News & Updates
  • Annual Meeting Recap

    Annual Meeting

    We had a lively Annual Meeting with a number of special guests.

    Keith Powers

    Keith Powers joined us to discuss his tenure on the City Council and his 2025 campaign for Manhattan Borough President.

    Council member Justin Brannan from South Brooklyn is running city-wide in 2025 for New York City Comptroller.

    Justin Brannan
    Dan Goldman

    Rep. Dan Goldman joined us remotely from D.C. to discuss the considerable challenges facing Democrats in the upcoming administration.

    Assembly member Grace Lee invited us to volunteer on Saturday to distribute Thanksgiving turkeys to low-income families in the neighborhood.

    Grace Lee

    The club also elected new officers and passed an amendment to the bylaws to include on our executive committee a member of the Democratic State Committee if they are a voting member of GSD.

  • Proposed bylaws amendment — addition to Executive Committee

    Update: This amendment passed by a vote of members on 11/18/24.

    At our 11/18/24 Annual Meeting, voting members will be asked to approve a change to our bylaws that would make a member of the Democratic State Committee who is also a member of Grand Street Dems with voting privileges ex officio a member of GSD’s Executive Committee.

    From the start of the club, we have had the same accommodation for District Leaders. This is the first time we have had a State Committee member who is also a member of the club, so members of the Executive Committee proposed to extend that rule.

    Below is the section of the bylaws in question, with the proposed amendment highlighted:

    Article 6, Section 1

    Membership in the Executive Committee shall consist of the Officers and current District Leaders and State Committee members who are members of this Club with voting privileges.

  • 🍗 Turkey Drive 2024

    Vision Urbana Turkey Drive
    Saturday, November 23, 10:00 am
    65 Norfolk Street

    Join Assembly member Grace Lee, Congress member Dan Goldman, and City Council member Chris Marte for Vision Urbana‘s annual Turkey Drive.

    Volunteers of all ages are needed to bring 1,800 turkeys, chickens, and pernils to local public and subsidized housing residents.

    Grace Lee’s office is organizing volunteers: please call (646) 897-1741 to RSVP.

  • Annual Meeting — 11/18/24

    Annual Meeting
    November 18, 6:30 pm
    Seward Park Coop Community Room
    266 East Broadway

    Election for GSD officers (President, Vice President(s), Secretary, Treasurer, At-large) will be held. All members with voting privileges may stand for office. Votes must be cast in person or by proxy (any member may carry one proxy for a member with voting privileges with written authorization).

    Are you interested in running for office to help shape GSD’s 2025 agenda? Email president@grandstreetdems.nyc.

    We will also be joined by Coucilmembers Keith Powers and Justin Brennan as we turn our attention to city-wide primaries and elections in 2025.

    Rep. Dan Goldman, just re-elected for a second term to Congress, is expected to join us virtually.

  • 🗳️ Election Day update

    Dear Friends,

    Election Day is finally (almost) here. Grand Street Dems has hosted phone banks and letter-writing events, knocked doors in Pennsylvania and New York state, and distributed a few thousand Vote Yes on Prop 1 flyers (3,200 to be exact). It’s been a busy, exciting, emotional time.

    But right now, if you’re like me, you might be consumed with Election Day itself, so below are some recommendations for channeling that energy.

    No matter the results, this community and our work continue after November 5. Please join us at our Fall Party on Thursday, Nov. 14 to reflect on this tumultuous election, and then come to our next General Meeting on Monday, Nov. 18 to start planning for all the big NYC primaries that are right around the corner!

    In solidarity,

    Caroline
    District Leader, AD 65 Part A


    VOTE
    Seems obvious, but bears repeating. Check in on your neighbors, friends and family. I got a panic text yesterday from a Pennsylvania voter who thought it was too late to drop off her mail-in ballot. It’s not! I got her the correct address and that’s one more vote in a swing state.

    If you encounter issues while voting, call 1-866-390-2992 and submit a complaint to the NY Attorney General.

    THANK A POLL WORKER
    They are working a 15-hour day (not including travel time), and are essential to this whole process.

    MAKE MORE CALLS
    (Why phone bank? A few observations from the past month right up to today’s NY For Harris phone bank: 1. People still need information – where to vote, where to drop off a ballot, who’s running for senate/state house/etc. 2. People who commit to a voting plan – like, saying it out loud to another person, even an anonymous caller – are more likely to follow through. 3. Having respectful, human contact from Harris volunteers leaves a good impression.)

    NY For Harris in-person phone bank (near Penn Station, exact address with RSVP) – calling Pennsylvania to make sure every possible vote is cast for Kamala Harris and the entire Democratic ticket.

