logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Advancing from New Ground Taken: What Civil Society Must Bring Forward from the Midterms

Ruth McCambridge
November 7, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
“Barbara Jordan Forum 2012,” Georgia State Representative Stacey Abrams

November 6, 2018; Vox

While last night’s blue wave was no tsunami, the gains made on our electoral landscape are both distinct and instructive to the rest of civil society.

Make a note: Leaders of color and issues of marginalized communities are taking center stage, and we must all step up to help center them in our future discourse.

In the context of unprecedented numbers of candidates of color, Andrew Gillum in Florida and Stacy Abrams in Georgia broke new ground in the South with races that were unabashedly progressive. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which has held until now that Black candidates in the region must run on a strictly centrist platform. Though he did not win the election, Gillum was the first-ever Black gubernatorial nominee in that state and ran a campaign that acted as a powerful wedge into the future. Abrams still could be the nation’s first African American woman governor.

Race was made so central to this election that trying to ignore it, or not name the social and economic truths it has consistently informed, was impossible. For this, we might thank President Trump for taking such extreme racist positions that they had to be countered straight-on. But, let’s face it, most of the thanks owed go to the young activists who have framed and pursued racial justice in an entirely bold new way that recognizes the power of an unflinching counternarrative and intersectional interests with other marginalized people.

But, lest we believe we have turned any absolute corner, the Washington Post reports that taunting and obstruction efforts heightened as the energy for racial and social justice ramped up on the electoral front. Both Gillum and Abrams were the focus of stomach-turning, racist robocalls, and Abrams was subject to a series of obvious ploys by her sitting-secretary-of-state opponent to manipulate and suppress the vote.

Other advances last night were made in a series of “firsts.” (That these were firsts tells us much about the “stuck” nature of the paradigm and image of leadership in this country.) In New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be the youngest woman ever to sit in a congressional seat, and Ayanna Pressley is Massachusetts’ first black congressperson. Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib are the first Muslim women to be seated in the House. Sharice Davids of Kansas has become the first Native American woman to serve in this country’s House of Representatives.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Davids, perhaps, best describes the upsurge of feeling across the country when she says she wants democracy as much as she wants to breathe.

Too many of us have gone through our entire lives not feeling seen and not feeling heard. That is the thing that is going to be the hugest difference between what we had before, and the direction that we’ve seen this country going, and what we have the opportunity to do in this midterm election. We have the opportunity this time to elect people who have been telling you that they want to listen to you, because you should be heard, that they want to see you, because you have to be seen. That is the core of this campaign.

Mark Trahant of Indian Country Today wrote a few days ago that not only is 2018 a record year for Native American electoral candidates, but more of them were women than men. This conforms to a larger picture, in that 2018 has been a record-setting year for women candidates for elected office. All these remarkable candidates of color had a powerful ground game, veritable movements full of activist leaders. Former congressional candidate Denise Juneau comments:

There is a pipeline of people, a pipeline of Native women now that is being built, not just for stepping up and raising your hand, and running for this seat, but also Native women working on campaigns and Native women being involved at central committees, democratic central committees, and Native women finding their place in mainstream politics.

That, she says, is the power that must be drawn through and built on well beyond this election.

As a sector, we are implicated in this potential future. Civic engagement, which had seen a decrease in nonprofit funding over the last decade, has made a sort of comeback, riding the wave of powerful social movements. I hope we are learning our lessons: that supporting civic engagement is a core and permanent strategy for the sector, that this strategy needs strong infrastructure, and that our organizations should be breeding grounds for democratic structures and practices. Now let’s get to work building a more collective future.—Ruth McCambridge

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: voter suppressionCivil SocietyNative American organizingNonprofit NewsPolicyPoliticswomen in politics

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation between Cyndi Suarez and Claire Dunning
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez
Nonprofits as Battlegrounds for Democracy
Cyndi Suarez
What Did California Miss with Its Recent Slashing of a Key Solar Incentive?
Maria Stamas
The Best Elections Money Can Buy
Steve Dubb
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
The book "Nonprofit Neighborhoods" leaning against a wall
The Nonprofit Sector and Social Change: A Conversation...
Claire Dunning and Cyndi Suarez
Nonprofits as Battlegrounds for Democracy
Cyndi Suarez
Asian man in black suit jacket and striped pants, facing towards a wall, leaning his head against the wall.
What Did California Miss with Its Recent Slashing of a Key...
Maria Stamas

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.