A critical discussion about the upcoming 2026 midterm elections and the pressing need for grassroots mobilization in the face of staggering opposition funding. Gary Lucks, author of *We Are the Power to Win the Future*, joins host Kay Brown, to lay out a strategic game plan for progressives aiming to reclaim democracy. Gary emphasizes the importance of organizing, fundraising, and engaging with the community to ensure every voice is heard and every vote counts. Tune in to discover how you can be part of the solution and help turn the tide in our favor.

Takeaways:

• We need to mobilize our grassroots efforts and raise funds early to counteract the significant financial advantage held by opponents post-Citizens United.
• Joining local organizations is crucial for individuals feeling isolated, as collective action empowers us to effect real change in our political landscape.
• The upcoming elections require us to win by a substantial margin; complacency will not suffice, as history shows us that narrow victories can lead to disastrous outcomes.
• Engaging with the 90 million Americans who didn’t vote in the last elections is essential, as their participation can significantly shift the political balance.
• Effective grassroots activities, like knocking on doors and phone banking, can increase voter turnout and prove vital in tight races where every vote counts.
• Utilizing virtual fundraising events could amplify our efforts to gather resources efficiently, allowing us to support democratic initiatives and candidates on the ground.

Mentioned in this episode:

Leigh McGowan UAN Promo Stinger - Short -[2026]

The Path to the U.S. Senate Runs Through Alaska (Promo)

With Citizens United and the recent Supreme Court case, we are definitely in trouble because they have a war chest with oligarchic contributions and limited judicial constraints.

So they're going to outspend us this time.

And I worry about people thinking, well, the wind's at our back.

I'll be complacent.

I'll just call it in and we're going to be fine.

But people have to come away with the recognition that, no, we can't win by a small margin.

If Orban won by a small margin, he'd still be in power today.

We have to win by an overwhelming margin because notwithstanding the tailwinds, they're headwinds.

Welcome to Democracy on Fire.

I'm Kay Brown.

I'm so glad you're here and that you're paying attention to the political crisis unfolding around us.

I'm really looking forward to this conversation because it's so important that we have a successful election and get things back on track.

So thank you, Gary, for organizing all this information.

I took a quick read of your book, and there's a lot of very useful information in there, and I agree with everything you said.

So why don't you tell us about the plan?

What's the plan to win?

How are we going to do it?

Well, thank you for having me.

And so tomorrow is July 4th, right?

And it's the 250th anniversary of our country.

And it's a time of peril, but also a time of opportunity.

And I wrote the book because I think there are so many books and thought leaders that are speaking about what the problem is and what's wrong with our administration and why we're here.

But there's nothing I've ever seen out there that captures how we navigate our way out of this mess.

And there's so much that people can do, and the beginning is just realizing that we can do this and that even though people feel demoralized, but coming together with kindred spirits.

Number one is joining an organization.

There's so many organizations.

We list about 80 of them in the book.

And so Indivisible is a great organization.

Activate America is one of the organizations we actually helped fund with our first fundraiser.

And now they're nationwide.

There's Commit to Democracy, there's Swing Left, there's the States Project, and on and on.

There are 80 organizations.

So, number one, join a group because so many people feel powerless, isolated, and disempowered.

And here's an opportunity to find political connections with people that care, regardless of where you live.

So, number one, join an organization.

We list them all by function and organizational activities, so that'd be number one.

Number two, the Democrats are gonna be outraised this time for the first time in many election cycles.

So we have to raise money early.

And it's not late, but early money matters because that's an opportunity for these organizations to hire organizers to get the field operations underway so when people show up after Labor Day, they can plug in and be effective.

So, and I'm happy to talk more about how people can raise money because we have a whole methodology that we raised almost a half a million dollars in just three months.

And we're just one little indivisible group.

If the 2,500 indivisible groups in the country all did the same, we can match the war chests that the other side has.

So there's much more to say, and I can go into depth.

But I'll give you two or three more at a highlight.

One is we're at farmer's markets every weekend, and that's where we are the trusted advisors to bring people into the fold, whether we register, register them to vote, or connect them to opportunities to give money or time to get the vote out.

And then lastly, at the high level here, we're four months out.

And so people should consider taking election day off.

And if you're a lawyer, we need legal protection.

So there are organizations I list in the book on how you can get training to protect the vote.

Like, it will definitely be a challenge in terms of free and fair election, so lawyers can step up.

If you're a college student, you can register voters on campus.

If you're a retiree, there's lots you can do.

And whether you're working, all kinds of opportunities to walk precincts, knock on doors, write postcards.