    Statewide Vote Yes on Prop 1 virtual phone bank – calling voters throughout New York state to remind them to flip their ballot and vote YES on Prop 1. This is to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in New York state and  such an important issue

    Sister District virtual phone bank – calling voters to flip the state house seat in one of their adopted districts (in WI, MI, PA, NC, MN, GA, AZ, or NV)

    Everyone For Kamala – billing itself as “The Largest Phone Bank Ever.” Celebrities abound.

    GET OUTSIDE – PROP 1 POLL SITE VISIBILITY
    https://www.mobilize.us/newyorkersforequalrights/event/701587/

    DONATE
    Pizza to the polls delivers food to people waiting on long lines to vote.
  • Stroll to the Polls Sunday — early voting begins this weekend

    Stroll to the Polls
    Sunday, October 27, 11:00 am
    Montgomery Triangle Park

    Early voting starts this weekend. Join us on Sunday to walk to St. Augustine church together and cast our votes for Kamala Harris!

  • Check out your 2024 ballot

    Election Day this year is not just for President! Vote for:

    • President/Vice-President
    • U.S. Senator
    • N.Y State Supreme Court
    • N.Y. County Civil Court
    • U.S. Congress
    • N.Y. State Senator
    • N.Y. State Assembly Member
    • N.Y. County District Civil Court

    Also remember to turn your ballot over to vote on one state constitutional amendment and five other city charter amendments.

  • Early voting starts Saturday 10/26

    Early voting begins on Saturday, October 26 and continues for nine days through Sunday, November 3.

    You can vote at St. Augustine Episcopal Church at 290 Henry Street.

    Saturday, October 268:00 am – 5:00 pm
    Sunday, October 278:00 am – 5:00 pm
    Monday, October 288:00 am – 8:00 pm
    Tuesday, October 298:00 am – 8:00 pm
    Wednesday, October 308:00 am – 8:00 pm
    Thursday, October 318:00 am – 8:00 pm
    Friday, November 18:00 am – 8:00 pm
    Saturday, November 28:00 am – 5:00 pm
    Sunday, November 38:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • October 20: Yes on Prop 1 Rally @ Father Demo Square

    Yes on Prop 1 Rally
    Sunday, October 20 at 1:30 pm
    Father Demo Square (Bleecker Street and 6th Ave.)

    Prop 1 will appear on the back of ballots across the state to protect New Yorkers’ rights and fundamental freedoms – including abortion.

    Prop 1 will ensure our reproductive rights and fundamental freedoms – including abortion – are protected from government interference, keeping the power with New Yorkers and not politicians — permanently. It also protects New Yorkers from government discrimination – because no New Yorker should be taken advantage of by those in power.

    While abortion is currently protected by state law, those laws are not ironclad and can be overturned. New York’s current laws can be changed or rolled back depending on who is in the state legislature or Governor’s Mansion. Passing Prop 1 would ensure the right to abortion can’t be rolled back in New York.

    Read the full text of the amendment here.

  • Oct. 19 Vote Blue Bus to Pennsylvania

    Vote Blue 2024

    Vote Blue Bus to PA
    Saturday, October 19
    8am – 7pm EDT
    Reserve a spot on the bus

    Please see below special invitation from incoming State Committee Member and GSD member Wei-Li Tjong:

    The time is nigh to help lift up our Democratic candidates by a targeted on-the-ground effort in a neighboring Pennsylvania district!

    Through VOTE BLUE, and the efforts of our Democratic clubs and our electeds, we have first dibs to OFFICIALLY SIGN UP for the bus. UNTIL YOU SIGN UP YOU HAVE NOT RESERVED YOUR SEAT. WE ONLY HAVE UNTIL THIS SUNDAY TO FILL THIS BUS OURSELVES (and with all of our friends and family who want to join) — and then the bus will be open to any other volunteers.

    Let’s fill this bus and make it a day of friends, family and neighbors in common cause. What’s happening is frightening. We have a chance to pitch in to invigorate and educate. It will come down to work like this, if Democrats have a hope of forming the necessary bulwark to shore up our Republic.

    Let’s take ourselves to the frontlines, and put boots on the ground for our beliefs, decency and common sense!

    It’s a long day, but we will be back by 7pm leaving and returning from Union Square East (between 15th & 16th Sts). We will be trained on the way by experienced canvassers, so no experience needed!

    Wear comfy shoes and bring your smartphones and some ways to charge them. More FAQs are at the Eventbrite link below. If helping out with $10 per person is any issue, please let me know, and we will arrange to cover it.

    Be sure WHEN YOU SIGN UP to pick the “PA Combined (House, Senate, Harris/Walz)” bus ticket — and each person, regardless of age, needs to be registered.

    Let’s do this!

    For questions, please email: president@grandstreetdems.nyc.