For Immediate Release
Contact: info@dreamocracyinamerica.org
Website: www.rbgbrigade.com
Artists Create RBG Brigade to Rally Final Surge of Votes and Donations
With the most important election in recent history winding up in less than a week, two California artists have launched a campaign to not only get people out to vote, but also to get out and give.
To aid in this effort, artists Victor Payan and Pocha Peña have created the RBG Brigade, named in honor of beloved Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg, who passed away last month, was a champion of civil rights and women’s rights.
“With an election so heated and so close, we wanted to create a national movement to honor Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, and to encourage people to donate to candidates who are fighting to take back the White House and the Senate from what is undeniably the worst administration in American history,” says Payan.
The RBG Brigade encourages people in larger, more progressive states to “airlift” donations to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and candidates in embattled swing states such as Kentucky, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida.
“We have record voter turnout, and many folks have already voted, but that’s not enough this year,” says Peña. “Key Republican Senators like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham are fighting for their political lives. They are throwing massive resources to win neck and neck races. We call for people all over the country to donate to turn the swing states blue, because the future of the nation is at stake in these races.”
Payan and Pocha have created a website for the RBG Brigade, www.rbgbrigade.com, which includes handy links to Democratic candidates’ sites for easy donations.
The website asks for people “In the spirit of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, please join the RBG Brigade and give what you can to help win critical races, so that we can finally Ditch Mitch, Slam Graham and Liberate the White House!”
Payan and Pocha have also created a graphic for the RBG Brigade, which features Ruth Bader Ginsburg wearing an iconic pink WWI helmet.
In addition to the website, Payan and Pocha are making humorous PSA’s encouraging people to join the RBG Brigade and to pitch in for justice.
“Democratic challengers like Amy McGrath and Jaime Harrison are fighting epic battles to unseat Moscow Mitch and Lady G,” says Peña. “They are close, but they need our help. If Orange County can turn blue, Texas and Kentucky can too!”
Orange County, where Payan and Pocha live, was founde by Klansman and has been a stalwart conservative stronghold since 1960, when it became the home base of Richard Nixon. In the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats swept all seven available congressional seats, turning OC blue.
Payan and Pocha believe the election will not only be decided by the people who vote, but also by the people who do not vote.
“As we saw in 2016, low voter turnout in swing states cost the election, despite a 3 million vote lead in the popular vote by Hillary Clinton,” says Payan. “We know the majority of Americans is sick of Trump and McConnell, and that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have the numbers to win the presidential election. Republicans are working overtime to sow voter confusion, suppress the vote and disenfranchise voters, even encouraging armed vigilantes to intimidate voters. We need to vote with our ballot and also vote with our dollars.”
The RBG Brigade is part of Payan and Pocha’s larger Dreamocracy in America project, which aims to empower an inclusive democracy by giving voice to ideas and efforts of those who are fighting hardest to defend and reinvigorate it: Immigrants, Women, Native Americans, Young Americans and the Latino, Asian American, African American and LGBTQ communities.
Dreamocracy in America is a Creative Capital project. To learn more about Dreamocracy in America or to support this project, visit www.dreamocracyinamerica.org or email info@dreamocracyinamerica.org.
