Thank You for Supporting our Local Democratic Candidates!

Thanks to everyone who has been showing up to walk with candidates in parades, attend fundraisers, and take part in meet-and-greets. And don’t forget this evening’s

IMV Annual Summer Potluck Picnic and Candidate Meet-and-Greet — July 30

Potluck picnic at SherillBrook Park. Bonus! Meet and greet our local candidates running for office.

for details...

Last week, smoke from Canadian wildfires hung over the Mohawk Valley and made familiar views look strange. Now the skies have cleared, just in time for one of Rome’s best-known summer traditions: Honor America Days.

Honor America Days grew out of Rome’s Fort Stanwix celebrations, and this year’s theme is “Honoring 250 Years of America.” The parade, concert, and fireworks give the community a chance to mark that anniversary together. At a time when national politics can make patriotism feel complicated, it matters to remember that our country’s history belongs to all of us—and so does its future.

Across America, let’s make good trouble.

We are facing the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations.

The same spirit that fueled Selma, Montgomery, and the March on Washington lives on in our unified action. 

Join us from July 17th – July 19th as we honor the legacy of John Lewis and carry the torch of the civil rights movement.

If They Count on Silence, We Get Organized

This week’s newsletter is about visibility, local accountability, and action. We’re highlighting ways to support immigrant-defense work, push for oversight around ICE operations in Salina, join Good Trouble actions across the region, learn more about proposed AI data centers in New York, contact members of Congress on urgent national issues, and gather with IMV at our annual summer picnic.

The answer is not panic. The answer is organizing — locally, visibly, and together.

250 Years: Marking July 4th Together

This July 4th marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, and many of us are feeling the weight of this moment. Pride, frustration, grief, determination, and hope can all exist in the same complicated country.

Local action gives us a way to turn those complicated feelings into something we can do together. This week, we can march in Utica, gather at Fort Stanwix in Rome, support Democratic candidates, and speak out against authoritarianism. It is also a chance to connect with neighbors and reflect on the founding principles at the center of the holiday.

Congratulations to Jon Lipe and Everyone Who Volunteered!

Jon Lipe, running in the Democratic primary for the 119th Assembly seat, cleared a big hurdle on Tuesday night, winning by 264 votes.  Now he will be on three ballot lines in the fall, and continue to have the support of IMV volunteers, many of whom he trained over the past nine years to win elections by having conversations with voters at their doors.  Field organizing wins!

Blake Gendebien (NY21) also won his primary, and his campaign expressed thanks for the work that IMV did to help get voters to the polls in Rome.

Take a breath and enjoy the 250th anniversary of this nation’s Declaration of Independence and its profound assertion of the inalienable rights of all people.  Then let’s get fired up and go!  What are you going to do in the next four months to bring about the world you want to see?  

Join Indivisible’s Immigrant Justice Summer Training Series

When ICE comes to your community, do you know what to do? This summer, Indivisible is giving you a blueprint. 

Immigrant Justice Summer is a five-call national training series that will level up how you show up for immigrant justice. You’ll learn how to build up hyper-local networks and connect to experienced organizations to respond to ICE surges or new concentration camps in your area.

Final push to the primaries - Early voting starts tomorrow!  

On this week’s Indivisible national call, organizers emphasized that early votes and mail ballots can decide close elections. Election Day is not the beginning of voting. It is the end of the voting period. Our job now is to help voters make a plan, whether that means voting early in person, requesting a mail ballot, or showing up on Primary day.

That is why we are knocking doors this Sunday. 

June IMV Meeting Recap:
Nine Years of Standing Together

Nine years after Indivisible Mohawk Valley began, our June meeting was a reminder of what still defines us: ordinary people working together, showing up publicly, and turning shared concern into organized action.

The timing could not be better. We celebrated nine years of showing up — and now we need to keep showing up. This weekend, that means celebrating and supporting our LGBTQ+ neighbors at Oneida County PrideFest on Saturday, June 6, at the Clinton Arena. And over the next few weeks, it means turning IMV energy into votes through canvassing, phone banking, letters to the editor, and direct voter contact ahead of the June primary.

9 Years of Standing Together

Join us June 3rd to celebrate IMV’s 9th Birthday! Come spend time connecting with fellow community members working to make the world more just, equitable, and livable. As we gather to celebrate, we’re also remembering where IMV came from, why we began, and why this work still matters.

At our June 3rd meeting, we’ll celebrate what we have built together, share cake, and begin talking about how to make 2026 another year when organized people power makes a real difference. Join us as we celebrate where we began and get ready for the work ahead!

