Pushing back against the right requires crossing state lines. That’s exactly what the State Power Caucus is doing.
The election showed the potential and limits of that strategy, as the coalition blue states like California, Illinois and Massachusetts stayed Democratic and red states like Texas, Florida and Kentucky remained stubbornly red.
But electoral politics is just part of the battle.
Bringing stakeholders together
Made up of 22 member organizations in 15 states, the caucus is a peer-to-peer space focused on building a progressive movement that dethrones decades of right-wing rule across the country. The group’s map of member organizations helpfully highlights those states where all three branches of the state legislature are under Republican control. The caucus has a presence in seven such states: Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, Ohio and Kentucky.
The group was founded in 2017 by New Virginia Majority leader Jon Liss, who told Blue Tent he sees a lot of potential for a sea change in Southern politics.
“I think most of us who do work in the South have an analysis that while the South is seen as a bastion of conservatism, it could actually be a bastion of a progressive movement,” said Liss. “The South could be a solid South for racial equity, a solid South for income distribution that’s fair and equitable, for healthcare, etc.”
The Senate runoff results in Georgia last week lend weight to Liss's optimistic vision.
Leadership and funding
Liss is joined in the group’s leadership by New Florida Majority Executive Director Andrea Mercado, longtime California activist and writer Bob Wing, and California Calls founder and President Anthony Thigpenn.
The State Power Caucus was one of the recipients of funding from philanthropist Susan Sandler in September as part of her newly launched $200 million Susan Sandler Fund, which she wrote was aimed at changing “the climate and environment in which decisions are made.”
“When our government, corporate, and other societal institutions are responsive to—and, frankly, fearful of—the people who most bear the brunt of inequality and injustice,” Sandler wrote, “then better priorities, practices and policies follow.”
Electoral strategies for an unseen new majority
The State Power Caucus is on board with that interpretation of how to build power. Liss and Thigpenn wrote in October 2019 that the group was focused on building a lasting coalition that would exercise and wield power at the state and federal levels.
Part of that mission involves activating voters who didn’t go to the polls in 2016 to cast ballots and become politically involved, they wrote.
“Collectively, our task is to move at least 40 million disengaged non-voters (out of the 108 million who didn’t vote in 2016) to conscious political engagement,” wrote Liss and Thigpenn. “We believe that building such a bottom-up organization, infrastructure and mass bases is imperative for those looking to contest corporate power and the far-right at the national level.”
