A message from Hannah Gelder, Director of Movement Politics
I went to sleep last night feeling so much pride and joy in the work we do at ONE People’s Campaign. I was so proud of Ebony’s decisive victory in Chicago’s first-ever school board election and the role our organization and many others played in her victory.
I finally turned my attention to the national news around midnight, and while it didn’t look good, I willed myself to feel hopeful that I would wake up to better news. I did not. None of us did.
There are lots of people writing a lot of things about why Trump won.
I want to focus on why Ebony won.
First of all, she was an incredible candidate who had deep experience with Chicago public schools. She was a student, a parent, a teacher, a local school council member and now runs the Parent Mentor program putting 60 volunteers into 8 North Side schools. Her experience makes her deeply qualified to serve on the School Board as she intimately knows the public school system’s unique strengths and challenges.
Ebony led with a vision of love and hope for our children and our communities and the schools and teachers that serve them. She put in long, hard hours knocking doors, attending forums, fielding interviews, raising money and so much more. (Did you know Ebony used her sabbatical in October and dedicated that month off to working full time on her campaign!?) Her message and her vision resonated deeply with voters. Voters in the 2nd district declared they want a public school system that provides basic things like librarians, social workers, arts programming, and school buildings free of mold and asbestos in every neighborhood, regardless of race, class or zip code.
There was another reason Ebony was propelled to victory and that reason is us. ONE People’s Campaign and our allied organizations on the North Side are the secret sauce for the growing number of progressive victories here on the far North Side. Having a civic organization that engages in year-round organizing, that is deeply rooted in our North Side communities, that cultivates and trains grassroots leaders in the skills needed to make change – that was a key ingredient in the success of Ebony’s campaign.
Our volunteers and our staff hustled hard. We had Spanish-speaking phone banks run entirely by volunteers. We had weekly canvasses with our members leading the training for first-time canvassers. We had precinct captains who talked to their own neighbors about this race. We bolstered our volunteer voter contact operation with a paid voter contact operation. That allowed us to reach thousands more voters and served as an intensive leadership development opportunity for the people on our paid team because we invested in their electoral organizing skills. I must give a huge shout out to Max Yenkin, our lead organizer, who directed all of our field work.
Additionally, we built on a long relationship we’ve had with the Chicago Teachers’ Union. They helped invest in Ebony’s race to fill a gap that working-class candidates cannot overcome on their own when up against self-funding candidates and candidates with the backing of out-of-state billionaires. I am proud of the way we deepened our community-labor partnership through this campaign.
OPC wasn’t doing this alone. We’ve built a strong coalition on the North Side with our partners at Northside Action 4 Justice, JCUA Votes, 48th Ward Neighbors for Justice, and the 46th Ward IPO. This election helped us deepen our relationship with even more North Side organizations, including groups in the 39th, 33rd, 49th, and 50th wards, Sunrise Movement, and Grassroots Illinois Action. On election day alone, our organizations had over 140 people at polling locations talking to voters about why Ebony and Karen were the best candidates for school board. This was the 5th election cycle since Nov. 2020 that this coalition has come together to advance progressive candidates and issues at the ballot box. Where and when we organize together, we win!
Obviously the results were not universally a success. Though it was not the outcome we hoped for, we want to congratulate Karen Zaccor in the 4th district on a powerful campaign, that centered her 28 years of experience as a teacher and the great inequities of our school district. And, of course, we are all grappling with the results at the federal level. To that end, please join us on Monday for a Community Gathering.
We will gather with our sister organization ONE Northside on Monday, November 11, from 6pm-8pm for an evening meeting to reflect on the election, be in community with each other, and to talk through what comes next. Come process your grief, your rage, your shock, and help us reflect on what it means for our organizing.
I hope you tune into your body, listen to what it tells you, and give it what it needs. As I said in my election day email, I know that being part of a people’s organization like ONE People’s Campaign is what will keep me grounded, in community, and working strategically with people like you to fight for and win the city, state, country and dare I say, world, that we and the generations that come after us deserve.
Thank you for all your hard work in this cycle to elect Ebony and for all you do to make the world a better place.
With love and gratitude,
Hannah Gelder
Director of Movement Politics