Action 1, “Stop Spiraling and Pick Up a Shovel,” recognizes the profound anxiety, uncertainty, and fear many of us are experiencing. If this is how you feel, you are certainly not alone. We are living through extraordinarily unsettling and unnerving times. Nothing is inevitable, and nothing is guaranteed. It is natural to feel overwhelmed.
However, the same uncertainty that can at times overwhelm us can also move us to action. If nothing is inevitable and nothing is guaranteed, that means change is possible. We have the power and ability to get to work on building the kind of democratic, just, and decent world we’d like to live in.
Working to reimagine our democracy begins with voting. Even aspiring authoritarians can fear elections. In April 2026, Hungarian voters turned Viktor Orbán out of office. The Hungarian autocrat had been in power for 16 years and was more entrenched than President Trump is—and yet, Hungarian voters delivered an overwhelming rebuke to Orbán. The opposition party won more than 70% of the seats in Parliament, while Orbán’s party was left with just 52 of 199 seats.
Since President Trump was elected to a second term in 2024, there have been regular elections in the United States. President Trump has often issued threats and spread disinformation about election results, but he hasn’t been able to stop them. As November 2026 approaches, we have an opportunity to vote and to organize in critical elections for the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, state legislative races, gubernatorial elections, state judicial elections, and other state and local races.
If you want to take action, here are some ways you can get involved:
In-Person Canvassing
One way to help get out the vote is through in-person canvassing, going door to door to help identify voters who support your preferred candidate and working to make sure those voters show up at the polls or send in their vote by mail when that is an option. In-person canvassing allows you to see tangible results each time you talk to a supportive voter. You can find canvassing opportunities at the websites with links below or by looking up specific websites for a particular candidate or political party you support:
- Mobilize (specific canvassing opportunities here) This link can help you find in-person canvassing campaigns near where you live.
- Ground Truth This is a new initiative focused on broad outreach in contested congressional and state elections.
- Field Team 6 offers lots of ways to help get out the vote, including through in-person canvassing.
PHONE BANKING
Another way to get out the vote is by making phone calls. Modern phone banking is a breeze: you can do it right from your phone or computer, and most systems will automatically dial for you, ensuring you immediately reach actual people rather than voicemail. Some of the links to in-person canvassing in the previous section also offer phone banking opportunities—here are some additional links to help you find more ways to phone bank:
- OpenVPB (accessed through Indivisible) This program uses auto-dialing to quickly connect you with voters. Indivisible was created by former congressional staffers to help organize opposition to President Donald Trump’s authoritarian goals. Among other things, they have helped organize No Kings events.
- Mobilize—phone banking This is the same group that offers in-person canvassing opportunities, as linked in the previous section.
- Volunteer Blue This allows you to volunteer for phone banking with “a collaboration of grassroots organizations dedicated to offering opportunities and training to volunteers interested in registering and electing Democrats up and down the ballot”.
Text Banking
You can also help reach voters by texting. Like most phone banking systems, text banking is designed to help you reach lots of voters quickly. Here are some ways to get started:
- Text banking with Indivisible This lets you sign up to create a text banking account with Indivisible.
- Mobilize—text banking This is the same group linked above for in-person canvassing and phone banking opportunities; this link takes you to text banking opportunities.
- NextGen American text team This is an organization “working to mobilize young voters to register to vote, get out and vote, and reach out to elected officials about issues that matter to them and impact their lives and their futures.”
Postcards/Letters
Another way to get involved is by sending postcards or letters to voters. Here are some ways to do this:
- Moms Rising Aimed at sending “mom to mom” postcards to voters in 2026.
- Blue Wave Postcards Seeks to reach voters in key states.
- Vote Forward Letters (with Swing Left) Allows you to send letters to “high-potential voters”.
Don’t forget yourself, your family, and friends! Make sure you and your loved ones are registered to vote and have a plan to vote; anyone can check their voter registration status at Vote411.org and make a plan to vote.