✨The Bright Side✨ Special Edition: Unlike Cory Booker, I can’t hold it

In a world of doomscrolling, here’s The Bright Side: Bits of Real Inspiration Giving Hope Today

Hola!

I know I sent you the first edition of The Bright Side just three days ago and told you this would be a weekly thing.

PERO… I can’t hold it that long.

I can’t speak for 25 hours like Senator Cory Booker without taking a bathroom break, and I definitely can’t hold on to good news like this for four more days.

So here it is: your midweek infusion of hope, power, and proof that organizing works.

(I use a LOT of emojis in my text messages, and I am giving you a little bit of the Sylvitica taste here 😆)

💥 TL;DR

• Elon Musk tried to flip Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. Susan Crawford won instead.

• Cory Booker gave the most powerful speech of the year and stood for 25 hours to defend democracy, breaking a record.

• Florida voters slashed Republican margins in “safe” districts. The fight is working.

• Local and state wins across the Midwest and South are showing the path to November.

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📍 WISCONSIN DELIVERS 🔥 AND ELON LOST 😈

Let’s talk about Judge Susan Crawford.

This wasn’t just any judicial race. Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies tried to buy Wisconsin’s Supreme Court by backing MAGA hardliner Brad Schimel. If they had succeeded, conservatives would have flipped control of the court and brought back partisan gerrymanders just in time for the next election.

But they failed. In a state as TIGHT as Wisconsin, they called this race in less than an hour! 👏🏼

Judge Susan Crawford won, protecting the court’s liberal majority and keeping the door open for fair maps and reproductive rights in one of the most important swing states in the country.

That alone would be worth celebrating. But Wisconsin did even more:

• Voters re-elected the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, defending public schools and rejecting the push to expand private school vouchers.

• Dane County (home to Madison) and Winnebago County (a swing area) both elected new county executives who support strong public services and local protections for immigrants. Their opponents were backed by the local GOP and pushed for cuts and closer collaboration with ICE.

Every one of these races matters. And Wisconsin voters showed up.

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🎤 CORY BOOKER MADE HISTORY

Yesterday, Senator Cory Booker stood on the Senate floor and spoke for 25 hours and 5 minutes. He didn’t waste time reading children’s books or encyclopedias like past filibusters. He delivered a powerful, focused speech about democracy, justice, and the moral crisis we’re living through. And all of that is now ON THE RECORD!

The last Senator who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes did so to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
The last time someone spoke for over 24 hours on the Senate floor was to stop Black Americans’ right to vote, and that man was allowed bathroom and meal breaks.

I think it is POETIC that a Black Senator broke that record.

Cory Booker called out Trump’s cruelty, the national security breaches, the deportation of a legal resident by “administrative error,” the housing crisis, the cuts to public health agencies and education, and more.

And he reminded us of the late John Lewis, urging Americans to get into good trouble.

“These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such,” he said. “This is our moral moment.”

He didn’t just speak to Democrats. He spoke to the country.

“In this democracy, the power of people is greater than the people in power.”

Before he even yielded the floor, clips of his speech had already reached over 400 million likes on TikTok.

This is what leadership looks like.

Look at some of the comments I got about Cory Booker:

Here for it!!! Was so happy to wake up and see him still going and he has been my soundtrack for today’s work day. This is a moment in history and I want to witness this 🔥🔥🔥🔥
- Amy

Poetic!! This is so symbolic on multiple levels. Now it’s up to each of us to do our part too in whatever productive responsive (not reactionary) way we can to turn this symbolic moment into more.
- Sharlei

(now, seriously, how did he do this? Catheter? because a diaper would’ve given him a rash after a few hours! What did he eat to prepare? What is his workout routine? I want to know all of this!)

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📉 FLORIDA’S “SAFE RED” DISTRICTS? NOT SO SAFE

Yes, Republicans won both special House elections in Florida’s FL-01 and FL-06. But the margins dropped by about half.

• FL-01: from R+32 to R+15

• FL-06: from R+30 to R+14

These were supposed to be safe red districts. Instead, we saw a 17 to 18-point swing toward Democrats.

Imagine a world where this kind of shift played out across the country. It could flip 45 to 48 House seats. Of course, that is just an idea and not a guarantee, but it shows what is possible when people are fired up and fighting back.

A former Republican congressman said it plainly on MSNBC last night:

“Republicans in four, six, or eight point districts are terrified right now.”

Why? Because the energy is real. The protests, the town halls, and the organizing are working.

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💫 QUICK HITS

• Aurora, Illinois: The second biggest city in Illinois just voted out its Trump-aligned mayor. John Laesch wins and brings in new progressive leadership.

• Arizona 07: There’s a special election coming to fill the seat left by the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva. This morning, I woke up to the news that Deja Foxx, a bold, brilliant young candidate who understands what working families need, is running for this seat. This is our chance to help send fresh energy to Congress.

  dejafoxx

  

  A post shared by @dejafoxx

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If you’ve been wondering whether all this effort is making a difference, here’s your answer.

IT IS!

Un abrazo,

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https://www.wpr.org/news/susan-crawford-wins-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-democrats-elon-musk

https://boltsmag.org/whats-on-the-ballot/guide-to-elections-in-april-2025/