We can't wait to see everyone at:
IMV’s Summer Potluck Picnic
Wednesday, July 19th, 5:30-7:00 pm
Sherrill Brook Park in New Hartford (Birch Pavilion–to the left, near the large playground).

This is our annual fun event with allies, families, and friends. In fact, bring a friend! We’ve also invited local candidates to join us. Being a dish to share. Please bring your own plates, utensils and beverage container if you can, but we'll have extra in case. We'll be there under the pavilion, rain or shine--see you there!

It was wonderful to see many of you at the Oneida County Democratic Committee fundraiser with keynote speaker NYS Attorney General Letitia James. She was outstanding! We look forward to seeing everyone at our annual:

IMV Summer Potluck Picnic
Wednesday, July 19th, 5:30-7:00 pm, IMV’s Summer Potluck Picnic, Sherrill Brook Park in New Hartford (Birch Pavilion–to the left, near the large playground). This is our annual fun event with candidates, allies, families, and friends invited and lots of social time. We’ve invited local candidates to join us. Being a dish to share. Please bring your own plates, utensils and beverage container if you can, but we'll have extra in case,

NY22 Congressional Candidate Forum
NOTE THIS IS A NEW DATE!
Thursday, August 17th, 6-8 pm, Mohawk Valley Community College, 1101 Sherman Drive, Utica Alumni College Center Snack Bar. Candidates have announced for the 2024 congressional campaign, and we want to start getting to know them. Registration coming soon!

Congratulations to Celeste Friend and her Purple Posse of campaign volunteers! Celeste's win was the result of her campaign's inclusive vision: Utica for All, and her commitment as an elected official and a candidate to transparency, sustainability, and livable neighborhoods. Celeste secured campaign contributions and endorsements from many progressive PACs, labor unions, Citizen Action, and the Working Families Party. Now she will be on the Democratic Party line and the WFP line for the November election.

This past Tuesday, June 20th, Indivisible Mohawk Valley celebrated our 6th birthday! In 2017, a bunch of engaged (and also enraged!) people had been organizing demonstrations against Donald Trump and Claudia Tenney (remember our Deplora-ball counter rally with over 125 people wearing black outside Cavallo's in April 2017?) and their onslaught of harmful and destructive legislative and executive actions following the 2016 election and the Women's March.

For ways to celebrate, read on…

Thank you to everyone who has contributed, volunteered with the "Purple Posse," carried petitions, knocked doors, and made calls. We are now in the final days of the campaign and it's time to Get Out the Vote!

Today we have one big ask for everyone who has a Republican Member of Congress--whether that's Brandon Williams or Elise Stefanik--following the arraignment of Trump in Miami. Please read on for details…

Friends, the Celeste Friend for Mayor campaign relies more than any other campaign that we can remember on getting voters who are not usually aware or included to know who she is and why they should go out in an off-election year to vote for her. The ground game of talking to voters at their doors is everything to Celeste's campaign in this challenging primary. And it has been going very well, thanks to her many volunteers.

Then the campaign had to suspend door knocking for several days this week because of the poor air quality. Now our planned canvass for her Sunday is all the more important. We need as many people as possible to show up and help make up the ground that was lost. Sunday is less than a week from the start of early voting on June 17th. Read on for the plan.

The reason we have a second post this week is because we have finally scheduled our June meeting and it's coming up quickly, so we wanted to let you know the date and time. We'll be meeting for the first time in many years at Schuyler Commons Clubhouse, 1776 Independence Square on Sunday, June 11th at 4:30 pm.

It's summer festival time! This Saturday it's Mohawk Valley Pride on the Mohawk Valley Community College Campus (IMV will have a table!) and World Refugee Day at Hanna Park (Utica City Hall). Next weekend, (June 11th) MVCC will have a table together with Mohawk Valley Pride Alliance at Jewtica, the popular festival at the Jewish Community Center in Utica. We will also have a table at Utica's Juneteenth celebration on June 17th at Proctor Park. Juneteenth events will be held the same weekend at Bellamy Harbor in Rome. In short, this is a good time to get outside and celebrate the diversity of our communities!

It's also a time to help the candidates we support who are facing 2023 primaries to win on June 27!

