How MAGA is Winning Hearts & Minds Among the Progressive Base

Join us for a conversation with Dr. Daniel HoSang and Micah English with a response from longtime organizer and strategist Gihan Perara, moderated and introduced by Dr. Carmen Rojas.

How are conservative groups like Turning Point USA building new onramps to the right for young people, people of color, and other parts of the progressive base? How do their events, rallies, workshops, and social media spaces make direct appeals to identity, culture, and organizing issues that have long been the domain of the left? And what implications do these appeals and tactics have for left wing political strategy and practice?

A team of scholar activists attending right wing events for the last two years reports back on the surprising ways that the MAGA movement has built new inroads for people of color and other parts of the progressive base. How are they doing it and what challenges does it pose to progressive approaches to organizing and movement building?

Speakers:

Micah English is a PhD candidate at Yale University studying American politics, and an organizer with Unite Here Local 33. Micah researches Black politics, social movement engagement and mobilization, and their intersections with sexuality and gender.

Daniel Martinez HoSang is a professor of American Studies at Yale and co-editor of the forthcoming volume, The Politics of the Multiracial Right. He is the author or co-editor of six other books an social movements and racial justice and a current Race and Democracy Fellow with the Roosevelt Institute.

Gihan Perera is a Senior Fellow at the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) and an experienced movement strategist with over 25 years of experience working at the intersection of racial justice, community organizing, and transformative philanthropy. As a thought leader and practitioner, he bridges the gap between grassroots movements and institutional philanthropy, offering critical analysis on power-building strategies in an increasingly complex political landscape.

Dr. Carmen Rojas is the president and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation. Under her leadership, the foundation launched the prestigious Freedom Scholar award, committed to ensuring that a majority of MCF’s endowment is overseen by diverse managers, and since starting in 2020 granted more than $160M in funding to dozens of organizations doing the hard work of shifting power to those people who have long been excluded from having it.

Watch the live event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfk8crNutnE

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