Jordan Goes to Washington: The Start of “Nomad Activists”
What happens when someone with no connections, no political experience, and no need to conform to journalistic standards goes to Washington? Jordan Speizer will find out next month when he takes his first trip as founder of Nomad Activists — a group of remote workers looking to leverage their mobility to influence politics.
Like many people living in big cities, Jordan’s outrage over the 2016 elections isn’t easily channeled into effective activism. Groups like Indivisible have a great strategy, but one that might not influence already-blue districts in a big way — one can only thank their senators for resisting Trump so many times before it feels like an empty gesture.
But many workers in the tech industry have a unique advantage over average city folk: the means and mobility to temporarily relocate to parts of the country where protest is not the new brunch. Digital Nomads don’t need to be anywhere specific at 9am so long as they’ve got wifi— which means an entire industry could flock to swing districts and knock on doors until a server outage calls them back to their hotel room.
Short-term goals for the Nomads are to influence the 2017 special elections, and to grow their member base. As a show of faith, Speizer booked a trip to D.C. in March. The goal is to get meetings with as many staffers, senators, and representatives as time will allow — and to document the experiment for those of us without the time or gumption to head directly into the belly of our political beast.
The Nomad Activists are looking for crowd-sourced ideas on which lawmakers Jordan should meet with, what topics should be broached, and how he should go about getting things done. Anyone with ideas should reach out to Jordan directly at jordan@nomadactivists.com.
Those interested in helping the Nomads with their efforts in the 2017 elections in Delaware, Michigan, Georgia, and Virginia — as well as the 2018 midterm elections — should head to NomadActivists.com and follow @nomadactivists on Twitter.
