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From the DemCast toolkit—linked below.

Hi, all, and happy Friday.

So, I know we’ve had a real escalation in voter-suppression talk from the Trump regime this week. Yesterday the Washington Post published a report about an “emergency” Executive Order Trump is rumored to be considering that would give him SAVE-Act-like powers. (Powers he doesn’t, by the way, have.) Republicans are still considering the SAVE America Act. Scary stories about election interference, in general, abound.

Here’s the thing. As other have since said, the Trump administration WILL LOSE IN COURT on his IEPPA-based emergency EO. He will. Marc Elias is calling the idea “blatantly illegal,” and he’s far from alone. I can’t find a single serious legal expert who thinks Trump will succeed with it. Does he want to? Yes. CAN he? That is an entirely different question. And the answer is: no.

Now on the SAVE Act and its various iterations: John Thune said again this week that he doesn’t have the votes to change the filibuster for this bill—even to a talking filibuster. He said it’s not happening right now. But he still plans on bringing the so-called SAVE America Act (better known as the “End Our Votes Act”) up for a vote. It will be filibustered and fail. So he is essentially saying he plans to kill it.

In fact, there is a direct correlation between his recent statements and the fact that the regime has now leaked this EO idea. They are desperate. Knowing that their voter suppression bill likely won’t pass in time to help them—if it even would—they are pivoting to plan B (actually, we’re much further into the alphabet than that).

This regime, in short, is frantically throwing everything they can at the wall. Nothing is sticking. So they throw more. The simple truth is this: they want to keep people from voting so they can control our elections and seize more power. But that doesn’t mean they get to.

As my friend Robert Hubbell says all the time “we are not potted plants.” We have agency. We have power. We have the best lawyers in the country (I’ll have one of them on my Substack Live on Monday). We have Democratic Attorneys General already planning responses to attacks on our elections (I am going to have one of them on my Substack Live the following Monday). We have the courts.

We have the vast majority of Americans.

And I mean that! Most Americans want every voter to vote and every vote cast to be counted. There are many, many more of us than the tiny minority who want to stop us from voting. We, not they, will prevail. We will decide our future. We will choose our leaders. We will ensure the will of the people prevails.

What happens next is up to us, so here’s what we’re going to do. We are going to show up, speak out and refuse to be intimidated. Every eligible voter should have an equal say in the decisions that impact our lives, and we’re going to make sure they do. We will come together across races, places and parties to demand free and democratic elections.

WE CAN DO THIS.

It’s going to be a challenging—heck, brutal—eight months. Trump is terrified. He’s a weak, scrambling, mentally incoherent failure. His schtick is no longer working—his SOTU was, beyond all other things, boring. He is looking increasingly guilty as far as the Epstein files go; members of his administration are, too. His economy is failing, badly. Americans are abandoning him in large numbers. The largest single-day protest in American history is a month away. ICE and Border Patrol are still killing people and harming children, infuriating and disgusting decent Americans. His admnistration’s incompetence continues to make headlines. The Democrats have a ten point lead on the generic Congressional ballot—crazy!

He is losing. He is going to do everything he can to stop it, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to succeed. Because we are not going to let him.

Channel your inner defiance, y’all. Trump can’t take our elections away unless we let him. We won’t. We will fight him tooth and nail every hour of every day, and we will win. Never believe otherwise.

Trump is not a deity. He has no superhuman properties. He’s a sick, sad, small geriatric man whose influence and power are waning.

Ours is growing. Know it. Embrace it. Project it.

Every child in this country is counting on us. Every Epstein victim is, too. Every marginalized person, every immigrant, every transgender person, every woman, every person with disabilities, every American struggling to get by…all of them need us to be strong right now. So let’s be strong, and let’s get to work. And if you don’t feel particularly strong that’s OK. We can act strong without feeling it, and it is in so doing, ironically, that we build strength we can feel.

I love you. This is hard. Let’s keep going.

P.S. — if none of this does it for you read Josh Marshall’s clear-eyed and appropriately pugilistic response to Trump’s “Fake Executive Order” here.

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I’m a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.

I want the Senator to vote NO on the SAVE America Act, a bill that would suppress the vote of women, Black and Brown Americans, and young people, and cause chaos in our elections.

[If GOP add:] There is zero evidence that non-citizen voting happens in a statistically meaningful way and all the evidence in the world that Republicans’ policies are unpopular and they’re simply afraid they’re going to lose the midterms without this voter suppression bill. A political party tries to court your vote. An authoritarian regime tries to keep you from voting. Shame on Republicans for doing the latter instead of the former.

Also, the DOJ is engaged in a coverup on the Epstein files. We want to see ALL of the files—unredacted aside from victim information—and we want Trump to testify under oath about the 13-year-old he is accused of sexually assaulting.

Finally, the American people DO NOT want another endless war in the Middle East. I’m counting on you to do everything in your power to stand up to Trump and stop further military escalation in Iran. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I’m a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.

