With the county convention in the rear view mirror, it’s time to organize for the Democratic primary. Our votes are important, yet three races are at the top of the list here: the U.S. Senate race between Zach Wahls and Josh Turek, and the District 2 county supervisor race between Jessica Andino, Janet Godwin and incumbent Jon Green lead. The U.S. House race matters, yet Christina Bohannan is widely expected to win the primary over challenger Travis Terrell. It’s her third go-around, so she should. My main work this week has been organizing a supervisor meet and greet event this afternoon at the Solon Public Library. After that, it is a mad rush to the June 2 primary.

There was no competition in Johnson County to be a delegate to the district and state conventions and that’s okay. I decided not to advance to district either. There are too many other things begging for our attention to engage in rituals. The thrill is gone from Democratic conventions, and that too, is okay. Promoting Democratic policy in our communities is where most of the action will be in 2026, I predict.

What does that mean?

Partly, it means participating in campaigns. It also means talking to voters about the race and why it is important to support Democrats. The latter is not a given and this graphic of results from the 2024 general election in my precinct tells why:

We voted Obama twice and Trump three times, shifting from blue to solidly Republican. The numbers suggest it is possible to turn that around but not without significant work. My first order of business is to figure out which activists remain after we suffered some people becoming less active, moving out of the precinct, and dying.

Once more activists are located, the next step is finding ways to talk to neighbors and then convert them, if possible, to turn the precinct from red to blue.

There are two parts to this, in my precinct, and in the rest of the state and country. Both run through the ballot box.

The first is voting: making sure we take care of ourselves by checking our registration and then voting in person, either early or on election day. Encourage everyone we know to do likewise.

The second is changing the public narrative about life in Iowa and in the United States. We should not accept narratives being fed to us by media outlets, churches, interest groups, and political parties. Rather, we should develop our own new narratives that reflect how we live despite our differences. I predict this will change how we vote.

If we can do those things, there is a chance to make society a better place to live, possibly this election cycle.

Now it’s a matter of getting out there and doing it.