We are the Johnson County Democratic Women, North and South
We are sister organizations, working together to engage women in politics and help get Democrats in Johnson County elected
North ZOOM Meeting
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Come at 6:30 to socialize or at 7:00 for the meeting!
Password: NJCDW2020
This month, small business owners Richard Weist Rebecca James will discuss how the pandemic has effected them.
From Rebecca:
I am a sixty-six-year old lifelong Democrat, born in India to missionary parents, and a twenty-year Kansas resident. After leaving India, I attended high school in Puerto Rico. I graduated from KU, with a degree in nursing and practiced in Kansas, Texas, and California over my twenty-year career in the areas of adult
pre & post-op surgery, neonatal intensive care, maternal child home health, and substance abuse. Although technically retired from nursing, I keep up with nursing continuing education hours.
From Richard:
I am a sixty-three-year old lifelong Democrat, born and raised in a union family in Kansas City North, and a thirty-year Kansas resident. After graduating from UMKC with a degree in Business, I worked for thirty years in the corporate commercial print world here in Kansas City. My daughter, Madeleine, is a KU graduate and works in communications in Washington DC.
From Rebecca & Richard:
In 2012, we started our own business, Abovo LLC. We are a commercial print brokerage with an office in Prairie Village and customers in Kansas and Missouri, with our biggest base in the Fairfax Industrial District in Kansas City, Kansas. Our clients range from Fortune 500 companies to small family-owned local businesses, and from state and local governments to school districts and colleges. We are active in the Kansas City Kansas Chamber of Commerce and the Fairfax Industrial Association. In March of this year, we presented to the eScholars Class at the Block School of Business at UMKC and recently we have participated in several round tables with the Chamber & the FIA about the effects of COVID-19 on small
business in KC.
Politically, Richard is Precinct Committeeman for Mission Hills 03 and a member of, and active in, the Kansas Senate District 7 Dems. We are both active in the Johnson County Democratic Party and the Kansas Democratic Party and host events for candidates and issues in our home. With the Johnson County League of Women Voters, we participate in the Great Decisions Group and volunteer for Legislative Coffees.
Civically, Rebecca serves on the Boards of the American Public Square, a civil discourse organization, and United Inner-City Services (UICS), a PreK program with centers on Troost and The Paseo. Richard also volunteers at UICS and we have both been active members of APS since its inception. We both are
involved in the Alliance for Economic Inclusion (AEI), coordinated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and charged with coordinating financial literacy and credit access to schools and small businesses.
South ZOOM Meeting
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Come at 6:00 to socialize or at 6:30 for the meeting!
Special Guest: Diversity Advocate Stephanie Byers
Stephanie Byers is the recipient of the GLSEN-Kansas state Educator of the Year and the GLSEN National Educator of the Year, and recently retired after 29 years of teaching for Wichita Public Schools. For 28 years, she was the award-winning director of Bands and Orchestras and Fine Arts Department Chair at Wichita North High School. Stephanie is an Oklahoman by birth, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, and has called Wichita home for the last three decades. She and her wife, Lori, own and operate a company that assists corporations, community groups and schools with understanding of working with diverse communities.
Since coming out publicly as a transgender woman, she has advocated about issues impacting the LGBTQ community. She has spoken at rallies on the steps of the Kansas State Capitol and given presentations to several local community organizations, as well as public school faculties and student bodies. Stephanie served as the Communications Director for Wichita Pride, the local organization that hosts Wichita’s local LGBTQ pride events, and has volunteered for a number of other local Wichita non-profits.
“It has been an incredible and amazing journey living in Kansas for the last three decades. It’s my sincere hope to take the experience I’ve gained working in public schools, combining it with the passion of activism I’ve embraced, and become a legislator in the Kansas House of Representatives that you can be proud of.”
Stephanie has a Bachelor of Music Education from Oklahoma Christian University (1986), and a Master of Music from Kansas State University (2015).
ACTIVIZED!
JCDW North and South are teaming up to offer a FREE online screening of ACTIVIZED on Saturday, June 6th from 7-10:30.
To attend, all you have to do is register through SignUp Genius. The ZOOM link will be sent to you when you register.
Don’t know what ACTIVIZED is? Check out this trailer!