First, the DOJ is engaged in a coverup on the Epstein files. We want to see ALL of the files—unredacted aside from victim information—and we want Trump to testify under oath about the 13-year-old he is accused of sexually assaulting.

Second, I want the Congressmember to oppose any legislation that shields the producers of pesticides from liability and allows dangerous chemical like glyphosate to be spread into our food supply. Additionally, I ask him/her to support the bipartisan “No Immunity for Glyphosate Act" to block federal funding for this executive order. Thanks. [H/T]

Extra Credit ✅

Byron Javier Martinez Kuvi is in ICE detention in Michigan. He has a serious abscess in his mouth causing severe swelling and pain. He began seeking medical attention days ago. After repeatedly asking for help, he was finally taken to medical where he was given only ibuprofen and sent back. No antibiotics. No proper treatment.

An untreated abscess can quickly become life threatening. He needs immediate medical care.

Please sign Cosecha Michigan’s petition demanding he be freed.

A Good Way to Get the News

People often ask me where I get my news in such a fractured and unreliable media atmosphere. As I’ve said here before, my go-to is Ground News. I love them so much that I’m partnering with them, because I think it’s REALLY important—in fact it’s never been more so—to see who’s behind the news we’re reading and how their biases affect the story.

Ground News not only gives me all the current news stories and shows me coverage of them from across the ideological spectrum, but it does other cool stuff, like point out stories that are in my personal blind spot:

And bias distribution on every single news story:

I love it—it makes me feel like a smarter news consumer. Anyway. If you’re looking for a new way to read the news with tons of data about the bias and partisan leanings of the publications you’re reading, Ground News is awesome. You can get 40% off a Vantage Plan subscription through my link. I DO NOT GET PAID PER SUBSCRIPTION so don’t do it on my behalf. But I do think it’s a great news source and it does force me to see news I otherwise would never encounter. This is sometimes a good thing, sometimes a depressing one—but always necessary to be fully informed.

Subscribe to Ground News here.

Get Smart! 📚

The folks at Detention Watch Network have an incredible toolkit you can use to take lawful and nonviolent action to fight ICE warehouse expansion. Find it here.

Then check out this map to find possible detention center expansion near you. The map was created by , which seems like a good resource for fighting ICE also!

Messaging! Messaging! Messaging! 📣

DemCast is doing a social storm today about the SAVE Act. If you want to help amplify the danger this bill poses and push people to call their Senators, please use this toolkit to do so! It’s got posts and suggested captions for every conceivable platform. Don’t like the caption? Edit it! Like it? Keep it as is!

Give 💰!

Worried about 2026? There’s hope! The path to a 2026 Blue Wave runs through college campuses. Join Senator Chris Murphy and Donuts + Democracy on Tuesday, Mar 3 at 4:00 PM PT / 7PM ET to learn how they’re already mobilizing young voters and protecting against election interference with young voters and organizers across the country.

RSVP here.

Get in the Streets! 🪧

This International Women’s Day, Women’s March is calling for a national weekend of direct action, March 7–9. We are done waiting for justice while powerful men are protected and the truth about Jeffrey Epstein stays buried.

We will center survivors. We will demand full transparency. We will organize against every system that shields abusers like Jeffrey Epstein and every person in his client list.

Justice is not optional. bravewomen.us

Grab your Wallet! 💳

A small thing we can do if we are AI subscribers is move our business away from Chat GPT and TO Claude. Claude’s parent company Anthropic is standing up to the Trump admin in a big way and that is huge! The company behind Chat GPT is super Trump aligned anyway—we’re supposed to have unsubscribed from them per Resist and Unsubscribe. But this might be a time to actively support a company with our dollars just to thank them. I know I am.

Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻

[To: your STATE legislators] [H/T ] [Text SIGN PUBUPB to 50409, or to @Resistbot on Apple Messages, Messenger, Instagram, or Telegram]

(Note that for the most effective RESISTBOT it’s best to personalize this text. More about how to do this here. But if you’re short on time just send it as is using the above code.)

The Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution establishes that valid federal law is the “supreme Law of the Land.” When federal and state law conflict, federal law prevails.It does not require states to finance, facilitate, or expand federal enforcement infrastructure.Under long-standing Supreme Court precedent, the federal government may not “commandeer” state governments to carry out federal programs. This anti-commandeering doctrine protects state sovereignty by ensuring that federal authority does not become a mandate for state participation.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal agency. If ICE seeks to expand detention capacity, that responsibility lies with Congress and the federal executive branch.States are not obligated to:• Provide land or public facilities• Enter into detention contracts• Allocate state funds• Grant discretionary permits or zoning approvals• Supply state or local personnelThe Supremacy Clause prevents states from obstructing lawful federal operations. It does not compel them to subsidize them.

[Read the rest here.]

OK, you did it again! You’re helping to save democracy! You’re amazing.

Talk soon. And have a GREAT weekend.

Jess

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