Newsletter: This Is Independent Leadership

How do we demonstrate leadership as independent voters? One independent organizer and LetUsVote supporter might just show us the path.

I know this doesn't feel like a hopeful time for independent voters.

Our politics feels broken. If we want to fix our broken politics and support the rise of independent voters and ordinary citizens, what exactly can we do? How do we make a difference, and bravely stand up in the face of rage and anger from the two-party machinery?

A LetUsVote supporter and independent activist named David Cherry might just show us the way. 

Let's rock.


LetUsVote Newsletter: This is what independent leadership looks like.

A few months ago, I interviewed a man named David Cherry as part of our Citizen Spotlight series. He's been a prominent organizer in the Black community in Chicago for decades, and he's an independent voter. Check out this clip from our conversation:

David is furious about major parties dismissing and ignoring independent voters, and he's particularly infuriated the both parties seem to take Black voters like himself for granted.

So what did he do?

He wrote about it. At great personal cost, he spoke up against the raging two-party tide to make a difference. He just had an Op-Ed published in the Chicago Sun-Times. You can read it here (behind a signup wall), and I've excerpted a few potent passages below:

At exactly the time we need more debate, more competition and more ideas about how we can develop solutions and move forward as a nation, the Democratic Party’s message to Black voters in 2024 is that you have to vote for Biden. With so many working-class people fighting to survive, many Black voters deeply resent being told that we have to do anything.

The days of Black voters automatically voting Democratic are over. And this growing independence offers new possibilities to create new coalitions which can create new solutions — for Black people and our entire country.

This is real moral courage.

As of June, 51% of American citizen identify as independent voters. That's amazing, but if independent Americans - if all Americans - are to thrive in the days and years ahead, we need more bravery like this.

So here's some homework.

Write your own letter to your local paper, outlining why you're an independent voter and how you're standing up to our two-party system:

Write a Letter To Your Newspaper

If you aren't already, make sure you're following LetUsVote on YouTube, Instagram, X/Twitter or Facebook, where we're sharing these stories almost every single day.

Okay, that's it for today. Next week, I'll share a few of my favorite letters published across the country, so make it count!


If you support what we're doing here at LetUsVote, please know that any contribution - big or small - helps us keep up the work of building a unique and totally new community for independent voters. It would mean the world if you can contribute.

Thank you for all you do.

Sincerely,

Will Conway

Campaign Director - LetUsVote

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