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Stand Up America Announces Priorities For President Biden's First 100 Days, Urges Congress To Act On Accountability and Democracy Reform
Group Will Pressure Lawmakers To Pass For The People Act, John Lewis Voting Rights Act, D.C. Statehood, Protecting Our Democracy Act, and Eliminate the Filibuster
WASHINGTON
Today, as we kick off the first full week that Democrats will have control of Congress and the White House, progressive advocacy group Stand Up America is announcing a new campaign to pressure lawmakers to prioritize passing democracy reform early in President Joe Biden's term.
In the first 100 days of this new Congress and Biden-Harris administration, Stand Up America is prioritizing passing five bold democracy reforms, mobilizing its two million members to put massive grassroots pressure on lawmakers to act on the following measures:
- For the People Act (H.R.1 / S.1)
- John Lewis Voting Rights Act
- Protecting Our Democracy Act
- D.C. statehood
- Eliminating the legislative filibuster
In addition to these reforms, Stand Up America will continue driving constituent pressure to demand the Senate hold Donald Trump accountable by convicting him for inciting the January 6 insurrection and disqualifying him from ever running for federal office again.
"Donald Trump was a symptom of what's broken in our democracy, not the root cause--and defeating him alone is not enough," said Stand Up America Founder and President Sean Eldridge. "After Trump's outrageous attacks on our democratic institutions and his efforts to undermine the election, we now have an opportunity to build our democracy back better. That means accountability for Trump and his enablers--and bold reforms to combat corruption and strengthen voting rights. We're launching this effort to send a clear message to our leaders in the White House and Congress: Democracy reform must be a top priority."
Last week, the group drove 10,000 emails to lawmakers from every state urging the passage of both the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The digital-first organization will continue to expand its community of over two million activists and its network of more than 8,000 remote volunteers as it works to pressure Congress to act on these democracy measures, and will also continue using digital ads, peer-to-peer texting, and other innovative organizing tools to help constituents contact their lawmakers.
Since January 6, the group has also driven over 50,000 constituent calls to Congress urging Trump's impeachment, conviction, and disqualification. Last year, Stand Up America drove over 400,000 calls to lawmakers urging them to pass democracy reform legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and D.C. statehood, funding to administer fair elections amid the elections, and holding Trump accountable for abuses of power.
Constituents can contact their lawmakers about any of these five critical reform measures here using Stand Up America's new First 100 Days organizing hub.
Stand Up America is a progressive advocacy organization with over two million community members across the country. Focused on grassroots advocacy to strengthen our democracy and oppose Trump's corrupt agenda, Stand Up America has driven over 600,000 phone calls to Congress and mobilized tens of thousands of protestors across the country.
LATEST NEWS
Backed by Platner Campaign, Maine Voters Reject GOP-Led Attack on Absentee Voting
"This victory belongs to the thousands of volunteers, many of them with our campaign, who left it all on the field to save absentee voting in Maine," said the US Senate candidate.
Nov 05, 2025
With 87% of the vote counted, around two-thirds of Mainers on Tuesday rejected a Republican-backed ballot measure that would have made it harder to vote absentee in a state where more than 370,000 people submitted such ballots last year—a win for democracy that came after US Senate candidate Graham Platner mobilized his supporters to campaign against the proposal.
The oyster farmer and harbormaster is one of multiple Democrats—including term-limited Gov. Janet Mills, who also opposed Question 1—running in the June primary to face longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins next November.
In the lead-up to this year's election, Platner released an animated advertisement and held a major rally in Portland against Question 1, which would have eliminated two days of absentee voting, prohibited requests for absentee ballots by phone or family members, ended ongoing absentee voter status for seniors and people with disabilities, banned prepaid postage on absentee ballot return envelopes, limited the number of drop boxes, and required voters to show certain photo identification.
"This victory belongs to the thousands of volunteers, many of them with our campaign, who left it all on the field to save absentee voting in Maine," Platner said on social media after the results were announced late Tuesday, confirming that they worked 2,400 canvass shifts and contacted 49,000 voters.
League of Women Voters of Maine called the outcome "a win for voting rights and for Maine voters."
"Question 1 was a voter suppression bill that would have erected unnecessary barriers to voting," said Jen Lancaster, the group's communications director. "A large number of Maine voters depend on absentee voting to cast their ballot. It's important to protect this vital service and not dismantle it piece by piece."
Mills also welcomed its defeat, saying that "once again, Maine people have affirmed their faith in our free, fair, and secure elections, in this case by rejecting a direct attempt to restrict voting rights. Maine has long had one of the highest rates of voter turnout in the nation, in good part due to safe absentee voting—and Maine people tonight have said they want to keep it that way."
