Jan 24 Updates

Happy Saturday from the Robin for Texas team! Our fearless leader has been majorly busy this week, so some of us students decided we're taking over the newsletter for this week. We hope you don't mind. 

Note: If you're in Central Texas, preparing for the arctic blast sweeping in today... remember the four P's: Pets, Plants, Pipes, and People (probably not in that order). You can check out our blog post for more! 

We know you didn't ask, but UT announced that campus is closed for the wintry weekend. That means everything including Jasmine Crockett's event at the LBJ School is canceled too. Some of us had tickets... Oh well.

As we wrap another packed but encouraging week in this campaign, knocking on doors until our knuckles burn, we want to express our gratitude to each of you. This campaign is a massive effort, and it requires the support of people within the district and outside of it. Your belief, care, and donations have been the backbone of what we are doing here in Austin and make it possible for us to get out there every day. We want to say sincerely, thank y'all so much!

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This Week's Recap

This week was jammed with forums, interviews, meetings, and marches. It's honestly kind of overwhelming to look at her schedule. We really try not to look too hard. If you ask us what looks more complicated, our calculus homework or Robin's schedule? It's Robin's schedule. 

Today (Friday), we were stoked because after a lot of prodding and pestering, we got Robin an interview with The Daily Texan, UT's premiere student newspaper, which several of the students on this team actually work for, including Diego Cabriales (featured below) and Maria Guerra who translates these newsletters to Spanish! The Daily Texan is a great publication with a long, rich history (older than any of us anyway) and wide readership, and their student reporters have been doing a lot of work covering each of the District 49 candidates. We've included some pictures taken by Diego below.

While Robin was on the Forty Acres, she had the chance to meet some students, hear their stories, tell some of hers, and offer unsolicited but great advice (she's really good at that). And she even gave away a few Longhorns 4 Lerner stickers. We'll get her back on campus next week once the weather clears up. Will let y'all know how it goes... :)

1/17 Northeast Travis County (NETCo) Candidate Forum: None of us attended this one, but we heard Robin made a splash at La Palapa Restaurant where the forum was held. It was a good turnout and she got to talk to some voters she doesn't typically reach in the northern edge of her district. 

1/17 Tejano Democrats Candidate Endorsement Forum: This was a super long event but really interesting; every candidate running for any office in Travis County, from State Board of Education to Senate to City Council, showed up to share their platforms and stories in 3 minutes or less. We applaud them. Robin did great, and she definitely won over some very engaged and very informed voters. 

1/17-1/18 House parties in Central Austin and Barton Hills: Again, none of us could make these house parties, which we're sad about because we heard there were amazing brownies at one of them. But we saw a lot of pictures and videos come through, so we'll throw a couple below (you can check out our socials for more and we'll add extra to the web version of this on our blog).  Oh, the amazing folks that attended and the questions they asked. 

1/19 MLK Community March: For MLK Day, Austinites came together for a powerful march honoring Dr. King’s legacy of justice, equality, and service. Neighbors, families, and local leaders walked side by side, reflecting on the progress we’ve made and the work that still lies ahead. The march served as a meaningful reminder that Dr. King’s vision lives on through collective action, compassion, and civic engagement.

1/19 NxNW Democrats Candidate Forum: Robin did a great job and won over some heavyweights in the area, namely a County Commissioner who's running for re-election (we like her) and a state senator, Nathan Johnson, who's running for attorney general (we really like him and are actually talking him up in the field too). 

Aaaand in order for this not to be an incredibly long email, we'll just skip elaborating on the rest and get to the fun part: the Intern Spotlight!

1/20 South Austin Dems & Capitol Area Progressive Dems

1/21 Austin-American Statesman Candidate Interview

1/22 Austin Chronicle Candidate Interview

1/22 "Vote Like a Texan" podcast interview 

1/22 Planned Parenthood Texas Votes (PPTV) Candidate Interview
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So, we're 99% sure this campaign is the ONLY campaign that has this many students who are ACTUALLY doing real work, running her socials, writing emails to voters, securing speaking events, and researching policy and platform points. We are very motivated, and it is a ton of fun to just run into each other on campus. Some of us knew each other before this campaign, but most of us had never met, and now it feels like we're all over the Forty Acres. We've got a good thing going here, and we do believe in Robin and we believe she is the right person to represent us and our collective futures. 

This week, we're going to keep up Robin's highlights and share four more members of our comms team. Please meet Diego Cabriales, our Digital Media Producer and lead videographer, Clara Song, and Nadia Bhaiwala, our Communications & Outreach Associates who help translate our policy into content and get me more face-to-face meetings with students, and Shaylin Romero, our newest campaign videographer who hails from Texas Tech University and is only one of two of us who just graduated! 

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Next Week at a Glance

From on-the-ground events to conversations with neighbors across the district, next week is all about building momentum and strengthening the relationships that drive this campaign forward. 

Saturday 24 | Westminster Manor Democracy Dialogue Study Group; Austin Environmental Dems/Central Austin Dems Endorsement Forum (probably will be online due to the weather)

Sunday 25 | Zilker Virtual House Party (Due to the inclement weather our South Austin party had to be rescheduled to Feb. 1!)

Tuesday 27 | Austin Community College (ACC) Student Democrats Endorsement Forum

Wednesday 28 | Event Prep; UT Campus + meeting student voters; Zilker House Party

Thursday 29 | Hyde Park House Party

Friday 30 | Austin Chronicle Endorsement Forum

**We block-walk every weekday from 2:30 - 6:00 pm and on weekends from 11am to 6 pm. We go through a LOT of door hangers (thousands!). If you care to join us students, we are always looking for company!!**

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We have yard signs available! If you would like one and live in District 49, we would love to deliver one to you! Please fill out this form: Yard Sign Request!

To stay updated, please check out our socials–we appreciate the follows! 

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Until next Friday. Have a great weekend, stay safe, and stay well!

The Robin for Texas Team

P.S. Please enjoy these pictures from the campaign trail!