state rep. There are so many factors at play. I have talked to consultants who think it is situation as usual and this is why we keep losing in election after election.

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Mubashir Saleem's avatar

I give you all the power of my respect to you for that honestly. Thats the democratic party has to do. Its to respect us to win elections. This is what we call the grassroots and activism that the democratic party has taken for granted. We are currently also dealing with our own situation in NYC where i am incredibly exhausted as we are canvassing, phonebanking, and running ads to get our first progressive candidate to be elected as Mayor in NYC. we are working hard to prevent Cuomo and Adams to get elected who are literally part of the right wing establishment that literally uses the same rhetoric democrats used back in 2024. At this point we are in a proxy battle between progressives and conservative democratic establishment in NYC.

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Liza Hameline's avatar

As someone who grew up in Upstate New York, I can tell you why upstate was red for so long. That rural upbringing helps me identify with rural voters. I have lived in suburban texas when it was red and then when it turned blue and I have lived downtown in a solid blue area. I have lived it all, and I have been on the front lines. I would never call myself a progressive but in Texas if you don’t believe consultants and work a grass roots campaign and change all strategy when you listen to voters then yes I am a progressive. And as someone who knows a lot about New York politics, bringing back Cuomo cause he is a white man with name recognition is the absolute most terrible idea. But I am fighting an absolute machine that can churn out money like it is printing it. It is hot and hard work, but knocking on doors is what actually works and we cannot leave anyone out. I lean something from every single voter.

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Mubashir Saleem's avatar

Amen! You may not be progressive in the sense of ideas for yourself but what do we is considered progressive action. At the end of the day its our grassroots organizing that is key to building a powerful movement not corporate power. but that doesnt mean you dont understand the power of grassroots and activism. At the end of the day what you mentioned is exactly needed. You know the drill on the efforts it takes and how we have to continue to show up for those communities. To me that what a progressive value is. We have to be inclusive and show up and stand up for every community there is whether they be rural, suburban or urban.

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Michelle H. Davis's avatar

Can AOC primary Chuck Schumer please?

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Mubashir Saleem's avatar

Oh believe me our group is trying to advocate for that. She is from our DSA chapter but at the end of the day our chapter gives her a bit more leeaway because she is one of the most effective communicators we have from our chapter well in the entire United States.

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Michelle H. Davis's avatar

I love her so much. She’s amazing. I would vote for her on the presidential ticket, even though everyone is telling Democrats not to run anymore women 😭

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Mubashir Saleem's avatar

Michelle. I will be very blunt with you. The momentum doesnt mean anything if democratic officials and politicians think its appropriate to sell off their values in order to save their careers or adopt far right talking points. I am starting to see that so often that it is quite difficult to even keep hope. I will be direct where i say if i ever see Kendall or any of the democratic officials that think its appropriate to throw any communities under the bus simply to court the mythical moderate republicans and independents i will never forgive you all. This was a hard lesson in 2024 and i expect everyone in Texas understands that you cannot take any of our communities for granted and abandon them.

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Michelle H. Davis's avatar

I 100% agree with you. 2024, everyone should have learned their lesson. I will add this caveat, if a race boils down to a Republican and a moderate Dem, we have to vote AGAINST the Republican. And then focus on a primary next session. Sitting out cannot be an option. But the party needs to be unapologetic about our values.

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Mubashir Saleem's avatar

In that situation i understand but this is more then just a simple race against a republican and a moderate dem. There are so many democrats that are now starting to normalize some of the rhetoric far right republicans use and all it does its just normalizes them and justifies their violence, cruelty, and scarily of all Nihilism. This is literally what it boils down to. The republican party has officially gone done a path of Nihilism and we cannot have democrats that continue to give them that power to Nihilism.

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Michelle H. Davis's avatar

Yes, I agree.

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Mubashir Saleem's avatar

If i ever see anything that indicates that i will never forgive the democratic party because that means you all have no values and a party that has no values and a vision is determined to lose the future.

