Northern Progressives
Updates

2025-12-28

Wishing you courage, resilience, & joyful solidarity in 2026!

Hello friends

One hour 'til dusk on a warm, calm winter day. A biologist once told me that the cleaner the air, the higher up the trees lichens grow. Today i decided to make note of that as Mino and i were out for our jaunt around the park. i haven't been up to the top of the hill for a while...life and weather intervene on best laid plans at times. Today we can take our time...this makes us happy. After i reached down to brush the snow off my boulder, i sat down and looked up. The few clouds in the sky were pale magenta and shades of pink against a soft blue sky. The lichens in the trees were a good 25-30 feet above their root line. And, unlike so many other days, there was not a human sound to be heard. As darkness fell, a distant 'who-cooks-for-you' could be heard in a distant tree as stars became visible in the sky. i thought with wonder about how most of those stars were here before we we born...how most of them will be here when we once again return to the Earth. i am at peace with that.
— jester

Next Membership Meeting

See you next year!

When:
Wednesday, January 7, 6:30–8:00pm
Where:
Cook Community Center
510 Gopher Dr.
Cook, MN
Special Guest
Emanuel Anastos, Candidate for CD-8

Special speaker Emanuel Anastos, a candidate for CD-8, will address us. Emanuel earned a degree in Philosophy at Carlton College and is a native of Long Island, NY. He currently works in the Indian Child Welfare department at Bois Forte Reservation and resides in Tower, MN.

This is your opportunity to hear more about his positions on issues that matter to you & to ask him your questions.

There will also be a brief presentation regarding the caucus process in the State of MN.

Please bring a donation for the Cook Area Food Shelf. Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome!

Learn more about Emanuel Anastos
Candidates announce their run ...
Candidate forum event in Duluth

Looking ahead

Special Meeting January 14: Richard Carlbom, MN State DFL Chair will hold a Listening Session for for Northern Progressives and our friends in Cook. Bring your questions, comments, and concerns for our region. (See below for more)

Our January 21 Regular Meeting will be held from 6:30-9:00pm at the Herb Lamppa Community Centre in Tower. Twin Ports Rapid Response will offer Constitutional Observer training geared toward rural areas. Comfortable attire is recommended. Training materials will be provided.

Learn more about Twin Ports Rapid Response

Breakfast in the Afternoon

When:
Friday, January 9th, 2:00pm
Where:
Tavern In The Bay
Greenwood Township near Tower

Bring your hearts and your thinking caps as we launch into 2026!

All are welcome to attend.

Book Club!

A Northern Progressives book club is forming. Anyone interested should contact us at: hello@northernprogressives.org.

All are welcome to attend.

Listening Sessions with Richard Carlbom

Sponsored by Iron Range Indivisible, WARR and Northern Progressives

Richard will engage participation with questions, discussion and action plans. Join in this discussion-based session at a location near you. Bring your questions, concerns and ideas.

When:
Wednesday, January 14, 12:00pm
Where:
Jim's Sports Bar
Chisholm, MN
When:
Wednesday, January 14, 3:00pm
Where:
Cook Community Center
Cook, MN
When:
Wednesday, January 14, 6:00pm
Where:
The Hive Coffee & Bakehouse
Aurora, MN
Download poster
Learn more about Carlbom

Signing & Resisting Events

Each Friday at noon at the following locations:

  • Cook: Hwy 53 and River Street
  • Tower: Mainstreet by the locomotive
  • Ely: Sheridan St. & Central Ave

Signs should include issues common to everyone like good jobs, enough money for food and healthcare, and a good education.

poster for event

Free Community Meal

Strength through Community

When:
First & Third Sundays, 12:00–3:00pm
Where:
510 Chestnut Street
Virginia, MN
  • Free hot meal
  • Food distribution
  • Clothing distribution
  • Free store table

Note that food, hygiene, clothing donations are needed!

poster for event

Calls to Action

CALL NOW: Demand the Senate Block Trump’s Unauthorized Military Operation in Venezuela

from Indivisible National

The Trump regime has been amassing forces in the Caribbean as it threatens war against Venezuela.

Senate Democrats have introduced War Powers Resolutions to block further military assaults on Venezuela. Every senator must vote to check this regime’s lawless violence, or there’s no telling where this will end.

Learn more & Take action

Take stock of 2025 & Plan for 2026

from Indivisible National

Defiantly celebrating what we’re proud of. Authoritarian regimes grind you down — it’s part of their strategy. They cultivate an aura of inevitability and invincibility. They want you feeling alone, powerless, and hopeless. So when I asked in a What’s the Plan survey this month what Indivisible members are proud of, that wasn’t just fluff. Celebrating victories against the regime is one of the most brazen acts of defiance we can engage in. And it feels good too! Here’s are the top five most common responses from your fellow Indivisible members:

