CPD-Action Launches $80 Million National Network to Resist Trump Administration's Agenda, Build Political Power in Working Class Communities of Color

The Center for Popular Democracy Action announced Tuesday the launch of an $80 million network that will harness the scale of its 48 community partners across 32 states in a coordinated effort to resist the politics of hate emanating from Washington and build independent political power in working class communities of color.

The network will for the first time bring together CPD Action's partners from coast-to-coast--who have typically focused on local issues -- in a unified, multi-year national push by women, people of color and immigrants to exert their political power.

"Trump poses a grave threat with his hateful language and policies that seek to destroy workers' rights, tear families apart and pollute and sicken our communities," said Jennifer Epps-Addison, president of CPD Action's partner network, who will lead the effort. "We must not only resist the Trump administration, but also proactively build a movement for bold change. That's why we are pooling our resources for the first time to spark an inclusive movement for economic and racial justice. Together we will be a force that cannot be ignored at the ballot box and on the streets, across city halls, state houses and Washington."

The launch coincides with the appointment of Epps-Addison, a powerhouse community organizer and racial justice advocate, as president of CPD Action's partner network. Under Epps-Addison's leadership, CPD Action's network of community organizations will close ranks around a Trump resistance effort that will:

• Mobilize more than 5 million new voters ahead of the 2018 and 2020 elections to help elect progressive candidates for governor in at least 10 states, flip legislatures in six states to Democratic control, and support progressive candidates for criminal justice offices like attorneys general and sheriffs in 75 cities and states;
• Wage coordinated issue, legislative and organizing campaigns mobilizing people of color, women and low-income people;
• Advance proactive voter reforms that reduce registration disparities and expand access to the ballot, including passing Automatic Voter Registration on the ballot and state legislatures in at least 5 states;
• Aggressively fight state efforts to pass voter ID and other voter suppression efforts at the state and federal level;
• Mobilize, unite and defend Sanctuary Cities and policies that protect immigrant communities and local power; and
• Ensure that organizing and electoral mobilization translates into political power by fighting partisan and racial gerrymandering.

As CPD Action kicks off the coordinated effort to build political resistance to the Trump agenda, nine new organizations are joining the network, which is now made up of 48 local organizations across the country. The new partners affiliating with CPD Action's network include: Hoosier Action (Indiana), Step Up Louisiana, Maine People's Alliance, Flint Rising (Michigan), Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (Minnesota), Churches United for Fair Housing (New York), Center for Coalfield Justice (Pennsylvania), Taller Salud (Puerto Rico), and Manufactured Housing Action (California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts and Utah).

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison said: "Change has always come from the grassroots, not from Washington. CPD Action's 48 partners are on the front lines of building a powerful progressive movement for economic and racial justice. This national network, led by working class people of color and immigrants, will supply the power and the fight we need to resist the Trump administration's all-out assault on American values. I look forward to standing with CPD Action's leaders in the streets and in Congress to win real progressive change."

CPD Action's network of partners comprises organizing groups with deep ties to their individual communities connected by the shared values of building equity, opportunity and a dynamic democracy.

"This national grassroots network will empower progressives to counter local, state and federal actions that seek to enlarge corporate power and shrink the rights and opportunities of workers and immigrants," said Javier H. Valdes, co-executive director of CPD Action Partner Make The Road New York. "We will not be weakened or divided by local and state boundaries. Change starts locally, but through our national network, we can pool resources, share knowledge and resist racial and economic inequality."