Colorado can lead on climate. This is how.
DENVER, CO — Our Revolution — the grassroots political action group inspired by Bernie Sanders — held an Organize to Win 2020 Summit here today, drawing activists from across the state.
Local groups including Our Revolution Metro Denver, Our Revolution Boulder, Our Revolution Colorado Springs, Our Revolution Weld County, and others — representing over 20,000 Colorado supporters — committed to joining forces to create a statewide political powerhouse that will fight for progressive policies and elect candidates who will champion those policies.
“We’re building a powerful movement here in Colorado and across the country to ensure our government works for everyone, not just the wealthy few,” said Jim Hightower, a founding member of Our Revolution Texas. “We’re winning elections up and down the ballot and changing the political debate on issues like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and criminal justice reform.”
At the summit, progressive leaders and activists spoke on a range of issues and the impact they are having on local communities.
Former Colorado state representative Joe Salazar, executive director of Colorado Rising — a citizen-led movement to protect the public from the dangers of fracking and other fossil fuel operations — spoke in support of a Green New Deal. He described the struggles communities face when they don’t have elected officials on their side on environmental policy. “Research released from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment showed significant health impacts to people living within 2,000 feet of fracking. We should be reducing emissions — instead, we are permitting hundreds of additional fracking wells each month as our government continues to prioritize the profits of fossil fuel companies over public health and safety.”
Those concerns were echoed by Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and Our Revolution Board Member. “We cannot say that we’re taking action on climate change and continue to build out fossil-fuel infrastructure.” Kleeb, author of a new book, Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again In Rural America, testified that climate change is having a disproportionate impact on rural communities, and is one of several issues — including eminent domain for private gain and corporate overreach — that could create unlikely alliances of family farmers, ranchers, small business owners, progressives, and tribal leaders.
Madeleine Jacobs, a longtime family physician in Fremont County, said she quit her practice because the system wasn’t allowing her to provide proper care for her patients. “In the last year of my practice, three asthmatics ended up on ventilators because they couldn’t afford inhalers, and three other patients died of colon cancer because they couldn’t afford colonoscopies. And most of these patients had insurance. People are dying from treatable diseases or going bankrupt. Improved Medicare for All would solve these problems.”
Boulder resident Darren O’Connor, an advocate for Affordable Housing for All, explained how the homeless crisis began with huge cuts in federal spending on subsidized housing, resulting in a loss of a half-million units of public housing. “Our government created this crisis, and it exacerbates it with a $7.25 minimum wage from 2009 that’s never gone up. Since then, rents in Denver have increased by 50%.” He decried the government giving billions in tax breaks to the wealthy while failing to allocate adequate funds to address homelessness. “One and a half million kids are experiencing homelessness, and that number has risen 15% in the last three years. This war on the poor has to stop.”
Our Revolution, a grassroots political advocacy network made up of over 600 local groups nationwide, has been hosting Organize to Win 2020 summits in cities from coast to coast as part of an unprecedented campaign to mobilize voters, advance progressive issues, and elect progressive champions at all levels of government.
