These people are serious. See what they’re up to. And notice the frame that shows Red districts in California. We don’t all live in Santa Barbara!

Give this a listen…You’ll be glad you did.

Join DSC Volunteers to Write Postcards to  Swing State Voters!

Sunday, July 21, 1 – 4 p.m.

Dem HQ – 123 E. Carrillo St.

• We provide the postcards (for Arizona and Wisconsin this time).
• We provide the addresses of Democratic voters and a brief message of encouragement to vote in Nov.
• We supply the postage.
• We supply refreshments and Democratic friends to work next to.
• You write the card!

Annual Meeting: Save the Date

Save the date and join your fellow Santa Barbara Dems on April 6th:  11 am – 2 pm at Solvang Veteran Memorial Building. Help us come together as we reflect on achievements, discuss future plans, and celebrate our collective efforts.

Please RSVP to confirm your attendance. Should you have any questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@sbdems.org.

Polling shows Biden trailing his MAGA nemesis on most key issues:

Who do you trust more on the economy? Biden is behind 59%-37%.

Solving immigration problems? Biden trails 53%-41%.

He’s even losing ground on the moral high ground of saving Democracy – 45% say the Orange Idiot is better on that compared to 48% who think Biden is the answer.

Can Taylor Swift save this candidate?

Stay tuned, and stay involved.

Nationally, Democrats are feeling grateful that things aren’t worse. Locally, though, Election Day 2022 couldn’t have gone much better. At this point two days after the voting deadline, we are winning 22 of the 25 races the County party endorsed in.

As crunch time arrived at HQ on Carrillo St., the DSC was there in full force, counting out slate pieces and candidate’s individual campaign lit., labeling all of it with appropriate polling location info for GOTV canvassers to leave with voters, and bundling it all into walkable packets for an incredible team of local volunteers.  All under the skilled direction of our Operations Director (he’s so much more than that!) Spencer Brandt, who himself was running for office in Isla Vista—AND WON!.

Hear From The Endorsed Candidates!

Labor Day Picnic 2022

Monday, September 5

2pm – 4pm

Tucker’s Grove Park – Area 1

Purchase Tickets Here

Those of us who know Marian Shapiro like to claim her as our own treasure. The DSC certainly does, but then so do Dem Women and many other progressive organizations in Santa Barbara. In the spring of 1980, though, she was living in Hays, Kansas and traveled as a delegate to the National League of Women Voters conference in Washington D.C.

Marian was abruptly yanked back to her experience there recently when she was contacted by a reporter for NPR, who is putting together a podcast about the Mariel boat lift in which for about 5 months that year over a hundred thousand Cuban refugees had been allowed (in fact encouraged) to leave Cuba and were flooding into Miami. The reporter wanted to know if she was “the Marian Shapiro” who’d asked a question of President Jimmy Carter when he spoke to the group. Of course it was!

As it is today, immigration and refugees were extremely hot button topics, and the Carter White House had not yet made any public statement on this situation that was starting to look like a crisis. It was not just the numbers, but the make-up of the refugee population. Fidel Castro had released inmates from prisons and mental hospitals along with other groups—pointedly LGBTQ Cubans—encouraged to leave his country. These were not the middle class citizens, humbled celebrities, or entrepreneurs who had been buying their way out and settling into Florida for twenty years.

As Marian tells it, she had eagerly grasped the chance to ask a question of the president when given the opportunity, but had not given much thought to what she’d ask about. She was quickly recruited by the Florida delegation to inquire about Carter’s position on the influx of poor Cubans arriving by the thousands each day. She agreed to be a designated presenter, but found herself quite nervous when it was her turn at the microphone, and made small talk with the Secret Service agent stationed at the microphone. When her turn came, she told the president, “I’m Marian Shapiro from Hays, Kansas. The group from Florida has asked me to ask you this question. And Mr President, your aide here tells me I can stop shaking, because you’re a really nice guy.” 

If you know Marian, you don’t need proof of that, but here’s an audio recording of the moment and Jimmy Carter’s equally ingenuous reply that made the national news that evening: “Well if you’re nice to me, I can stop shaking too.”

You can hear that the substance of his answer was an expression of compassion and concern for refugees welcomed with “open hearts and open arms”—a stance on immigration that was no doubt more difficult to take for an American president at the time than it is now. And Marian Shapiro, the daughter of refugee parents and grandparents, was there as a witness to progress.

Anyone interested in details of Marian’s encounter with the Mariel boat lift story or who would like to hear her recording of songs she was performing around that time can email her at marianshapiro@gmail.com