Text bank and phone bank.

And so there's a lot we can do, and it's time to make that commitment now.

And we complain a lot, take a fraction of that time in which we complain, and turn that into action with a weekly commitment of at least an hour or two and maybe more.

So I know a lot of people feel like, oh, my little contribution doesn't matter, maybe my vote doesn't matter.

And so how do you break through and really convince people that this is important and that their participation does matter and that we need every hand on deck?

What are some of the things that you say to try to convince people?

Yeah, there's so many reasons to be optimistic.

This election is a cycle of opportunity with a tailwind for all kinds of reasons.

First of all, the Democrats, at least historically in recent times, have won seven of the last nine elections by the popular vote.

But because the Electoral College, we didn't win all of the White House opportunities, but we are winning elections.

But we've won virtually all major elections.

So the wind is at our back.

Trump's poll numbers are abysmal.

We have more enthusiasm by far than the other side.

So we can do really well.

And so compared to districts where there was disinvestment or no investment at all.

So we are within razor thin margins of winning back both houses.

As you mentioned, just three seats in the House.

So 2 to 4% moves the needle.

You've got lapsed activists that are demoralized, but at the end of the day, the data proves that we move the needle.

And the key point about the 2 to 4% that moves the needle by investing with getting the vote out.

There were that translates in most congressional districts to about 6,000 votes.

So it really matters.

And you know, I'm here in California, an hour and a half drive is a congressional district that was one by a Democrat by under 200 votes.

So it matters.

Not just boots on the ground, but even small dollar donations add up and we need all of the above.

Well, one of the things I was interested to read in your book was how many people did not bother to vote, did not show up.

Close to 90 million Americans did not participate.

And that's more than voted for either of the other candidates.

With Trump getting 77 million and Harris 75 million across the country, the, the non participating 90 million people had an outsized impact on the outcome.

And that's the group that we need to get involved and we need to connect those dots about why what's happening to us really matters.

I saw one thing that said, you know, if you want to do something more than just show it, show up at a protest.

You need to read Gary's book because it's kind of the next step.

I remember the day after the first no Kings protest.

I was.

That was no Kings was on a Saturday.

And the next day I was at a nearby farmer's market handing out a couple, you know, a couple hundred flyers on how we can defeat vulnerable Republicans and a woman, I handed her a flyer and she said, oh, I went to no Kings yesterday.

I'm good.

And I said, really?

I mean, posting your pictures and calling it good is not nearly enough.

It's one of 31 flavors.

And, and we will fail if we just do the feel good show up at protests.

Not to diminish the importance of protests because there's all kinds of data suggesting that indirectly and otherwise, it does move the needle, but it's just not enough and we have to get back to grassroots involvement.

I visited a close college friend in Tucson, Arizona and several of my friends elsewhere.

We all converged on my friend's house and we spent three weekends walking precincts.

And on the very last day, I think it was election day, I was a little tired and I was thinking, man, I do not want to knock on another door.

I'm just kind of done.

And I got back into my rental car and I don't know where.

I just had this inspiring thought that who am I to complain about knocking on another door.

To me it's service because so many people, our ancestors and others, have given the ultimate sacrifice in terms of fighting and dying on the battlefield.

I go back to see my friends for a nice dinner, talk about the day, and it's a tiny sacrifice.

And for my entire life I've taken for granted the rule of law and democracy and all these, these freedoms and opportunities that are in peril.

And at the end of the day, it's a small bit of investment.

So working the farmer's markets on the weekends, I don't always want to do it, but the alternative is just unacceptable.

So the other thing I just wanted to share with you too is people are somewhat intimidated by the idea of, well, knocking on doors for strangers seems a bit intimidating, especially if you haven't done it before.

But at the end of the day, people need to know that you're not persuading people.

There's something known as deep canvassing, which I write about, which is persuasion, but that's a longer game.

But the vast majority of what we need now in the near term is just talking to folks in friendly territory, in target rich environments.

Because if there are 90 million people that sat on the sidelines, and that's for all kinds of reasons from disinformation, people feeling like the vote doesn't count, that's unfortunately a headwind.

But there are occasional voters, the ones we're targeting, that need that nudge and knocking on doors has a turnout effectiveness of 7%.

It's the most effective.

And then the next most effective effort is phone banking.

And the vast majority of times you're talking to people on your side or leaving messages, but you're not having to persuade Someone.

So that's 3 to 4% effective in turning out the vote.

And then down from there is postcarding, writing personal postcards to people who've been ignored for a long period of time, and that's 1 to 2% effective.

