Indivisible Somerville (Boston) and Indivisible East Bay Meet in Boston over the July 4th Holiday
My family and I were visiting Boston over the July 4th holiday to see family and enjoy the history of our great country. I thought it would be a unique opportunity to connect with a local Indivisible chapter, so I reached out before my trip to Indivisible Somerville (IS). Talking to Morgan, who’s on the IS steering committee (and is a graduate student, works, and somehow finds the time to meet with tourists visiting Boston), was like talking to another Indivisible East Bay member.
Somerville is a few miles outside of downtown Boston where most of the original founders of IS lived; now most of their membership and steering committee live in the greater Boston area. IS was founded by IT folks and is “tech heavy.” One interesting comparison: while IEB members tend to be on the plus side of 40, Morgan said that IS members are mostly in their 20’s and 30’s. Their chapter has about 2,000 people on their email list, compared to IEB’s 3,000+.
Indivisible Somerville is focused on the September 10, 2019 NC-09 Congressional special election; Democrat Dan McCready is running against Republican Dan Bishop (the author of North Carolina’s notorious “bathroom bill”). IS hopes to support an LGBT activist group in NC-09 doing electoral work.
Morgan was justly proud of IS’s endorsement process for the Democratic primary for Massachusetts’ Seventh Congressional District last year, when then-Boston City Council member Ayanna Pressley challenged incumbent Rep. Michael Capuano. IS made sure they reached out to all members in their endorsement survey, and the results were clear: a majority of IS members voted to endorse Pressley, a progressive Democrat. Then the hard work began: IS had to roll up their sleeves with other groups to help her win the primary. Pressley’s 2018 primary victory over Capuano pretty much guaranteed her general election victory in November 2018 and added to the record number of Democratic women and women of color in the 116th Congress.
As we wrapped up our chat, I asked how IS felt about Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) running for president in 2020. I think Morgan said that IS wasn’t ready to endorse any of the candidates, and it appears that way from their website.
Throughout the meeting with Morgan, I reflected that being involved with Indivisible has given me so many opportunities to meet great people with visions of a better country – like Morgan in Massachusetts, and others back here in California as well!
Photograph of Ted (IEB) and Morgan (Indivisible Somerville)
