The Trump Resistance Found Early Success. Can It Also Find Momentum?

Reprinted from The New York Times, By KATE ZERNIKE – APRIL 9, 2017 – CALDWELL, N.J. — Political reporters were calling, crediting them with helping to bring down Republican legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Rachel Maddow made them the stars of a segment on her show, chronicling how they had grown into a “legitimate political movement” that pushed their congressman, the chairman of the influential Appropriations Committee, to come out against the bill hours before his party’s leadership decided to pull it without a vote. 

So now, members of the group calling itself NJ-11th for Change gathered in an upstairs party room of a tavern here to celebrate. As waitresses pushed through the crowd to distribute beers, Debra Caplan, one of the group’s founders, stood on a table and raised a glass.

“We did something big; we didn’t think it could be done,” she said. “Here’s to the future of us doing the impossible.”

Someone cried out from the crowd: “Debra! What are we going to win next?” (Continue reading the full article. Here’s a relevant snippet.)

Guy Potucek, who works for a military contractor and organized an Indivisible group in Virginia’s 10th District, represented by Barbara Comstock, said his group had held a training session to help members get involved in the Virginia elections this year.

“I don’t want them jumping all the way to 2018,” he said.

Ms. Comstock was among the Republicans who announced late in the game that she would not support the party’s health bill. “It energized us even more,” Mr. Potucek said. “It felt like, ‘That was easy.’”

Photo caption: Representative Barbara J. Comstock, Republican of Virginia, at the Capitol in Washington last month. An Indivisible group is asking members to write letters to the editors of local papers about her voting record. Credit J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press