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Serving the Native People as a Political Organizer Help Keep Casey Lee in the Field in 2023-24 [1]

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Date: 2023-05-27

Casey Lee with Arizona's Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in Whiteriver Arizona

Casey Lee’s journey in community organizing started in early 2020, when the Northeast Arizona Native Democrats posted an ad on Facebook calling for campaign organizers. He had some experience helping family and clan relatives who ran for office, where he had pitched in by hanging up signs and getting folks to vote. With this experience he knew he could help mobilize Democratic voters. And, it was great timing because at the height of the pandemic, his livelihood as a food truck chef and owner was gone.This organizing opportunity with the Northeast Arizona Native Democrats was his chance to get back into the community, helping neighbors during the COVID crisis while earning a living wage. Everyone needed help.

Donate to help us bring Casey to full-time status this year.

Since 2020, Casey has organized out of extremely rural northern Navajo County, in his hometown of Kayenta, a town about 25 miles from Monument Valley. He has logged thousands of miles on tough roads to register voters; he’s talked to community members at well-attended flea markets in all kinds of weather year after year, ,and personally drives Elders to the polls at each election. But as we all saw during this extreme winter just past, he has always provided aid whenever needed to his neighbors, whether it’s delivering food, feed and firewood to Elders isolated by the snow, or pulling stranded motorists out of snow drifts.

Casey Lee Tabling In Remote Arizona On the Navajo Nation

Casey builds his network of trust by hosting community clean ups, voter registration events, staffing the well-attended flea markets, and recruiting volunteers. He fields dozens of calls a week from our postcard recipients who have questions about voting and the upcoming 2024 elections. He covers a huge turf and travels to multiple communities for community service and tabling events, and his work is invaluable to the work of winning elections in Arizona.

His years-long commitment to this work is vital, because no one knows the rural, tribal region in which he organizes better than he does as a local. Our Native- and locally-led strategy has had measurable impacts on the 2020 and 2022 elections. Navajo and Apache Counties were the only two counties in 2022 to show an *increase* in Midterm voter turnout. That increase came from the sovereign lands on which Casey and our colleagues work every day. We need Casey in place full-time this year: if we have demonstrated anything in the past four and-a-half years, it’s that there are no “off” years if you want to build an engaged Democratic electorate on some of the toughest rural turf in the country.

As a core member of our team all these years, he’s part of our every day/every year organizing strategy. We remain the only team with staff organizing year-round in this space. Casey is working to build the electorate that will protect the White House, hold the Senate and secure wins in critical local races. Whenever he is engaging community members he is connecting folks to the values and policies of the Democratic Party. He is happy to help everyone check and update their voter registration and explain the differences between the Democratic and Republican parties to new voters. Casey is able to show each voter their power and help encourage them to get their family and friends to vote to leverage their power.

Casey always tells us that he’s inspired by the elders in Kayenta, their knowledge, and their teachings. It’s a mission of his to make sure we take care of the Elders we still have after losing far too many to the pandemic. He reminds us that it is a Navajo way of life that the generations look after each other. It is this generational care for each other that should continue to drive us and move the work forward.

You can help us continue serving our people. A donation today will keep organizers like Casey on the payroll, serving the people, and driving the next voter turnout success story.

DONATION LINK: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/caseylee

Casey at an event in Kayenta Arizona on the Navajo Nation

Checks may also be made out to and mailed to: Navajo County Democrats — PO Box 144, Lakeside, AZ 85929 · (928) 224-8021‬

Ahé hee’ Thank you,

Missa Foy

Program Director Northeast Arizona Native Democrats

Chair Navajo County Democrats

www.navajocountydemocrats.org

neaznativedemocrats.org (project of Navajo County Democrats)

Stay connected with us and help amplify the work!

Facebook: neaznativedemocrats

Twitter: @neazNativeDems

Instagram: @neazNativeDems

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/27/2171604/-Serving-the-Native-People-as-a-Political-Organizer-Help-Keep-Casey-Lee-in-the-Field-in-2023-24

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