The governor also opposed Question 2, the "red flag" gun law approved by about two-thirds of Mainers on Tuesday. Mills said after the election that "I sincerely hope that this measure will strengthen public safety as proponents have argued. My administration will work with law enforcement and the public to implement this new law, along with our existing extreme risk protection law, to best ensure the safety of Maine people."
Platner, a US military veteran who has taught firearms courses, publicly supported Question 2 but did not campaign for or against it. The ballot measure passed after a 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston left 18 people dead, not including the shooter, whose family, friends, and Army Reserve unit all reported concerns about his mental health and access to firearms before the massacre.
"Maine voters have taken the safety of our communities into our own hands by passing commonsense, responsible gun legislation that will save lives and help keep our kids and families safe, not just from the horrors of a tragedy like Lewiston, but from the devastating impacts of everyday gun violence," Nacole Palmer of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition said in a statement after the vote. "Despite years of opposition from the gun lobby and the politicians they back, we've shown that our movement for commonsense, responsible gun ownership is stronger."
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42-Point Blowout With Young Men Helped Fuel Mamdani's Victory
The New York City mayor-elect's victory, said one campaigner, "shows a path for liberals that it doesn’t have to be about 'strong men' leaders—it's issue-led authenticity that can cut through and fight back."
Nov 05, 2025
Since young men across the US shifted right in the 2024 elections, with former Vice President Kamala Harris losing to President Donald Trump among men ages 18-29, the Democratic Party has searched for ways to win back the voting bloc—and on Tuesday night, progressives urged leaders to simply look to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's resounding success.
Exit polls showed Mamdani, a progressive state Assembly member who remained laser-focused on making the city more affordable for working people during his campaign, winning the support of 68% of male voters ages 18-29, while Cuomo won just 26% of them—a margin of 42 points.
The democratic socialist's support among men under the age of 45 was also notable, with a margin of 39 points.
Young male voters swung left in other closely watched races as well, with Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger winning the group by 15 points and New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill winning by 12 points—but observers said Democratic leaders should pay special attention to the "blowout" in New York City as they seek answers about how to win over young men nationwide.
Housing campaigner Matthew Torbitt suggested that Mamdani appealed to young male New Yorkers by speaking clearly and emphatically about the need to make life for all working people more affordable—by establishing a network of city-run grocery stores to compete with private corporations, freezing the rent on rent-stabilized units, and expanding across the city's bus system the pilot program he championed that made one bus line fare-free.
"Young men just need to feel like there is someone on their side," Torbitt said.
Mamdani's victory came less than a month after the centrist think tank Third Way published its own analysis of Democrats' troubled relationship with young male voters.
The group posited that young men have felt "alienated" by the Democrats—partially due to economic issues, with the study acknowledging briefly that young male voters are frustrated that "economic expectations are stacked against them as young men," but also because "Democrats are out of the mainstream on social and cultural issues."
Without naming specific cultural battles that have been named by some strategists and pundits as issues Democrats should move rightward on—like abortion or transgender rights—Third Way spoke to men who said Democrats in recent years had "too much focus on cultural inclusivity" and were not tough enough on immigration.
The analysis also emphasized "masculinity," and one focus group member said the Republican Party had prioritized the undefined quality by embracing "capitalism."
The study echoed calls by US Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who paid homage to former Republican President Ronald Reagan in the Democratic Party's official response to Trump's State of the Union address earlier this year and went on to call on the party to exhibit "alpha energy."
Slotkin acknowledged Spanberger's and Sherrill's successful campaigns on Tuesday night, but made no mention of Mamdani's historic and nationally watched victory.
Journalist and reproductive rights advocate Jessica Valenti emphasized Mamdani's victory among young men in a video she posted to Instagram Tuesday night.
"Young men, who've been skewing more conservative, young men, who mainstream Democratic pundits said we could only win by messaging to the middle, by messaging to the right, by throwing trans rights under the bus, by throwing abortion rights under the bus," she said. "I really hope those people are paying attention tonight."
A year after Trump's victory, said Torbitt, Mamdani's support among young male voters "shows a path for liberals that it doesn’t have to be about 'strong men' leaders—it's issue-led authenticity that can cut through and fight back."
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Election Day Sweep for Dems Just Predictable Blue State Wins? Local, State Races Tell Different Story
In addition to high-profile victories in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, Democrats came away with upset wins in Georgia and Mississippi.
Nov 05, 2025
Leading Republicans such as US House Speaker Mike Johnson and right-wing media outlets like Fox News are trying to downplay Democrats' sweeping victories in key elections held on Tuesday, even though many of the party's victories came in areas that are not traditional Democratic strongholds.
