Many of you may have seen the recent SNL skit highlighting a ‘Temecula Resident’, however all is not fun and games in Temecula. This past week the board of education in Temecula voted to mandate all educators in Temecula Valley schools attend six two-hour sessions ‘covering the history of critical race theory’ in an effort to support the board's previous vote to ban “critical race theory,” or more honestly described as accurate fact-based teaching, in the district. They joined districts in Orange County that have banned fact-based curriculum, and others in San Diego that have been under attack. They start with racism, then move to anti-LGBT, and continue down the white supremacist path. It is abhorrent to see these racist frameworks and policies in California. This is a reminder that California’s regions beyond Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland deserve and need the same attention/resources we give battleground states across the country. The culprit behind the racist Temecula board members is Tim Thompson, lead pastor of Inland Empire’s 412 Church. Tim Thompson is a leader in the white christian nationalist movement who refers to public schools as “satan’s playground” and leads a PAC in southwest Riverside County. Temecula is located in Congressional District 41, held by election denier Ken Calvert. It’s not a mistake that the Right has organized anti-CRT protests in California’s congressional battleground regions–the Inland Empire, Central Valley, San Diego and Orange County. Congressional District 41 is the top priority for CDT’s regional grantee Inland Empire United (IEU). IEU is rooted in communities of color across the inland Empire, and with robust ongoing CDT funding, has won political and policy change for a decade. IEU is currently working on a narrative campaign to combat policies in southwest Riverside County, like those above, and is targeting CD-41 for 2024. (By the way, neither the Bay Area nor Los Angeles are immune to these attacks.) Returning a Democratic House majority in 2024 by supporting independent expenditure efforts run by our regional partners is one of the priorities for Progressive Era PAC, our independent federal super PAC, in 2023 and 2024. If you are interested in contributing to the PAC, please contact Rebecca Hamburg (rebecca@progressiveerapac.org). If you would like to discuss how you can make the most strategic investments across California Donor Table priorities in 2023 and 2024, please contact Rebecca at rebecca@californiadonortable.org. In Solidarity, |
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