September 1, 2024

Newsletter

Because of the Labor Day Holiday, this issue is being distributed on September 3



Our Candidates

Please note: our newsletters contain a lot of links to make viewing the source easier - just click on images or linked text to explore

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Only 65 Days Until Election Day
• Early Voting Starts October 21
• Our Candidates
• Make Sure You are Registered to Vote
• 2024 Democratic National Convention
• Welcome New Elections Coordinator Courtney Myers
• Volunteer with Montgomery County Dems
• Help Needed at the Office on Weekends
• Commissioner Precinct Representatives and Voting Precinct Chairs
• Postcards Elect Candidates
• Our Yard Signs are Here
• Note on Displaying Yard Signs
• Have You Requested Your Mail-In Ballot
• Democratic Party Activities Around the County
• Trainings Available
• Joe & Kamala’s Corner
• Tweets
• General Election Dates and Milestones
• Upcoming Events
• Other Groups & Community Events

This newsletter is published on or about the 1st and the 15th of every month.

Email content for consideration to communications@mcdptx.org

no later than 3 days before publication.

2024 Democratic National Convention

Chicago, 19-22 August

The Democratic National Convention distinguished itself from the other guys with a star-studded set of A-list celebrities providing nightly hosting duties, moving musical performances from Mickey Guyton, Stevie Wonder, The Chicks, Pink, and, oh, yes, some politicos took the stage, too...

Monday started things off with addresses by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and current First Lady Dr. Jill Biden before the evening's emotional keynote by 46th President of the United States Joseph R. Biden, Jr. which was punctuated by chants from the crowd of "Thank You, Joe!"

Tuesday night featured former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama, plus current Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff was there to support his wife. Day 2 also saw the official Roll Call of states hosted by DJ Cassidy who turned a normally mundane procedure into a house party with each state serenaded by a poignant song choice (Beyoncé's "TEXAS HOLD 'EM" was the theme music for our state).

Day 3 (Wednesday) highlights include former President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and what can only be described as a pep talk by Minnesota Governor, Vice Presidential Candidate and "Coach" Tim Walz.

Thursday featured what everyone was waiting for, the acceptance speech of Vice President Kamala Harris as the official Democratic Nominee for President of the United States. If you didn't come to the watch party hosted at the MCDPTX HQ, you missed out on a good time and a lot of great food.

Our Texas Delegation was well represented at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. Several of our own Montgomery County Delegates came home brimming with energy, excitement and some great selfies to share. 

Mike says:

Women definitely were in charge at this convention. After speaking to a national audience, Judge Hidalgo visited with the Texas Delegation. I hopped out of my seat to congratulate her, telling her she looked great on stage and represented Texas and Harris County well. I asked for a selfie and as I was fiddling with my phone in my left hand. Taking charge, she actually grabbed it from my hand, had us switch places, and then she took the picture. Very nice, but definitely in control of her environment. Notice I am representing MoCo with my MCDP badge!

According to Eartha Johnson (pictured above left with her husband Lonnie, and above right in a keepsake shot with Vice President and Democratic Presidential Nominee Harris), just being in the hall was electrifying. At one point they were seated just behind Gov. Walz and his family and at another point they even got to greet our next President, up close and personal. Eartha said she felt as if a great weight of darkness was lifted from her spirit. It’s a feeling she said she will remember for the rest of her life.

Rick Blummer, one of our own Bentwater Democrats, attended the National Democratic Convention as a volunteer worker. He had to apply for the position and even had to be cleared by security before he could be considered. He saw the Convention from a whole distinct perspective and came home with some amazing stories and pictures. Rick is pictured below. The picture on the right is his bird’s eye view of part of the Texas Delegation.

In Rick’s own words, “Undertaking the pilgrimage to the 2024 Democratic National Convention in the Windy City truly impressed upon me that I was on the path to experience ‘history in the making’. ‘The overall atmosphere was both electrified AND electrifying. One couldn’t help but get infected with the energy of the moment – knowing that the movement of our mutual hopes and aspirations was off and running.”