Or read the write-up from IMDB:
ACTIVIZED follows a handful of ordinary Americans who have surprised themselves by becoming political activists. The subjects of this film are passionate newcomers to the political arena; people who never saw themselves as rabble-rousers or trouble-makers. But something in the past three years inspired each of them to step up, put themselves on the front lines, and make a decision to defend American values and democratic institutions they believe are under threat.
If their story sounds familiar, if you have also been called to act during extraordinary times or even if you’ve wanted to act bu don’t know how, then you’ve come to the right place!
Johnson County Democratic Women of Kansas North and South are teaming up to present a free screening of ACTIVIZED on Saturday, June 6th from 7-10:30 pm.
We’ll be doing this via ZOOM so bring your family, pop some popcorn, and enjoy the beverage of your choice.
But wait, there’s more!
After the screening, one of the show’s producers or directors will join us to answer your questions!
Johnson County Democratic Women is an organization dedicated to getting Democrats, especially women, elected to state and local offices. If you’re looking for a way to get ACTIVIZED, you’ve found it! JCDW raises money and rallies volunteer in support of local candidates who will fight for Medicaid expansion, a woman’s right to choose, education funding, and more!
If you have any questions, contact us at jcdwsouth@gmail..
Democrats Running in Johnson County
The filing deadline for both the August primary and November general elections is on June 1st, so we can now share with you a full list of Democratic candidates running in Johnson County! This is NOT a list of endorsed candidates. We won’t endorse until after the August primary. (See our endorsement policies for more information.) However, we encourage you to find out who is running in your district, contact them, ask questions, and consider volunteering for their campaign.
If you’re not sure what district you are in, you can look it up at https://www.ksvotes.org/.
You can support ALL these candidates financially be donating to JCDW North or South (we are two different groups, and endorse separately). This is a great way to spread the love and help the Democratic cause as a whole.
Senate Races
Senate 6 Pat Pettey
Senate 7 Ethan Corson
Senate 8 Cindy Holscher
Senate 9 Stacey Knoell
Senate 10 Lindsey Constance
Senate 11 Joy Koesten
Senate 21 Dinah Sykes
Senate 23 Wendy Budetti
Senate 37 Becca Peck
House Races
House 14 Angela Justus Schweller
House 15 Cole Fine
House 16 Linda Featherston
House 17 Jo Ella Hoye
House 18 Cindy Neighbor
House 19 Stephanie Sawyer Clayton
House 20 Mari-Lynn Poskin
House 21 Jerry Stogsdill
House 22 Lindsay Vaughn
House 22 Randen Smith
House 23 Susan Ruiz
House 24 Jarrod Ousley
House 25 Rui Xu
House 26 Mike Shimeall
House 27 Sona Patel
House 28 Sally Jercha
House 29 Brett Parker
House 30 Brandon Woodard
House 38 Sherri Grogan
House 39 Kevin Makalous
House 48 Jennifer Day
House 49 Katie Dixon
House 78 Kathy Meyer
For information on other races, visit the Johnson County Democratic Party website.
Flip it Blue Happy Hour
JCDW South’s biggest annual fundraiser is the Flip It Blue Barbecue, an annual event that typically brings in thousands of dollars in support of our primary mission: to elect Democrats to state and local positions.
But this year, our #1 priority has to be the health and safety of our members and candidates. Which is why we have decided to take the Flip It Blue online to make it the Flip It Blue Happy Hour!
Mark your calendars: The Flip It Blue Happy Hour will be on July 25th from 5-7 pm. Pricing and other details are still TBD, so stay tuned!
Direct Donations
In the meantime, if you are able and willing to help us support some amazing candidates, we do accept direct donations. This money goes will go DIRECTLY to candidates when we make endorsement decisions in August. For those of you who want to support Democrats causes in general, giving to JCDW is a great way to spread the love; your donations will be pooled with many other donations and sent to candidates who need an influx of cash more now than ever before. COVID-19 has increased the cost of campaigning significantly, even as fundraising has become harder.
JCDW North and South Membership Renewal
Annual renewals are coming up in August.
This year, we have a new membership portal. Instead of using Member Planet, we are using Club Express under the KFDW (Kansas Federation of Democratic Women) umbrella. Click here to register or renew.