Field & Outreach, December 2024

Election Season Summits and Canvasses

The #Fight4HER campaign was in full swing this fall, as we prepared for the 2024 general election. In mid-September, there were #Fight4HER summits in our six target locations: Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; New Hampshire; Columbus, Ohio; and the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. In early October, voter education door knocking operations began in these same six locations. Read ahead for highlights from each one!

#Fight4HER summits

The #Fight4HER summits brought together a variety of reproductive health and rights experts and were an excellent opportunity for new and seasoned activists to learn about the Global Gag Rule and the bill to permanently end it, the Global HER Act.

At the Tucson summit, Cassandra Becerra, the District Scheduler for Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07), spoke about Rep. Grijalva’s commitment to reproductive rights, and warned of the threat to reproductive freedom that a future president could pose:

The Biden-Harris administration deserves our praise for beginning to repair that damage [of policies like the Global Gag Rule], but the truth is that any future administration can take us backward — so we really have to pay attention to who we’re bringing into office.

Phoenix summit participants heard from Dr. Misha Pangasa, an OB/GYN and a fellow at Physicians for Reproductive Health, about the real world impact of abortion bans:

It’s really challenging to provide the best care to your patients when there’s the looming threat of prosecution over your head … restrictive policy has a huge impact. There is so much gray area, that it creates a culture of fear.

The Las Vegas summit featured a keynote talk by Lauren Flores, a junior majoring in biology and engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A disability advocate, Lauren works to advance causes on campus that are important to her, and focuses on small actions that can lead to bigger social change.

For the New Hampshire summit, Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH-01) recorded a powerful video voicing support for reproductive rights, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) shared a personal letter thanking #Fight4HER activists for their organizing work in New Hampshire.

At the Columbus summit, State Rep. Anita Somani (D-11), a practicing OB/GYN for over 30 years, advocated for evidence-based legislation — the opposite of the baseless abortion bans that have been imposed in states across the country, including in Ohio, which had a six-week ban until it was struck down by a county judge in late October.

Participants at the Lehigh Valley summit included seven local students who are members of their high school’s National Organization for Women Campus Action Network. They arrived ready and willing to volunteer and to be active participants in the event, in a heartening reminder that members of the up-and-coming generation of young adults are eager to fight for rights and justice.

Email Rebecca: rharrington@popconnect.org

Voter education

At the beginning of October, non-partisan canvasses kicked off in our six locations. Teams worked diligently to knock on as many doors as possible, building voting plans with constituents. All told, organizers knocked on over 137,000 doors and spoke with 43,500 potential voters!

While the election didn’t go the way we had hoped, and we’re wary of another Trump administration and the devastating blow it will undoubtedly deal to reproductive freedom domestically and worldwide, we’re so proud of the hard work these amazing organizers, fellows, and deputy directors put into the #Fight4HER campaign this year. They gave it everything they had, and we are incredibly inspired and forever grateful.