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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Ellen Sciales, press@sunrisemovement.org 

Sunrise Movement Passes 200,000 Dials for Jessica Cisneros

This morning, on the anniversary of the Texas Freeze and the first day of early vote in Texas, Sunrise Movement announced it passed 200,000 dial for Texas' 28th candidate Jessica Cisneros, a Green New Deal champion running against "

WASHINGTON

This morning, on the anniversary of the Texas Freeze and the first day of early vote in Texas, Sunrise Movement announced it passed 200,000 dial for Texas' 28th candidate Jessica Cisneros, a Green New Deal champion running against "Big Oil's Favorite Democrat" Henry Cuellar.

"We're seeing what we've already known: young people mobilize for Green New Deal Champions," said Paris Moran, Digital Director for Sunrise Movement from San Antonio, TX. "This election is about sending one of our own to the halls of power, to fight greed and corruption with compassion and community - and we're betting that the grassroots support Jessica is receiving is enough to win."

This cycle, Sunrise began phone banking for Cisneros on a longer timeline than they had in 2020, when they first endorsed her. As a result, they are making thousands of more dials to voters prior to election day. Sunrise plans to make over 100,000 more dials in the final two weeks of the election, and will mobilize its members to knock on doors in the district. However, they've seen volunteers are more particular about who they spend their time volunteering for than in 2020.

"As a high schooler I can tell you that young people aren't interested in electing any more sold out politicians. After a year of devastating climate disasters and the obstruction of life saving legislation by a few corporate politicians, I won't volunteer for just any Democrat," said Atreyi Basu, 15, volunteer with Sunrise. "Our phone banks have been amazing because we're fighting for a candidate who gets that we need bold climate action now. That's why we've been able to build an army of hundreds of volunteers and have made hundreds of thousands of phone calls - at times making up to 20,000 dials in one shift alone!"

On the phones, volunteers have heard voters express concerns ranging from the climate crisis to corruption by Henry Cuellar - he accepted over $100,000 in donations this cycle from fossil fuel corporations, and is actively fighting for them in Congress.

Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.