We are pressing hard to get Williams to do the right thing on the default crisis. We're also showing the harm he is doing when he votes to slash the funding his constituents depend on. And if he keeps voting in line with MAGA extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, we will hit hard in the local media on that as well. You can help!

We've known this was coming. For months, Indivisibles have been preparing for action ahead of the June 1st default deadline.

The only thing standing in the way of their reckless game of chicken now is the pressure that groups like ours in purple districts put on our Republican Members of Congress to back down.

So, we are rallying, and it's been a long time since we've been at busy Consumer Square in New Hartford. It will be fun--bring friends and signs!

1) Vote to support your school district's budget. Public education matters. Brandon Williams voted recently to slash funding for public education, holding children and working people (teachers!) hostage to the MAGA default crisis. When you vote for public school funding, you shore up support for shared resources that benefit all of us.

2) Vote for school board candidates who believe in teachers, kids, books, and learning. There are candidates on school board ballots in districts across our region who are members of Moms For Liberty. They want to ban books and dictate what teachers can and can't teach based on their religious and ideological prejudices.

And to see how Brandon Williams is underwater in a recent poll. read on…

Our rallies, demonstrations, and media messaging are starting to pay off. Remember, the goal is to make sure that NY22 voters know what Brandon Williams really believes, says, does, and votes for. The more voters know about his MAGA extremism, the more they will turn away from him, even if he "looks the part" of the moderately conservative CNY farmer businessman.

(Note that the date of the New Hartford Town Hall remains Monday, May 1st.  BW's office rescheduled only his Camillus Town Hall)

WE ARE WINNING in our effort to weaken Rep. Williams in the media ad the public. He is a terrible representative of NY22, and he's dangerous because he is enabling (and frequently joining) the radical MAGAs in Congress. Let's keep the pressure on:

Join IMV to for our #GoodTrouble Rally before Rep. Williams' fourth sham Town Hall. This one is in New Hartford, at Bradley Elementary School, 33 Oxford Road.

(Photo by CNY Central)

Rep. Brandon Williams has still not moved into the district where ALL of his NY22 constituents live. That's a BIG BROKEN CAMPAIGN PROMISE. Read on to see what you can do about it.

Together with other NY22 Indivisible and progressive groups, we have had some major successes with our NY22 Anti-MAGA actions. Here's a recap:

Our NY22 letter with 234 signatures was delivered on March 27th! The next day Brandon Williams announced 4 town halls. Our letter was included in 8 articles! We used the power of the press to put a stop to his message taking root. Organizing wins.

The New Hartford town hall will be on May 1st. Mark it on your calendar. Rally at 5:45 (media have been doing interviews of participants!). The Town Hall is scheduled for 6:30 pm.

Are you willing to help flip #NY blue in 2024 and hold our MAGA extremist Republican Congressman accountable until then?

Then RSVP NOW to IndivisibleMV@gmail.com and let us know whether you are attending the Good Trouble Town Hall Rally on Monday (Chittenango) and/or Tuesday (Rome).

You have probably heard that Rep. Williams rescheduled his New Hartford Town Hall from Thursday this week to Monday, May 1st. That means that his first Town Hall in NY22 is on Monday, April 10th at 6:30 in Chittenango. So, NY22 activists are coming from all across the district to Chittenango. Read on for details.

Thanks to everyone who signed the well-timed letter to Rep. Brandon Williams noting that he has not yet shown any interest in holding public town halls in the district to date. The letter was delivered in person by a handful of NY22 activists on Monday to Williams' Syracuse office, and it was shared with local media. There was almost immediate press coverage including "Over 200 people sign open letter to Rep. Brandon Williams asking for public town halls" The piece included a quote from Judy Jerome expressing concerns about Congressional Republican threats to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Overall, our letter, written and disseminated in collaboration with the Working Families Party, was just as widely covered as the announcement of the town halls, if not more. The letter worked!

Hope to see you at the Bradley Elementary School town hall, or one of the other three.

We are ready for spring and ready for action. Petitioning is over, and the weather is warming up. Today we will review the ways for NY22 to take action; a rally for Trans Rights on March 31; and a recent election in Lake George.

We have been at this for 6 years through several elections and the pandemic, and we are not slowing down or disappearing. Together we will protect our democracy and our values.

Just remember, keep it bite sized, local and FUN!