“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
We opened 2025 with this quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We didn’t realize then the sheer magnitude of the attacks on democracy and human decency that the Trump/MAGA administration would let loose on the American public. The year started with DOGE and mass terminations gutting the federal government and moved to the shredding of the social safety net in the Big Brutal Bill. It ended with indiscriminate and violent immigration roundups. We responded by pivoting to resistance activities. And we doubled down on electoral work for some of the year’s most significant elections.
Elections 2025: Success!
Winning is the best form or resistance — and we supported many wins in 2025. We focused on donating and volunteering for important state races in Wisconsin, Virginia and Pennsylvania to build bulwarks for voting rights, civil rights, reproductive rights and more. And our candidates won!
In April Judge Susan Crawford won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April despite a flood of money from Elon Musk.
In November Virginia voters delivered victories with impressive margins of victory for Governor Abigail Spanberger and our own slate of six challengers for seats in the House of Delegates.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania we supported the retention of three Democratically-endorsed state Supreme Court justices.
The blue wave of 2026 is undoubtedly a referendum on our government’s abrupt turn to the right.
New Focus on Resistance
Appalled by the Trump’ administration’s cruel and authoritarian actions, we made unprecedented efforts to engage NOPE followers in resistance activities. Every week from mid-January to late November, we sifted through mountains of information to identify and publicize the most meaningful options. When weekly notices weren't enough, we inaugurated an encrypted Signal chat for rapid, real-time notices of events in the DC area. Among the actions we recommended were:
National rallies, including Hands Off on April 5, No Kings on June 14, and No Kings 2.0 on October 18.
Countless visibility events along major thoroughfares and overpasses.
Calling and emailing Congress to oppose Cabinet appointments, proposed legislation and budget cuts.
Participating in education and training, especially around our rights to ”peaceably assemble.”
Boycotting businesses in league with the Administration. (We saw, you,Tesla and Target).
In August when the National Guard and ICE ramped up in DC, we encouraged local NOPE supporters to protest and provide mutual aid with Free DC. NOPEsters made nightly noise on streetcorners, escorted children to school and more.
Taking action in solidarity with like-minded others raised our spirits. And nourished hope.
Directing Donations
Donations from NOPE supporters are always lower in years without Congressional or Presidential elections. “Off year” donations, however, have increased significantly since 2017 – and the $790,000 donated in 2025 was our highest off-year total to date.
NOPE has consistently advised giving to grassroots allies in battleground states (and Virginia). These carefully selected groups work year round in underrepresented communities and turn out votes essential to Democratic victories. Since 2017, 55% ($3.3 million) of our total donations has gone to organizing groups. Tax deductible donations for voter and community outreach made up $1 million of that amount.
In 2026 NOPE will continue to advise donors to direct two-thirds of their donations to our revamped 2026 Organize for Democracy slate of grassroots allies and one-third to our targeted candidates for the House, the Senate, and essential state offices. This approach yields greater impacts than donating to candidates alone.
Grassroots Allies
Since 2021 NOPE Neighbors has supported grassroots allies who work year-round to create political empowerment in underrepresented communities in battleground states. Early in 2025 we undertook a comprehensive review to ensure that all of our allies have stable and effective leadership, financial stability, and well-developed strategic plans to turn out voters.
Our review identified four outstanding grassroots organizing groups in battleground states:
Georgia: Fair Fight
Michigan: Mi Poder
North Carolina: Carolina Federation
Pennsylvania: Make the Road PA
We are confident that support for these four groups will help Democrats win seats in the 2026 midterms and strengthen their position for wins in 2028. It will also provide crucial support for the protection of voting rights.
Volunteering
voter contact
Canvassing: NOPE neighbors focused on supporting Elizabeth Guzman, the Democratic Virginia House of Delegate candidate for the Prince William County area. By focusing on a single candidate, we got to know her, her staff, and her district’s issues (who would have guessed that her district has the highest concentration of data centers in the world?). Our canvassers knocked on about 3,000 doors. And we can be proud of our work: Delegate Guzman flipped her district from red to blue by more than 12 points.
Phone Banking and Writing: NOPE also partnered with Silver Spring Progressive Action on letter writing and phone banks to target specific races in Virginia.
Voter Protection: We continued to mobilize supporters to work with VoPro Pros, the “gold standard” for volunteers in voter protection work. We held two training courses to help NOPE volunteers master VoPro Pros’ software. We also connected people to voter protection work for races in Virginia and Pennsylvania, as well as phone banks to help voters in danger of being purged from voting rolls in Georgia and North Carolina.
social media: democracy online
In its second year, our Democracy Online group grew steadily. Our Facebook group now has over 1200 members, while our Instagram account has 300 followers. For both of these accounts, we posted about 400 times in 2025. Our newer BlueSky group has189 followers, and we posted more than 200 times in 2025.
We also introduced new policies and topics for our fight against disinformation. For example, we established a review process for all content. We also created a Good News template for posting items like special election results where Democrats win US House seats in traditionally red districts.
What’s In A Name: Refining our Brand
Explaining the meaning of “NOPE” has been a challenge, and our responses haven’t always been consistent. In 2025 we undertook a significant rebranding effort under the guidance of professionals in the communications field. We think the results capture the ethos of what we do.
NOPE is an acronym. It stands for “Neighbors Organizing for Power and Equality.”
We are not just NOPE, we are “NOPE Neighbors.” Adding “neighbors” emphasizes the community nature of our work.
Our revised tagline captures our mission: “Defending Democracy. Winning Elections.”