ID: grey background with image of a blue wave and text “So what’s next” and a Freedom Oklahoma logo.
While it's bizarre to say this because it seemed such a central part of my identity for so long, some of you may not know that I got my start working in campaigns.
Back in 2013, I interned at the German Marshall Fund of the United States Warsaw office when the then TX State Senator Wendy Davis filibustered for 13 hours to disrupt abortion restrictions. I remembered watching from abroad and thinking that while I loved the big, theoretical work I was doing, I wished I could be doing something that felt like it was moving the needle on the ground in the places that were home to me. The places I had so urgently fought to leave. So in 2014 when I finished grad school in Oklahoma, I packed up and started volunteering around the clock with Battleground Texas, fighting to flip the state blue up and down the ballot. Then I got a paid gig out in Colorado, and I began what I thought would be a long career in electoral politics, landing in Oklahoma City long-term following work on Cyndi Munson's campaign to the state house in 2015.
ID: a picture of two people in green Cyndi Munson for State House shirts with text “my friend Keegan and I on Cyndi Munson’s campaign for state house in 2015”
But it turns out, being closer to the efforts to turn folks out to vote only left me increasingly more aware of the organizing that needed to be done beyond electoral cycles. Even as I continued to support friends and comrades who won against the odds and served me and our broader communities well (like Rep Mo Turner and Councilmember JoBeth Hamon), I saw the gaps that exist for folks who serve to do good, particularly when there's not the support in the structures of decision making to care for the people most vulnerable and under attack.
At this point in my life, I better understand Kwame Ture's point, "You vote once in four years and that’s your political responsibility? That’s the height of bourgeois propaganda, making the people politically irresponsible. Thinking their responsibility is limited to a one-day vote. Politics is every day." And it hits especially hard on the day after an election, where whether in states that have seen change (not Oklahoma) or places that are continuing to fight the status quo of harm directed at our community (Oklahoma), politics is still happening. It reminds me that while everything cannot be solved in an election, neither can everything remain unsolved because of an election.
ID: a photo of Kwame Ture alongside text “You vote once in four years and that’s your political responsibility? That’s the height of bourgeois propaganda, making the people politically irresponsible. Thinking their responsibility is limited to a one-day vote. Politics is every day." - Kwame Ture, with Politics is every day emphasized in red.
So, what do we do? Especially those of us who exist at the intersection of identities that folks who won in our state campaigned on as targets of future harm? What do we do as folks who love people under threat? We keep working to build the world where we have the safety, connection, and resources to thrive wherever we call home. We maybe crack some jokes and share some memes, because humor is always a balm. And then we say, what's the next thing we can do to get one step closer to liberation.
Where I am starting:
Moving in community at Empowerhouse Gym
Writing out these feelings
Scrolling through the joy and despair co-mingling on my timeline to laugh at all of the beautiful, unhinged memes
Planning for 2027 at Freedom Oklahoma with Solas
Finishing my latest knitting project (did you know even only a month into knitting class, you can complete half a beanie in the time it takes for election results to come in)
Making space for food and screen free time with my partner
Reading John Green’s Hollywood, Ending
Blasting a playlist that includes Resistance Revival Chorus’s All You Fascists Bound To Lose on repeat
Planning for tomorrow
ID: photo of a ribbed beanie being knit in the round alongside the yarn for the rest of the beanie with text “bean progress so far (watch cap by blaksands in Malabrigo Rasta Apple Green”
So what about you? You offered rides to the polls, but can you offer rides to the doctor, grocery store, or airport for folks in your neighborhood, in your community. You showed up to vote, but can you show up for a community event, for a volunteer shift, for a friend. You had conversations about voting, can you have conversations about body sovereignty and why that means we have to fight for trans affirming healthcare and abortion access or why the next step after no new jail tax is urgent jail decarceration and money bail reform and removing ICE from our jails or why we have to continue to disrupt automatic license plate readers like Flock from growing the surveillance state in our communities. You gave to campaigns, maybe even in other states, can you give to mutual aid or community gardens or Indigi community centers or orgs doing the work on the ground beyond election day, here and now. Because our next chance for change isn't the presidential election in 2028 or local elections in January 2027, but work in our community that can start or continue right now.
Mariame Kaba tells us hope is a discipline. And maybe electoral news from other places feels hopeful. Maybe results here in Oklahoma are testing your practice of hope. I also want to acknowledge as I write this the number of community members who are grieving very tangible losses of beloved community members and artists in the last week. Grief can be isolating and all encompassing. And I hope as you grieve, as we grieve, there’s space to be reminded of the web of people fighting for the world we deserve. I find often hope feels more accessible in community. Be gentle on one another and tough on the systems today and beyond. Because we're going to get to freedom. Not through a candidate or an election, but through the world we create together, one day at a time.
While hope is something we practice, sometimes we need tangible resources to fight feelings of despair. While those often need to be financial support or consistent access to care, we want to point you to the crisis options that exist in case you find yourself in need of those now or in the future. Non-carceral options include Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860), Thrive Lifeline, along with the resource list from Project LETS. Take care of yourself and of each other.
With Hope,
Cole