Welcome New Elections Coordinator Courtney Myers

Courtney is a long-time local activist who has helped in several campaigns, is and has been a precinct chair, is a current Voter Deputy Registrar. In addition, she has a reputation for being kind, quiet, calm, intensely detail oriented and being able to get hard things done. We cannot thank her enough for taking on this new role.

In fact, Courtney is already hard at work calling, emailing, and texting our past volunteers who have already served as Election Judges and Clerks. And indeed, she will probably be reaching out to all of us in the next few weeks as she is charged with finding almost 450 Democrats to serve as poll workers all on one day, November 5, 2024. So, if you hear her call, please answer.

According to Courtney, In-Person Pollworker Equipment Training is now available to all pollworkers between now and September 18, 2024. It is a hand-on refresher class on equipment setup & tear-down. Sign up for training at the Montgomery County Election site.

Volunteer with Montgomery County Dems

We're gearing up for some exciting initiatives and could really use your help and expertise.

Anyone wanting to volunteer, please fill out our volunteer interest form. If you've submitted it before and it's been more than 90 days, please do it again.

Please consider volunteering in the office any day of the week between 10 am and 4 pm. As you saw elsewhere in this newsletter, office hours will be changing so there will likely be a time block and day that is perfect for you!

Please sign up with Mobilize to receive notices of volunteer events and opportunities (Here is some info about how to sign up with Mobilize: "Individuals sign up through their Google Account, their Facebook Account, or their email address. Log in by email address is done via a "magic link" to the users email inbox. Once logged in, they would click the Menu with three horizontal lines in the top right corner and select "Account and Notification Settings". Here they can update their Contact information, ZIP code, and how and what notifications they would like to receive.")

Remote Volunteer Opportunities:

• Compile a list of Community Groups and their services.

We are excited to announce various positions available within our leadership team:

• Financial Assistant
• Audit Committee Member
• Lead Outreach Coordinator
• Social Media Coordinator
• Lead Financial Committee Member (Whether you have an hour or a day to spare, your contribution would be deeply appreciated.)

Thank you for considering this opportunity to volunteer with us.

Tonia Rolle Jones

Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteercoordinator@mcdptx.org

Scan the QR code for a special volunteer form for Nights and Weekends

Commissioner Precinct Representatives

and Voting Precinct Chairs

There are two initiatives in the works to organize precincts into collaborative groups and to provide support and training to Precinct Chairs. We are working very hard to do everything we can to get out the vote by touching each and every voter in Montgomery County prior to the start of early voting on October 21st.  

The first involves organizing the Precinct areas within each Commissioner Precinct.  Check out our website for information about how this structure works.   You will see several of the areas within each Commissioner Precinct have organized and renamed themselves as a "Blue group." The rest are in the process of meeting and organizing. The immediate priority of each of these groups is to reach out to Strong Democrats to find volunteers and recruit Precinct Chairs. At this stage we have about 60 filled Precinct Chair positions out of 113.  One of the strongest impacts on voter turnout is engagement by the Precinct Chairs. So if you want to truly make a difference in this election contact the Precinct Chair Support Team Lead, Charlotte Riser, to learn more about what is involved.  

The second initiative involves training and supporting Precinct Chairs to be as effective as possible in voter outreach.  We are holding training sessions which are recorded, running reports to be used for voter outreach, writing scripts for use when contacting voters, assisting with mailings of letters and postcards, and generally providing information and support to Precinct Chairs for whatever they need to be successful.  

Now is the perfect time to apply to be a Precinct Chair by getting in on the ground level with these initiatives.  You will have lots of support, training, resources and guidance plus it's more fun to work as a team than by yourself! If you don't want to start as a Precinct Chair, there is a place for you in supporting your Precinct Chair.  We need so much help. 

These Blue groups have some great social events coming up!  So watch for information about how to get together with your fellow Dems and have fun while helping to flip Montgomery County, Texas and the USA Blue!

