This piece is in response to ​“Lots of Pres­i­den­tial Can­di­dates Talk a Good Talk.  Look at Their Records Instead.”  and ​“Why We Should Believe Cam­paign Promis­es.” 

Co-governance means that elected officials are working with our communities—not corporate lobbyists—to draft policies and to move them forward together. 

The 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, for many of us, will be the fight of our life­time.  We need a pres­i­dent who will take bold action on the issues shap­ing the lives of peo­ple in the mul­tira­cial work­ing class. 

That means build­ing an econ­o­my that works for and is owned by the 99%, not the bil­lion­aire class; fight­ing for our immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties; ensur­ing every­one has guar­an­teed access to health­care, hous­ing and edu­ca­tion with no cor­po­rate prof­i­teers; and fac­ing the cli­mate cri­sis head on through a just Green New Deal. 

Many of the can­di­dates seek­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion are tak­ing more pro­gres­sive stances on these issues.  This shift began from the bot­tom, from a people’s move­ment demand­ing our elect­ed lead­ers take bold posi­tions. 

But while these politi­cians’ words might sound right, we can’t afford to fall for sound bites.  So, whom do we trust? 

Rather than look to a sav­ior, it’s time to reimag­ine the rela­tion­ship between politi­cians and com­mu­ni­ties.  Elect­ed offi­cials need to treat us not as votes to be won but as part­ners in gov­er­nance, begin­ning on — or long before — the cam­paign trail. 

Whom can­di­dates sur­round them­selves with and lis­ten to is cru­cial.  Pro­gres­sives should look at the struc­ture of can­di­dates’ cam­paigns: Who is fund­ing them?  Who are their advi­sors?  Are they invest­ing in real con­ver­sa­tions with voters? 

We must insist on rep­re­sen­ta­tives who will share gov­ern­ing pow­er.  Co-gov­er­nance means that elect­ed offi­cials are active­ly work­ing with our com­mu­ni­ties — not cor­po­rate lob­by­ists — to draft poli­cies and to move them for­ward togeth­er.  It’s about find­ing inno­v­a­tive ways to ensure that the peo­ple who are most harmed by struc­tur­al racism and our prof­it-first eco­nom­ic sys­tem are part of co-cre­at­ing the solutions. 

Last year, com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­ing group Col­orado People’s Action (CPA), which I serve as exec­u­tive direc­tor, endorsed Jason Crow for Colorado’s 6th Dis­trict, which cov­ers the east­ern part of the Den­ver metro area.  He met with a group of our core lead­ers month­ly dur­ing the cam­paign to dis­cuss issues affect­ing our com­mu­ni­ty.  Through­out those con­ver­sa­tions, we saw him sig­nif­i­cant­ly strength­en his posi­tion in sup­port of immi­grant rights. 

Now that he’s in the House, we have a com­mit­ment to quar­ter­ly meet­ings through­out his term to work togeth­er on pol­i­cy ideas and bring for­ward com­mu­ni­ty per­spec­tives.  If he ​“for­gets” his promis­es, we are ready to hold him account­able through fur­ther meet­ings, peti­tions, actions and, if nec­es­sary, the 2020 primary. 

In Wis­con­sin, too, we have ​“one of our own” in office: new­ly elect­ed Lt.  Gov. Man­dela Barnes brings expe­ri­ence as a com­mu­ni­ty and faith-based orga­niz­er with Cit­i­zen Action of Wis­con­sin, which, like CPA, is affil­i­at­ed with the nation­al People’s Action network. 

The most trust­wor­thy can­di­dates are those with a his­to­ry of work­ing for jus­tice before they even thought about run­ning for office, so train­ing our community’s strongest lead­ers to become can­di­dates is a must.  Since 2015, People’s Action has trained near­ly 700 peo­ple on how to man­age cam­paigns and run for office. 

There are chal­lenges in scal­ing up grass­roots peo­ple pow­er to the nation­al lev­el, but the increased ener­gy and atten­tion around pres­i­den­tial cam­paigns is also an oppor­tu­ni­ty.  At People’s Action, we’ll be look­ing at who has a his­to­ry of lis­ten­ing to and work­ing with the peo­ple on the front lines — and who just wants a pho­to op.  We’ll weigh not only what the can­di­dates say about race, class and gen­der, but what that looks like in their cam­paigns and in their lives. 

We’ll want to hear their bold ideas, and they should ask about ours.  People’s Action and its mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions are co-spon­sor­ing People’s Pres­i­den­tial Forums in Iowa, New Hamp­shire and Neva­da, in which pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates are invit­ed to engage onstage in real con­ver­sa­tions with every­day peo­ple rather than just deliv­er a stump speech. 

Whichev­er can­di­date we sup­port — and whichev­er one wins — our fight for a coun­try that works for its peo­ple will only hap­pen when vot­ers and orga­ni­za­tions stop focus­ing only on elec­tion seasons. 

Our work must be about build­ing long-term, mul­tira­cial, peo­ple-pow­ered move­ments around a shared agen­da for racial jus­tice and a people’s econ­o­my.  We must build per­ma­nent orga­ni­za­tions that will push bold ideas and raise strong lead­ers.  Only those move­ments have the pow­er to stand against bil­lion­aires and wealthy cor­po­ra­tions and pro­duce tan­gi­ble change in our country. 

And they pro­duce the lead­ers — and the can­di­dates — we can trust.