Retirees pen 135,000 postcards to get out the vote
In the weeks leading up to the election, more than 1,500 AFSCME Retirees from across the country have penned a staggering 135,000 postcards urging their fellow union members to get out the vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz
Mobilization, of course, is something AFSCME retirees know all about. They spent their careers mobilizing for fair pay, good benefits and a strong union. As retirees, they fight for retirement security for all workers while fending off attacks to pensions, Social Security and Medicare.
When it comes to getting out the vote during election season, AFSCME Retirees are MVPs. And this election season, they know the stakes have never been higher.
Take Project 2025, former President Donald Trump’s 900-page radical plan that will transform the entire federal government and take away power from working people and make it impossible to retire with dignity.
The plan would give Trump unprecedented levels of control over our lives if he wins reelection in November, allowing his administration to cancel our contracts, ban our union, cut billions of dollars in funding for essential programs that working families and retirees need, and gut Medicare as we know it.
Project 2025 would eliminate Medicare’s ability to lower prescription drug prices for seniors, remove the $2,000 cap on prescription drugs, and eliminate the $35 cap on insulin for seniors, which the Biden-Harris administration — and AFSCME retirees — have fought for.
That’s why retirees like Dorothy McCoy, a DC 37 Retirees Association member and a member of AFSCME Local 384 when she was working, are doing everything they can this election season to get out the vote for pro-worker and pro-retiree candidates.
McCoy wrote 300 postcards in just three days to mobilize working and retired voters — and would’ve happily done more.
“Doing it meant a lot for me,” said McCoy, who shares this message with potential voters: “Our ancestors fought for the right to vote. It’s a right that wasn’t always there. You lose by not voting. Make your vote count. Don’t throw it away.”