500 Signatures Needed by Tuesday:
A Few Hours This Weekend Could Make the Difference in November.

Right now, there may be nothing we can do locally that will have a bigger impact in November than helping Jon Lipe secure an independent ballot line.

If you can help this weekend, please show up. A relatively small effort now could have an outsized impact in November!

And RSVP for our June 3rd meeting.

Voting Rights Are Under Attack. Stand Up, Fight Back.

The past couple of weeks have been a disaster for democracy as the Republican administration, Republican state legislatures, and their lackey-stacked courts at every level destroy the Voting Rights Act of 1965, kick civil rights in the teeth, and lock in their permanent white conservative minority rule in red states and across the country. 

The Mohawk Valley can seem a world away from the action in Alabama and the South at this moment. And grassroots political activism can feel useless compared to the voting rights lawyers standing up in the courts every day.  

What can we do here and now to defend democratic elections and voting rights?  Read on to see three suggested actions.

Mother’s Day in Trump’s America 

Let’s make Mother’s Day more than a Hallmark card day. Let’s make it a day of real action.  Today, in honor of Mother’s Day, make a call to Congress and demand an end to funding ICE and war in Iran. 

This Week: May Day Strong , Meeting Recap, and Local Actions

May 1

The next two weeks are full of opportunities to show up, speak out, and push back against the forces concentrating power and undermining democracy. Today we join May Day Strong actions in solidarity with workers and against billionaire dominance. These moments matter—but they’re fuel, not finish lines. The real work is sustained, local, and collective. Keep reading for ways you can plug into action in our community.

 What Winning Looks Like.

This week in Virginia, people of Virginia voted in favor of redrawing Virginia's electoral maps —pushing back against efforts to tilt the rules of the next election before it begins. State Senator L. Louise Lucas, who represents the 18th District, said afterwards: “Virginia sent a message: if you try to rig the system, we fight back. If you try to take power from voters, we will take it right back.”

This weekend gives us two chances to do the same. Join us at the Communities, Not Cages Rally in Rome tomorrow, and then come together Sunday in Utica for the Indivisible Mohawk Valley April Meeting.

This Week’s Focus: Solidarity Starts Here

This week’s newsletter focuses on what we can do locally, right now. While national politics can feel distant or overwhelming, real influence comes from consistent action at the community level. That means showing up, making calls, supporting candidates, and organizing together where we live.

Building that kind of local power takes connection, and one of the ways we do that is by coming together in person at our upcoming IMV meeting.

IMV April 26, 2026 Meeting – “What’s Next after NK3?”

Over the next two weeks, here’s what you can do.

Power is Built Together

What's next after No Kings 3?
New polling data from the No Kings coalition will be released soon, and Indivisible will be sharing additional messaging around it. Early indicators suggest the largest single-day mobilization in recent history is already shaping public opinion.

The takeaway is straightforward: the No Kings movement is breaking through into broader public awareness. But as we’ve said before, this is only the beginning.

Keep showing up. Stay engaged. Keep building the skills of citizen participation.

No Kings. 
8 million showed up—
and we’re just getting started.

On Saturday, along with more than 8 million people across the country, you showed up to say loud and clear: We don’t do wanna-be kings in America. We braved whipping wind, bitter cold, and even snow flurries. Here in our region, more than 700 of us showed up in Rome, more than 1,000 in Utica, and 200 in Herkimer—people of all ages and backgrounds who care more about our neighbors and our rights than staying comfortable and silent at home.

We came together, no matter our differences, to say: We deserve better than this! Peaceful, nonviolent resistance WORKS—and it changes outcomes.

Let No Kings 3 be a launching pad, not a landing pad. This movement grows when people stay connected, share their stories, and take action together.

(Photo from the Herkimer rally.)

No Kings 3! 

Tomorrow is going to be the biggest mass mobilization in American history. It may be a little cold at our three local events, but in the Mohawk Valley we know how to dress warmly for the weather. Bring friends and signs No Kings 3! 

No Kings is Saturday, March 28

Be a part of the largest day of protest in U.S. history. On March 28, we will remind Trump and his enablers that real power belongs to the people and not a flailing, wannabe-king.  

We sponsor rallies in Rome, Utica, and Herkimer. If you have friends or family who live in other parts of the state, the country, or the world, be sure to ask them to sign up too. There are over 3000 events on the map already!

https://www.nokings.org/