IEB Text Banks with Rapid Resist

In the first week of October, IEB members held a text bank at Drake’s Dealership in Oakland and enjoyed pizza, beer, and each other’s company! We teamed up with Oakland-based Rapid Resist, the “immune system for the resistance,” to text voters in Oceanside, CA, and Tuscon, AZ, asking them to call on their members of Congress to resist Trump’s tax cuts by voting NO on the house budget resolution. We also texted voters in Modesto to inform them about Tony Madrigal’s campaign for Modesto City Council, District 2.

The eight-month-old Rapid Resist was created in order to leverage blue state energy to support resistance work across the nation and utilizes a peer-to-peer texting system to recruit for big events. Rapid Resist focuses on lawmakers who may be a key swing vote, have moderate constituencies, are committee chairpeople, and/or who are vocal critics of the Trump agenda. Rapid Resist utilizes the texting app Hustle, which keeps the phone numbers of all involved parties private.

Those who were already familiar with Rapid Resist and Hustle got right down to business, while folks new to these platforms received direct training and support from Nick Travaglini of IEB’s Governance Committee. Rapid Resist’s founder, Yoni Landau, also joined the event and provided technical support and encouragement.

We’ll gather for a text bank when there are actions to text for. Check our newsletter for date, time, or location!