• Email me to connect with your Precinct Chair or to learn more.  
• To volunteer to be a Precinct Chair, use the MCDPTX Volunteer Interest Form

Submitted by Charlotte Riser Harris

Commissioner Precinct 2 Representative

Precinct Chair Support Team Lead

Postcards Elect Candidates

As you may have heard there are two postcard writing projects for two local candidates. Laura Jones is candidate for US Congress District 8 and Mike Midler is candidate for Texas House District 18.  The goal of these projects is to have personalized, handwritten postcards hit registered voters' mailboxes before early voting starts on October 21st. Name recognition matters in elections and we want voters to know that there are people in Montgomery County that feel strongly enough about the quality of these candidates and their values to take the time to write personal postcards.  That gets attention and will make a difference in voter turnout.

For Laura we have 17,169 postcards to write and 9,149 of them have been assigned and have been written by 86 volunteers so far.  As of Aug 28th, 4119 have been written and stamped and are ready to be mailed on October 11th (mail date). More are being picked up and completed every day. The momentum is invigorating.

For Mike we have just received his postcards and there are 10,000 to write. So those postcards will be added to the batches being assigned soon. 

It doesn't matter whether you live in their districts; any Democratic candidate we can collectively help succeed in their campaign will not only benefit Montgomery County but will create change in our State and our Country.  

To participate email campaignsupport@mcdptx.org to receive information about this postcard writing project and pick up locations. We provide tips and scripts so all you have to do is write the message, address the card, and add a stamp.  Please note that we ask anyone writing postcards to purchase stamps for the cards they write.  The campaigns do not have the funds to purchase stamps for this project. 

Another option is to join other volunteers at Headquarters on Working Wednesdays to write postcards with others.  

All postcards will be mailed on October 11th in order to hit mailboxes all at once.

Please join us in this final push before the election to get these candidates elected.

More than a dozen people came to the office to address and fill out postcards on Wednesday, August 28

Use this handy QR code to order and pay for your yard sign today, or click the image to go to the web page

Our Yard Signs are HERE

Our phones have been ringing off the walls all week with happy citizens ready to put out yard signs for our joyful warriors and now the time has come.

We are ready with enough to signs to turn the lawns in Montgomery County blue.

The signs are printed on both sides so that we can support both Harris/Walz and Colin Allred at the same time and for one price of $20 per sign. Each sign will come with its own stake to designed to fit this style of sign. 

We will be open this weekend on Saturday from 10 am – 2 pm. Please call before you come at 936-703-5841. We will be delighted to hear from you! Our office is located at 704 N. Thompson Street, Suite 195, Conroe, TX 77301.

IF YOU HAVEN’T, DO IT NOW!

Recent changes in Texas law have made the process of voting by mail more confusing for voters. It's crucial not to delay. Ballot requests will no longer be sent automatically through mail, even if you received one the previous year. You need to request a ballot annually, and now is the time to apply for your mail-in ballot for the upcoming November Presidential election. While it's still early, submitting your request to the Montgomery County Elections administrator now is advisable.

Here is the official information from the Texas Secretary of State to make sure you are eligible to vote by mail and you can also find the information online.

To be eligible to vote early by mail in Texas, you must:

• be 65 years or older;
• be sick or disabled;
• be out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; or
• be expected to give birth within three weeks before or after Election Day; or
• be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible.

To request an application for a Ballot by Mail, you may go to the Montgomery County Election website or do it the old-fashioned way and call them directly at (936) 539-7843.

Democratic Party Activities Around the County

psst: you're missing a lot of fun if you aren't joining us!!

Find Trainings From These Coordinated Campaign Allies Here

   - Texas Blue Action Relational Organizing 2x/wk | txdem.co/Relational

   - PxP Voter Reg Trainings 3x/wk | txdem.co/VDR

   - NDTC Trainings, Course Library & Modules | txdem.co/TrainDemocrats

Texas Blue Action Relational Organizing 2x/wk

The Texas Blue Action Network is now the largest and fastest growing volunteer relational network in the country, with more than 7500 volunteers and almost 1 million registered voters across Texas. Our mission is to expand the electorate and build long-term sustainable Democratic get-out-the-vote organizing infrastructure in Texas through a relational organizing model. Relational Organizing Trainings are every Tuesday & Thursday — so RSVP at txdem.co/Relational.

RELATIONAL ORGANIZING RSV

In this training you'll learn how easy it is to engage the non-voters in your mobile phone contacts. This isn't about "stranger outreach." You can make a HUGE difference just by talking to the people you already know!