Speaking in Washington, DC on Wednesday morning, Johnson dismissed the Democratic wins as entirely predictable given the recent voting histories of New York, New Jersey, and Virginia.
"There's no surprises," Johnson said. "What happened last night was blue states and blue cities voted blue. We all saw that coming. And no one should read too much into last night's election results. Off-year elections are not indicative of what's to come, that's what history teaches us."
Mike Johnson: "What happened last night is blue states and blue cities voted blue. We all saw that coming. And no one should read too much into last night's election results." pic.twitter.com/AO72p71Zsj
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 5, 2025
But despite Johnson's claims, Democrats on Tuesday also won major victories in two southern states that supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 general election.
As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Democrats Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson ousted incumbent Republicans serving on Georgia's Public Service Commission, which is responsible for regulating utility prices in the state.
According to The New York Times, this will mark the first time that any Democrat has served on the commission since 2007, and it came after the commission signed off on six rate increases for the state's largest electricity provider over the past two years.
The Times also reported that Georgia Republicans are worried that the twin losses in Public Service Commission are an ill omen for next year's elections, when the GOP will seek to oust Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and maintain its hold on the governor's mansion.
In an interview with Politico, one Republican strategist said that the Democrats' wins in Georgia showed the challenges facing the GOP in getting low-propensity Trump voters to the polls in elections where he is not on the ballot.
"The one thing that would worry me, besides making sure you hold the House, is looking at how Democrats were able to fire up their base in some of these local elections in Georgia," they said.
In Mississippi, meanwhile, Democrats broke the GOP's supermajority in the state Senate for the first time in over a decade by flipping three seats. According to Mississippi Free Press, losing the Senate supermajority will make it significantly harder for the Mississippi Republicans to "override a governor’s veto, propose constitutional amendments, and execute certain procedural actions."
While Democrats in the state celebrated the wins, Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor warned that it could be undone if the US Supreme Court strikes down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that has historically been used to create of majority-minority districts to ensure Black voters in southern states have proper representation.
"Last night's victory proves that Mississippi is no longer a foregone conclusion—we are a battleground state," Taylor said. "But this win was only possible because the Voting Rights Act ensures fair representation. If the Supreme Court dismantles these protections, we risk silencing the very voices that made last night’s historic outcome possible. As voters continue to reject Trump's agenda in 2026 and 2027, we must protect the fundamental right that makes change possible: The right to vote."
While the wins in Georgia and Mississippi were impressive on their own, data analyst G. Elliott Morris found that shifts toward Democrats weren't confined to any individual state or city, but were incredibly broad.
Writing on his Substack page, Morris revealed that "almost every single county" in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia in this week's elections moved toward Democrats compared to how they voted in 2024.
"What we saw last night was a directional shift toward Democrats in 99.8% of counties that held partisan elections," Morris explained. "With few exceptions, voters everywhere moved to the left from 2024 to 2025."
What's more, Morris found that the shift toward Democrats wasn't simply the result of having lower turnout elections, which typically are beneficial to the party out of power.
"Average turnout in [New Jersey and Virginia] was close to 80% of 2024 levels, which is impressive for an off-off-year election—and the swing to Democrats there was still 7-8 points," he explained. "So I wouldn’t dismiss the results of last night just because low-turnout-propensity voters stayed home. There's evidence of both persuasion and turnout effects in last night’s contests."
David Smith, the Guardian Washington, DC bureau chief, writes in his analysis of election day that "the results were in part a referendum on Trump, whose approval rating has never been lower," and he added that the president was displaying stark political vulnerabilities just one year into his second term.
"His authoritarian grandstanding is a show of weakness rather than strength," he wrote. "From ICE raids and tariffs to his $300 million White House ballroom, his presidency is deeply unpopular. Are you better off than you were a year ago? Voters said no."
Even still, warned Smith, it's important that Democratic leaders don't mistake anger at Trump for glowing enthusiasm for their work atop the party, which remains at historic lows.The results on Tuesday were "never going to solve the riddle" of which direction the Democrats should head, he wrote, with both "progressives and moderates" provided "fodder to make a case" for their respective approach to politics.
For progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who spoke to MSNBC from New York at Mamdani's victory party, the Democrats need to understand that the party "does not have one face," but that everyone who wants to defeat Trump and the fascist Republicans "all understand the assignment" before them.
“Our assignment everywhere is to send the strongest fighters for the working class wherever possible," she said. "In some places, like Virginia, for the gubernatorial seat, that’s going to look like Abigail Spanberger. In New York City, unequivocally it is Zohran Mamdani.”
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