Trump was elected president, so I did what any sane person would do: quit my TV writing career of 18 years to join the Resistance full-time. I learned so much, so fast. I learned that the only place I felt sane was in a room full of people who felt as insane as I did. I learned that all activism is just talking to strangers. I learned how to register Democrats to vote from Christian Esperias, a magical organizer who won awards doing it for the Obama campaigns. I learned that my writing career was perfect training for organizing, where a story is the most effective way to make a connection. I learned how precious a sense of humor is in these dark times. I learned that organizing is just volunteering, but more so. And I learned I loved organizing with a fiery, all consuming passion.
Organizing was alchemy that turned lead into gold. I could channel all my frustration, sadness, and rage into passionate, positive conversations with strangers... and make a difference in my life, their lives, and the next elections! All I needed was a clipboard, a pen and a registration form: a magic piece of paper that turns good-hearted people into Democratic voters. And the work itself turned my pain into profound satisfaction, the joy of helping others empower themselves, using my voice to lift up theirs. It’s not that the inner turmoil went away… but now to counter it, I also had the inner peace of knowing I was doing all I could.
Above all, this work offered something my previous work never did: meaning. It made my whole life glow. I was hooked. I worked every day of the week and most nights too. And despite the mounting credit card debt, I could not stop.
Everything in my life had trained me for this. At 44, I discovered what I was put on Earth to do.
I got the CA Democratic Party to hire me as Regional Organizer for LA County, and I rallied a volunteer army who topped the DCCC national charts, registered 6,000+ Democratic voters – and helped flip 5 swing districts in the 2018 midterms, including all of Orange County. A few weeks later, I founded Field Team 6 with a simple mission: Register Democrats. Save the World.
We went broke about 36 times in 2019, and the next year COVID hit – but instead of ending us, it forced us to crack the nut of digital outreach. We built a database that is now 9 million unregistered likely Democrats, the vast majority in swing states. Using this database – the only one of its kind – Field Team 6 helped register 785,000 Democratic voters in 2020… voters who comprised 89% of Biden’s victory margin in Wisconsin, 6 times his entire victory margin in Arizona, and 5 times his margin in Georgia… the 3 states that tipped the Electoral College.
By the 2022 midterms, we brought our total to 2.6 million Democratic voters. Field Team 6 now has almost 18,000 volunteers nationwide, and a volunteer staff of over 100, who lead over 20 different highly specialized teams. By any metric, Field Team 6 has been and continues to be a raging success. My heart glows with joy every time I think about this – which is multiple times every day.
This success belongs entirely to our volunteers and donors across the country, who are vast majority women. We are blessed beyond belief by their heart, their skill, their hard work, their generosity. And most of our volunteers are also donors, which is unusual and beautiful. We will continue to need each and every one of them, and more, as we do all we can to scale up for 2024, the toughest battle we’ve ever faced.
Currently, Field Team 6 is registering new swing state Democrats in order to take back the House, save the Senate, and keep the White House in 2024. Our goal is to raise $3 million to help register 3 million new Democratic voters, and WIN IT ALL. Not in a nail-biter this time, but decisively. If we do that, we codify Roe, pass game-changing voting rights, and crush Trump fascism once and for all. LET’S GOOOOOOOOO!!!! - Jason Berlin, Founder and Executive Director, Field Team 6
This is quite long as it’s our first post (and Jason, like Mark Twain (or Blaise Pascal), didn’t have time to write something shorter). We’ll post more concise things at least once a week going forward.
And we’ll always post one or two things for you to do in the coming week (out of the many, many options).
#1 National Voter Registration Day Rally + Drive (Tues, 9/19/23, 2p PT)
#2 Phonebank to register Louisiana Democrats (Tues, 9/19/23, 7p CT)