New MVP Partner, With Many Hands, Organizing Working-Class Voters in Top-Priority New Mexico U.S. House District

There was a beautiful profile piece just written on MVP’s new partner in New Mexico, With Many Hands, which captures the craft of deep organizing and its implications both for long-term power building and for Democrats’ push to reclaim the U.S. House this November. The piece is written by George Geohl, former Executive Director of MVP national partner People’s Action, and it’s worth a read in full.

A few quotes:

“It’s all organizing, but with different tools.”

On how they’re using online-to-offline organizing masterfully to move new volunteers and leaders from attention to interest to ongoing engagement:

Tomás started by posting snarky memes about the cost of living, and engaging people who liked or shared those memes. A direct message turned into a phone call, a phone call into a one-on-one, and hundreds of one-on-ones into a real on-the-ground membership with hundreds of working-class people who are willing to act together to make their communities better.

For those of us who come out of a strict door-knocking or one on one model, think of the meme as the door knock, the direct message as the initial conversation on the doors, and the phone call as the actual one on one. It’s all organizing, but with different tools.

“They meet people where they’re at”

On how they craft their agenda and build buy-in from the bottom-up, instead of imposing a set of issues from the top down:

With Many Hands runs deep in the fundamentals. They meet people where they’re at– working on issues identified by the members themselves, never selling an issue chosen by staff or philanthropy. The issues that the members chose were food, land, and housing and the organizing has been more effective because these were the most widely and deeply felt issues.

They don’t insist that people agree with them on all things before contributing their leadership, or move people through ideologically focused workshops, but instead the political development happens through the fights they are in. They learn who’s on their side when their demands are met, or aren’t. 

…The result is that With Many Hands has hundreds of volunteers and people who attend their events. The majority of the people involved aren’t necessarily interested in politics, nor have they historically looked to the government to solve their problems.

“Most of the people who showed up do not traditionally engage in organizing or politics”

With Many Hands – Jeneva Martinez opening a candidate forum on housing

On how their locally-rooted grassroots organizing could actually determine which party controls the U.S. House next year:

New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District is rated by Cook Political Report as one of the two dozen US House races that will determine which party controls the US Congress. The newly organized people in the district will have something to say about the outcome.

On September 7th, they hosted a food and housing summit, with over 200 people on hand. Most of the people who showed up do not traditionally engage in organizing or politics, but because the issues were chosen by them, they are getting engaged.  

They invited both Congressional candidates and sitting Congressman Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat, came and connected with the crowd. His Republican challenger, Yvette Herrell, did not attend. Also on hand were candidates for statehouse races.

Out of this event, they began their get out the vote campaign in earnest. Courtney and Jeneva have brought on a group of their most dedicated leaders as organizing fellows. They are receiving organizing training and will run voter mobilization campaigns, starting with their own circles of people who tend to sit out elections, and building out from there.

If you want a deeper dive into the craft of organizing, read the full profile piece here — and sign up for George Goehl’s Fundamentals of Organizing newsetter.