Black leaders unveil Project 2025 counteroffer
Cheyanne M. Daniels | July 25, 2024 | The Hill |
Black leaders are presenting voters with an alternative to Project 2025, the controversial plan prepared by conservative groups to guide the next Republican administration.
Project FREEDOM — orchestrated by Until Freedom, Live Free, MPower Action, Woke Vote and KAIROS Democracy Project (KDP) — will canvass, engage in calls and run pro-democracy digital campaigns to help engage voters of color in the days leading up to the election. The initiative has four demands: the freedom to live, the freedom to learn, the freedom to vote and the freedom to thrive. The project will target seven states in particular to mobilize communities of color: Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and New York.
Michael Blake, founder and CEO of KDP, said the project targets “the work that has to happen to mobilize our country and our communities.”
“We have been listening and being told that they are policies that are not aspirational, that there’s not a vision that people can align around. And we want to say it’s the complete opposite,” said Blake. “We’re very clear that we have permission to dream, we have permission to live out our policies, and we have permission and a declaration to be free.”
Blake added that the project is not about any candidate or even any party, but “about our people.”
“This is not just about this election, it’s about things that are so much bigger and beyond it,” Blake said. “It is giving us ourselves permission to dream about the democracy that we deserve.”