PxP Voter Reg Trainings 3x/wk

Want to become a Volunteer Deputy Registrar so you can register voters? Are you a former VDR and need to get re-deputized for the 2023-2024 cycle?

Sign up for an official training via our partners at PxP at txdem.co/VDR — Powered by People facilitates trainings 3 times a week every week!3-2024 VTER REGISTRAR CERTIFICAT

NDTC Trainings, Course Library & Modules

Check out the many trainings our partners at NDTC has lined up the next few weeks at txdem.co/TrainDemocrats, along with their on demand courses and modules. Feel free to organize a County Party, Democratic organization, or other party people to go to preferred trainings! There are many trainings for candidates and campaign staff, too.

DTC UPCOMING TRAININGS

• Planning a Vote-By-Mail Program• 08/06 Tues • Noon CT
• NDTC Expert Q&A: Expert Q&A: AI as a Campaign Tool • 08/08 Thurs • Noon CT
• How Local Parties Prepare for GOTV • 08/14 Wed • Noon CT
• Maximize Your Field Strategy Through Precinct Prioritization• 08/15 Thurs • Noon CT
• National GOTV Bootcamp 08/24 Sat • 10 AM CT
• Data Management for Your Field Program • 08/26 Mon • Noon CT
• How to Prepare Your GOTV Universe and Script • 08/27 Tues • Noon CT

Unless it's a boot camp or in person, trainings are usually during the week at Noon CT — easy to join for lunch! RSVP at txdem.co/TrainDemocrats.

Tweets!

General Election November 5th



Last day to register to vote in the November 5, 2024, General Election is October 7.

See Montgomeryvotes.org to verify your registration status and view your sample ballot based on your precinct.

For a candidate and race Voter Guide go to Vote411.org by League of Women Voters. 

For city elections go to your specific city website for information.

Ballotpedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Texas_elections,_2024, is also a good source of information on candidates and all elections by state and locality.

Please feel free to contact our office during regular business hours at (936) 703-5841 or email office@mcdptx.org if you have questions. 

Conroe Community Assistance Center

Annual Duck Race, Saturday, October 5, 2024

Democrats & Progressives of Montgomery County Area Meetup

Attend a Wednesday Evening Meetup - Dinner with Friends

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

5:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Cafe Express Woodlands

3091 College Park Dr Ste 290

The Woodlands, TX 77384

RSVP

Saturday Morning Coffee

September 14, 2024

9:00 AM to 11:00 AM CDT

Every 2nd Saturday of the month until January 5, 2025

Katz's Never Kloses

19075 I-45 · Shenandoah, TX

RSVP

Recurring Meetings, Special Events in the Community

SEPT 5 to 7 - TEXAS TRIBUNE FESTIVAL, Austin

SEPT 5 - COLIN ALLRED IN HOUSTON, 6:00pm, location provided upon registration

SEPT 10 - MOCO COMMISSIONERS COURT, 9:30am, 501 N. Thompson 77301

SEPT 10 - LONE STAR GROUNDWATER, 6:00pm, 655 Conroe Park North Drive 77303

SEPT 17 - CONROE ISD BOARD, 6:00pm, 3205 W. Davis St. Conroe 77304

SEPT 19 - WOODLANDS TOWNSHIP BOARD, 6:00pm, 2801 Technology Forest Bl. 77381

SEPT 24 - MOCO COMMISSIONERS COURT, 9:30am, 501 N. Thompson 77301

SEPT 25 - WOODLANDS TOWNSHIP BOARD, 6:00pm, 2801 Technology Forest Bl. 77381

Important Election Dates:

OCT 7 - LAST DAY TO UPDATE VOTER REGISTRATION INFORMATION 

OCT 21 - FIRST DAY OF EARLY VOTING

OCT 25 - LAST DAY FOR BALLOT BY MAIL APPLICATION TO BE RECEIVED

NOV 1 - LAST DAY OF EARLY VOTING

NOV 5 - ELECTION DAY, 7:00am to 7:00pm

NOV 5 - LAST DAY FOR BALLOT BY MAIL TO BE RECEIVED