We're NOT Doomed: May 5, 2026
What happens when we have Dem Governors...
I will not be shutting up about this company for the foreseeable future.
Yeah, yeah, I know, not a great intro, but I workshopped at least a dozen ways to do this and they all literally just sounded like ads, so this is what you’re getting.
It’s not clickbait though, I have not shut up about Sway since I created my voting group — you just have to look through my posts to see that. Because, well, it almost feels tailor made for me and my election guides (which are about to be a whole lot more tailored to you.)
A few weeks ago I was invited to an event from “Sway” for progressive influencers who are interested in covering elections.
Of course, I raced to join the Partiful to attend (that fact is important I promise).
I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen, just that I was gonna finally meet some of my colleagues I’ve seen in Zoom meetings so many times.
Turns out, Sway is a new company working to bring election engagement down to the local level.
Have you ever heard of anything more in my lane?
Basically anyone with a following can create a voting group where the leader, in this case, me, can endorse candidates across the entire ballot and country.
And they keep track of who is in what district, so we are able to see, in real time, if our voting group changed the outcome of the election.
And before I even joined, Sway groups in Texas had already gotten two candidates to a runoff. As in, the margin in both these races was less than the number of people in the Sway group.
The more people join voting groups, the more this will be happening, especially in elections where the margin is razor thin.
For most people, that’s the game. That’s what makes Sway special and worth it to make a voting group.
And then there’s me. With my weekly election guides for elections at all levels of government, across the whole country.
I don’t really do endorsements, especially in districts I don’t live in. I can’t know what’s best for the district if I’m not there.
So, for me the best part is their back end data.
They keep track of every election that each of my members can vote in, that’s how they know when a voting group wins an election.
So I can use that data for my election guide.
There are dozens and dozens of elections every week, hundreds sometimes.
There is no way me and my team can cover every election across the entire country, but, if I know what districts my voting members are in, I can target my election guide specifically to those races.
And, I can text my members. I can send them the election guide, or any info I might have about one of their races that they must know about, or just an election reminder. No algorithm. I know that my guide will be seen by people who are in the districts me and my team are posting about.
That’s HUGE for me.
It’s hard to feel motivated to make an election guide when I don’t know if it will be useful. Now I just know it will be.
Sway was launched in 2025 by Claire Shorall and Ali Partovi as a way to get more people to participate in democracy. Shorall excitedly told me it’s like Partiful but for voting. It makes voting an event and a group project. Everyone can see how many people, from each state, are in my voting group. We, as a community, have power to decide elections.
Partovi wrote:
If you've ever tried to change anything related to government, you know how frustrating it is. Elected officials don't really listen to you and me; they listen to special interest groups whose support they need to stay in power (labor unions, lobbyists, etc). What if you and I could wield similar influence by joining voices with other citizens in a new way?
It’s like my mantra “our votes are our voice and that voice is our superpower,” but really tangible.
Going forward, I will even be able to say, in a meeting with a member of Congress, “X number of people who follow me live in your district. Can you explain why you haven’t done Y?” They will know I wield power with their constituents specifically. That’s a big deal.
So, now that you know all that, of course there is a CTA. Join my Sway group. It’s called the Daily Elmlings, and if you join, I can guarantee I will be covering your elections in my Election Guide, and you won’t have to rely on any algorithm to find it.
As of writing this, I have almost 100 voters across 34 states. I would LOVE to cover elections in all 50 states, but that’s not happening until I have voters in all 50 states. So, you want your district represented in my election guides? You know what to do…
New York, New York
Mon, April 13 - Biden Appointee, Judge Jennifer Rochon ruled that the Pride Flag must be flown in front of Stonewall Monument along with the American Flag and the National Park Services Flag. And it may only be removed for one reason:
WHEREAS, the parties agree that under current law and policy, the Pride flag will remain hanging at Stonewall and will not be removed save for maintenance or other practical purposes
Well, that’s clear.
I’ve seen a lot of people giving the Trump Administration the credit for agreeing to fly the Pride Flag again — and by a lot of people, I mean publication headlines — but this only happened thanks to this ruling.
It’s another reminder that the legal system is still working for us, even if that doesn’t typically extend to SCOTUS. And that makes me feel less Doomed.
Virginia
Mon, April 13 - Virginia has joined the National Popular Voter Interstate Compact. This is a group of states that have agreed to give their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote. Given that a candidate needs 270 to win, this will be a way to bypass the electoral college. But, it can’t go into effect until enough states have joined to make up the 270 electoral votes.
It currently includes 18 states plus DC and makes up 222 votes in the electoral college. Virginia has 13 electorial college votes, which brought the number up up from 209.
Governor Abigail Spanberger said in a press conference:
I think this is a very straightforward, long-term plan to get us to a point where the United States is frankly what most people think it is, which is a place where every person’s vote counts the same as every other person’s vote.
She continued:
Unfortunately, that is not the case when it comes to presidential elections, where by virtue of having the Electoral College, depending on the state you live in, your vote does count differently.
Everyday it becomes that much clearer why we need Democratic governors, and this is just another example of that. Only 48 votes to go, which could come from just a small amount of states!
Oregon
Tue, April 14 - Governor Tina Kotek signed a bill into law to support homeless students on the likely off change that the federal government stops doing so. It takes the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act protections that are currently provided under federal law and enshrines them in Oregon law.
This law requires students to be enrolled in school regardless of documentation, and makes it so that students who are homeless don’t have to switch schools in the middle of the school year if they find housing elsewhere.
Kotek said:
We can no longer depend on the federal government to defend the rights of our most vulnerable communities. This bill ensures that students experiencing homelessness can be confident their rights are enshrined in state law and not subject to the whims of an unreliable federal government.
Oregon Housing and Community Services Executive Director Andrea Bell celebrated this law saying:
In Oregon, every child should have access to housing, education and support that gives them the power to live a life of their choosing, regardless of income or zip code. When we get this right, we won’t just teach them of Oregon’s promise to them—we embed it into the experience of all students.
I love seeing Dem legislatures and governors enshrining important laws in state constitutions. They’re not waiting to see what decisions the federal government make, they’re doing this first.
So I hope this shows you what’s going right, and reminds you why it’s so important to vote in state races!
Remember, our votes are our voice and that voice is our superpower!