Restoring Democracy: Overview

Indivisible has two overarching objectives, both of which are fundamentally about better serving the interests of hard-working Americans by promoting a democracy that is more responsive to ordinary citizens:

  • The highest priority in 2026 is to prevent the current administration from continuing to consolidate unilateral power.

  • The longer-term objective is to wrest control of the Democratic party away from large corporations, the financial industry, and the wealthy elite so that it can begin promoting democratic processes that return power to the people.

In practice, Indivisible is pursuing these objectives by building a nationwide grassroots power base that can oppose MAGA and reform the Democratic party.  It is recruiting and engaging as many progressive-leaning citizens as possible in thousands of locally driven groups with this unified agenda.

Our Restore Democracy team shares Indivisible’s fundamental objectives.  However, we are pursuing these in a way that is customized to our particular circumstances (i.e., we are based in Santa Cruz, California; we are relatively small; we are highly analytical by nature; and we aspire to contribute in ways that extend significantly beyond Indivisible’s current operating assumptions).  We have therefore asked ourselves:

Where and how can we maximize our unique pro-democracy impact on the midterm elections?

Here are our answers:

  • We can contribute to Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts in support of anti-MAGA candidates in closely-contested elections (none of which are local):

    • Participate directly via phone-banking and/or post-carding and/or fundraising

    • Amplify our impact by recruiting and engaging additional participants

  • We can promote pro-democracy ballot measures in California:

    • Provide quick reference materials for voters seeking trusted guidance

    • Provide detailed, original, in-depth online analyses for voters who want to make their own well-informed decisions

    • Promote awareness of our perspectives via tabling and published op-eds

In addition, as circumstances permit, we are happy to contribute to other election-related activities as members of the Indivisible community:

  • Help promote Indivisible’s “Vote Early” message (to help protect against election sabotage)

  • Help to register voters at local colleges

  • Respond to threats to election integrity

  • Respond to calls for assistance from other Indivisible teams

In parallel with the above activities (but in the background), we are also pursuing multiple longer-term initiatives:

  • Improve our sensitivity (and that of Indivisible) to class-blind thinking and messaging that deepens (rather than bridging) the divide between college-educated progressives and non-college-educated workers.

  • Develop messaging and alliances in the service of building a much more powerful and much more broad-based pro-democracy movement (e.g., including labor and youth) that extends well beyond Indivisible’s current focus.

  • Develop deeper relationships with local representatives in government (and also with local colleges).

  • Identify specific California pro-democracy initiatives that we can begin to move the needle on (e.g., Ranked Choice Voting and Proportional Representation, Money Out of Politics, Citizens’ Initiative Review, etc.).

  • Develop outreach mechanisms to reach audiences who won’t visit our website.