And then lastly, text banking to remind people of the details of where to vote and logistics.

That's a half a percent.

So there's a lot that we can do to take those 90 million people.

And secondly, there were 230,000 votes in three states, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, that electorally could have shifted in our column.

So really narrow margins and there was no mandate, despite what he says.

So it's up to us to step into action.

So the money Angle, you mentioned that the Republicans are expected, or we know right now they have a much larger amount of money accumulated for this than the Democrats do.

In fact, the Democrats might be in debt and struggling to raise money at the national level.

What are you recommending or what's your program for?

How grassroots groups.

Grassroots groups can help with this?

Yeah, thank you for that.

It's important to talk about this because historically, the Republicans outspent the Democrats and progressives.

And then in recent cycles, we've caught up with small dollar donations.

But with Citizens United and the recent Supreme Court case, we are definitely in trouble because they have a war chest with oligarchic contributions and limited judicial constraints.

So they're gonna outspend us this time.

So, number one, we have to embrace the Democratic Party.

Yes, they failed in some ways in the recent election.

There are many things that they're doing right, and they're back to voter registration, where they let it go.

So there's lessons learned.

So we have to not demonize the Democratic Party.

We will fail if we do.

We have to embrace them in partnership with the NGOs and the grassroots organizations I write about in the book.

So together we need to support both.

And the way we do that is through the strategy.

I'll share with you in a moment, which is what we call parties for democracy or virtual parties for democracy.

We spent six months planning to raise money, and we were closing in on having Bonnie Raitt perform and David Crosby.

And then the effort was derailed by Covid.

And so instead of giving up, we pivoted and we did virtual parties.

And it's an underutilized strategy.

And not only is it underutilized, if it's used, it's not done well enough.

We have a whole toolkit on how to do it.

And so, as I mentioned, we raised $450,000 in three months.

And the way we did it was we found lots of hosts or co hosts to celebrate a birthday, a half Birthday, an anniversary or some event, and invite their friends and family across the country.

And for a light lift with a big payoff, with limited time and effort, maybe four to five hours on average.

We've raised $10,000 per party.

So take 100, take 10 people, that's $100,000.

And the money can go to the Democratic Party, it can go to Activate America, it can go to Flip the Vote, it can go to the states, project any of the organizations I list.

So the host decides which organization organizations to support.

And people thank us because they are so overwhelmed by these unwanted texts and emails.

For money, you can unsubscribe because it's a curated, strategic effort that you educate your friends and family on giving money where we know it moves the needle effectively, so people thank us for it.

And the money really moves the needle in the left or blue direction.

And early money matters.

So now's the time to do it.

And I have a whole toolkit on our [email protected], g a r y l u c k-s.com on how you can do that.

And we work with you.

We just did two parties and raised $40,000 recently.

And it works.

It's just underutilized.

And we can help you curate it with a light lift or a big payoff.

And where can people find your book?

So the book is available at Barnes and Noble, it's available at your local bookstore.

You can order it there and have it delivered.

It's on Amazon.

It was the number one new release for political advocacy during the duration of new releases.

So it's available on Amazon and also on an ebook.

And so it just came out about six weeks ago.

I have a whole piece on how we can beat autocracy, but the only way we do it, we have to win by a landslide.

And I worry about people thinking, well, the wind's at our back.

I'll be complacent.

I'll just call it in and we're going to be fine.

But people have to come away with the recognition that, no, we can't win by a small margin.

If Orban won by a small margin, he'd still be in power today.

We have to win by an overwhelming margin because notwithstanding the tailwinds, they're headwinds.

So we go with what we have at our back with the wind at our back.

But we don't give up, and we leave it all in the playing field with no regrets.

And on November 4, we wake up and realize we can get some accountability.

We get some guardrails politically and we can start reclaiming our democracy.

So let's do it.

We need everybody, if you're listening, please get this book.

If you're not sure what you could do, there's a lot of specific strategic information in there that will be helpful.

And we just encourage you to whatever your niche is, whatever your small contributions contribution is, it matters and it will make a difference.

And if we all do a little, it'll add up to a lot.

And this is the time, now is the time for everybody to get involved.

So thank you so much, Gary, for being here and chatting with us and for writing this book and helping mobilize Americans to take back our democracy, which is on fire.

So thank you.

Well, yeah, we are the cavalry and we are the power.

So let's use that power.

So thanks so much for having me.

Really appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thanks a lot.

This is Lee McGowan, otherwise known as Politics Girl, and you are watching the United America Network.