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Bay Rising

Parent Organization: Movement Strategy Center
Website:

bayrising.org
Formation:

2014
Executive Director:

Kimi Lee
Type:

Project of Movement Strategy Center

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Bay Rising (BR) is a fiscally sponsored project of the left-of-center Movement Strategy Center (MSC) that operates in the San Francisco Bay Area. BR coordinates voter mobilization, policy advocacy, and lobbying efforts for San Francisco Rising, Oakland Rising, and Silicon Valley Rising. 1

BR seeks to increase the political power of left-progressive people of color through get-out-the-vote campaigns, candidate endorsements, and advocacy on ballot propositions. BR also organizes voter education campaigns and publishes voter guides to support left-of-center policy. 2

BR is affiliated or partnered with 30 left-of-center organizations in the Bay Area, and it continues to actively recruit relationships with other groups. 3

Organization

Bay Rising is a left-of-center fiscally sponsored project of the left-wing Movement Strategy Center designed to build a left-of-center bloc of political power among low-income people, immigrants, and people of color in the San Francisco Bay Area. 4

BR is an umbrella organization that coordinates and provides support for Oakland Rising, Silicon Valley Rising, and San Francisco Rising, each serving as local movements within the three key geographic regions of the Bay Area.5

BR has advanced a slate of left-of-center policy proposals, supporting initiatives including ending the deportation of illegal immigrants, implementing environmentalist policies, increasing the minimum wage, providing government-controlled health care, relaxing voter identification requirements, and removing the status of independent contractors to subject businesses to increased regulation. 6

BR supports its local affiliates by providing lobbying services through its sister group Bay Rising Action (BRA) at the state and city level, and by developing strategic campaigns and candidate endorsements. BR creates voter guides, conducts voter engagement experiments, trains campaign staff , and builds the BR network of affiliates and partners. 7 8

Campaigns

During the 2020 election cycle, BR formed a joint website with U.S. Senator and then-Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a self-proclaimed democratic socialist. BR also worked to increase census participation in California, forming a partnership with left-of-center organizations including Filipino Advocates for Justice, the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County, and Lift Up Contra Costa. BR engaged in ballot proposition campaigns as well, advocating for the passage of California Proposition 15, which would have impose new property taxes on businesses, and opposing California Proposition 20, which would have converted select crimes considered misdemeanors to felonies. 9 10 11 12 13

BR, along with Black Lives Matter, supports the Black New Deal, a program proposed by the left-wing Anti-Police Terror Project. The Black New Deal includes a demand for reparations for African Americans and the widespread defunding of police forces. 14 15

BR has taken to social media to endorse a range of additional left-of-center policies, including expanding rent control, reinstating voting rights for all felons, legalizing affirmative action, lowering the voting age to seventeen in primary elections. BR has also supported ending Oakland, California’s cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Force. 16 17

Leadership

Kimi Lee, executive director of Bay Rising, was a formerly a senior fellow at Movement Strategy Center, a field director for the left-of-center ACLU Southern California, and the executive director of the Garment Worker Center. Lee also worked as an organizer of the United Workers Congress. She is also a member of the board of directors at the left-wing Chinese Progressive Association. 18 19

Irene Rojas-Carroll is the BR communications manager. Rojas-Carroll was formerly a communications associate at the left-of center ACLU of Northern California. Rojas-Carroll also worked for the left-of-center Greenlining Institute and the Brown Boi Project, a group that advocates on behalf of the LGBT community. 20

Finances

Bay Rising and Bay Rising Action are fiscally sponsored by the Movement Strategy Center (MSC) and make no public disclosure of their financial information.

Member Organizations

BR represents a coalition of left-of-center member organizations, primarily concentrated in the San Francisco area. These include the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Bend the Arc,  Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, the Filipino Community Center, La Colectiva, People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER), Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), and South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN). BR is also partnered with left-wing organizations, including the Chinese Progressive Association, Causa Justa Just Cause, and Working Partnerships USA.21

Aside from its member organizations, BR has several advocacy partners, including Urban Habitat, the Bay Area Equity Atlas, the Bay Area Political Equality Collaborative (BayPEC), California Calls, and the Million Voters Project.22

References

  1. “Our Members and Partners.” Bay Rising, November 2, 2020. https://bayrising.org/about/our-members/. 
  2. “2020 Endorsements Summary.” Bay Rising, October 21, 2020. https://bayrising.org/2020summary/. 
  3. “Bay Rising.” Facebook. Accessed November 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/BayRising/about. 
  4. guidestar.org. Accessed October 30, 2020. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/20-1037643. 
  5. “Bay Rising (BR).” Idealist. Accessed October 30, 2020. https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/3503e161a69a4f07ae098d3c1beb8a01-bay-rising-br-oakland. 
  6. “Our Story.” Bay Rising, June 5, 2018. https://bayrising.org/about/our-story/. 
  7. “About.” Bay Rising Action, October 7, 2020. https://bayrisingaction.org/about/. 
  8. “About.” Bay Rising Action, October 7, 2020. https://bayrisingaction.org/about/. 
  9. “Bay Rising Action.” Bernie Sanders Official Website. Accessed October 30, 2020.https://berniesanders.com/get-involved/bay-rising-action/. 
  10. Bernie Sanders Official Website. Accessed October 30, 2020. https://berniesanders.com/. 
  11. “Our Members and Partners.” Bay Rising, November 2, 2020. https://bayrising.org/about/our-members/. 
  12. “Our Story.” Bay Rising, June 5, 2018. https://bayrising.org/about/our-story/. 
  13. Woiwode, Peter. “Voting for Black & Brown Lives: Critical Races Across the Bay to Defund Policing & Reinforce Community Solutions.” Bay Rising Action, October 7, 2020.   https://bayrisingaction.org/2020/10/02/defund-policing-2020/. 
  14. Media, APTP. “The Black New Deal.” APTP. APTP, April 22, 2020. https://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/blog-entire/2020/4/22/black-oakland-demands-in-light-of-covid-19-and-rates-of-black-death. 
  15. “Carroll Fife.” Bay Rising Action, October 1, 2020. https://bayrisingaction.org/candidate/carroll-fife/. 
  16. Twitter. Twitter. Accessed October 30, 2020. https://twitter.com/_BayRising. 
  17. “Bay Rising.” Facebook. Accessed October 30, 2020.  https://www.facebook.com/pg/BayRising/posts/?ref=page_internal. 
  18. “‘Kimi Lee.’” LinkedIn. Accessed October 30, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimilee/. 
  19. “Groups Board of Directors.” Chinese Progressive Association. Archived from the original March 2, 2020. Accessed October 30, 2020. http://web.archive.org/web/20200302160252/https://cpasf.org/group/board-of-directors/. 
  20. “‘Irene Rojas-Carroll.’” LinkedIn, n.d.   https://www.linkedin.com/in/irenerojascarroll/. 
  21. “Our Members and Partners.” Bay Rising, November 2, 2020.   https://bayrising.org/about/our-members/. 
  22. “Our Members and Partners.” Bay Rising, November 2, 2020.   https://bayrising.org/about/our-members/.

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