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Eva Camacho Guzman's avatar

The article was heavy! I felt little!

We need more help.

As of today, we have 7 precinct chairs to swear in on June 10th County Executive Committee CEC. I need more but Bexar Elections has 1 (that I know of) programmed wrong. I call on Wednesday and was told it was fixed before I got off. My potential chair tried to apply Thursday and it wasn’t able to because the it has not been fixed.

Our Precinct Recruitment and Training Committee (PRCT) meets Monday June 2, after that she will have to wait to get sworn in until the July CEC meeting. I wonder how many others. 😑

We also need more Rep. Talarico’s too.

However, the commitment to run is brutal to a candidate. Their finances, family, body and soul! Would any of you do it? ☺️

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Michelle H. Davis's avatar

Yeah. I know how brutal it is. But in a state of 30 million people, we surely have enough people who want change enough. Maybe I’m too optimistic. But then again, no one said it would be easy.

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Virgin Monk Boy's avatar

Texas isn't red. It’s just gerrymandered and gaslit.

The GOP didn’t win Texas—they wore it down. Voter suppression, burnout, and billionaires turned this state into a ghost town of democracy.

But guess what? The ghosts are waking up.

This isn’t a call for one more charismatic savior in denim—this is a street-level spiritual uprising.

We don’t need more speeches. We need precinct chairs with clipboards and holy rage.

We need grandmas registering voters, queer teens turning out the block, ex-Baptists knocking doors like it’s the gospel of “Not Today, Dan Patrick.”

Because when 31% of Texas sat out the last election, that wasn’t apathy—it was alienation.

But alienation can be unlearned.

Resurrection starts at the bottom of the ballot. Run for school board. Sign up as a precinct chair. Show up at city hall like it’s the Temple and flip some damn tables.

Texas doesn’t need to flip.

It needs to remember itself.

—Virgin Monk Boy

Still casting out demons with voter rolls and anointing ballots with sacred sass.

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Michelle H. Davis's avatar

The word.

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Virgin Monk Boy's avatar

Love it. Here’s the meme we’re circulating — this version can be printed and distributed:

👉 https://www.virginmonkboy.com/p/virgin-monk-boy-patron-saint-against

Quick background: Sister R (Virgin Monk Boy’s original creator) is also putting together a front/back poster card version — one side will have a scannable QR (join the revolution), the other will have the meme. Designed to be handed out widely.

We’re not looking for funds — we’re looking for help building a solid list of distribution points so we can get as many cards as possible into the right hands:

👉 everyday Christians of conscience

👉 spiritual-but-not-religious folks

👉 and crucially — Christian nationalists themselves. We want them reading these words, hoping something might crack. These folks are under a spell — marinated in grievance and power politics so long they’ve forgotten the words Jesus actually spoke: love your enemies, lift the lowly, set captives free. We’re aiming to slip that mirror back in front of them.

If you’ve got ideas for Texas audiences / networks where this would resonate — or even make its way into some of their hands — we’d love your input.

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Michelle H. Davis's avatar

"The GOP didn’t win Texas—they wore it down."

I couldn't have said it better. 100%.

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Virgin Monk Boy's avatar

Hey Michelle—since you resonated with this, wanted to share something we’re circulating through Virgin Monk Boy:

It’s a meme intentionally designed (with input from a published expert in Art History and meme strategy) to do 3 things:

👉 Disrupt the false narratives of Christian Nationalism

👉 Expose the non-virtues it’s built on—idolatry, domination, weaponized faith

👉 Replace them with true virtue—love, justice, awakening, the Gospel of truth (which is love and inclusivity.

We need to learn that when a comet is heading toward Earth, holding signs yelling “Bad comet, go away!” isn’t going to work.

We need to redirect it—and that starts with reshaping the imagination and moral language that Christian Nationalism has hijacked.

This meme is one small lever toward that redirection.

If you’d like to see it or help amplify, just say the word. It’s already getting shared.

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Shekhar S.'s avatar

Well said. Agreed. 👍

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