  • Historic levels of peaceful, powerful mobilization. You can check it on Wikipedia — we collectively organized three of the five largest protests in American history. Hands Off, No Kings I, No Kings II — three million people, five million people, seven million people. There will be dissertations and movies and songs written about this. Hell, there are already songs.
  • Building real infrastructure. The Indivisible movement ballooned in size this year. We doubled the number of local groups and quadrupled our membership. Existing groups recruited new first-time members, built new leadership teams, and became local political powerhouses showing up week after week after week. The phrase 'build power' gets bandied about a lot — this is what it actually looks like on the ground.
  • Stomping the regime, electorally. We beat Elon Musk in Wisconsin. We beat the regime in the off-year elections. At just about every special election with a passing hint of viability, we destroyed the MAGA coalition at the ballot box. 'Sure they’ll march, but will they vote?' Damn right we will, and we’ll bring millions with us.
  • Evolving into corporate pressure. Indivisible has historically focused our strategies and tactics on policymakers and politicians. This year saw a ton of new activity on boycotts, corporate pressure, and economic cooperation. Jimmy Kimmel is on the air, Elon Musk is out of the White House, and Home Depot, Target, Amazon, and Spotify are on notice.
  • Standing Indivisible against ICE. This movement is crystal clear: We stand with immigrant communities under attack. Earlier this year, when many Democratic political consultants advised the party to ignore the issue or make deals with the regime, Indivisibles said f*ck no. Rapid response networks, millions of Know Your Rights Cards, community defense trainings, whistle kits, court watching, food drives, mutual aid efforts for immigrant families, and sanctuary city and school board advocacy campaigns. Reading these responses made me so damn proud of this movement.

Rebellions are built on hope (because I can’t end the year without another quote from Andor). But seriously, this is hard work. And we can’t do it unless we have a firm grasp of what we’re looking forward to. So I was buoyed by the fierce, hard-headed optimism of Indivisible members who wrote in with their hopes for 2026. I’ll give you the top three:

  1. Win the 2026 midterms. Damn straight. We’re going to build the largest midterm margins against the incumbent party that this country has ever seen. We’re going to take the House, the Senate, governorships, and state legislatures all over the country. And we’re going to use those majorities to finally exercise oversight over this lawless regime.
  2. Reshape the Democratic Party. On the road to a midterm, we get to remake the Democratic Party into a fighting force. We’ve spent a year organizing to push Dems to fight back. In the primaries, we get to choose the leaders who will instinctually join us.
  3. No Kings, No Kings, No Kings. Y’all, everybody is looking forward to the next No Kings in the spring. Official date to-be-announced once we land this with the full coalition, but trust me it’s coming. And I can’t wait either.

This wild ride is likely going to get wilder — we’ll see you in 2026.

Sign up for 2026 Thursday Calls with Indivisible's Co-Founders

The calls are great for keeping you connected with current resistance efforts and strategy nationwide.

Register here

8 Reasons to Have Hope

from the ACLU

"Our team recorded a message for you to share what's bringing them hope – check out what our lawyers and advocates had to say about what keeps them going."

Watch now

On Decency

from Wolves and Sheep

"Sympathy. Compassion. Respect...

"It is an understatement to say we live in a time when decency is in short supply. Every day brings another assault on our humanity by the Bully-in-Chief. Some in his orbit enjoy the attacks on groups or people they blame for their circumstances, but I suspect the rest of us either recoil at the coarseness or try to tune it out or accept the helpless feeling that we can’t do anything to stop it."

Read on

Trainings

The $50 Billion Rural Health Program in Context

from Penn LDI's Decoding the Moment Series

When:
January 6, 2026, 11:00am–12:00pm CT
Where:
Online

All 50 states have submitted proposals to the Trump administration for a piece of the new $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. Passed as part of the Republicans’ megabill last summer, the program was included in the legislation to address concerns about the potential impact of nearly $1 trillion in federal health spending cuts over the next decade. States rushed to pull together applications this fall with initiatives focused on workforce development, telehealth, and access to healthy food. The Trump administration is expected to announce awards by the end of 2025 but experts also worry that the fund will fail to deliver meaningful results for rural communities.

"In the next virtual event in the 'Decoding the Moment' series presented by Tradeoffs and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University (Penn LDI) of Pennsylvania, national experts will discuss the challenges facing health care access in rural America, evidence-based solutions to those issues, and how states and the federal government are looking to use this new pot of money."

Learn more & Register

Community Defense and ICE Watch

by States at the Core (STAC)

When:
January 7, 2026 5:00–6:30pm CT
Where:
Zoom

"This training will share important skills for documenting ICE activity and supporting neighbors in your community. ICE Watch is a key strategy being used by groups across the country to protect their communities against aggressive activity by ICE agents. Practicing ICE Watch protects our neighborhoods from immigration enforcement by ensuring our community members know their rights, have a plan, and know how to act in the event of targeting by ICE. In addition to covering the basics of ICE Watch, we will discuss new analysis on ICE operations and safety guidance."

Register
Learn more about STAC

Northern Progressives Schedule & Structure

NP Group meetings are held:

Breakfast in the Afternoon

Everyone is welcome to come and discuss current happenings, help shape the direction of NP, and get to know each other.

Thanks for all you do!

— the Northern Progressives Communication Committee

General email (submit ideas here):
hello@northernprogressives.org

***Note***

If you have news or events you'd like us to consider for the newsletter, submit them for review to Northern Progressives by Friday at 5pm!

Write to us at: hello@northernprogressives.org to speak your mind & send ideas. We value your input!