Peace Action West

Peace Action West’s winning peace candidates are making a difference in Congress. Here are just a few of the members of Congress we are working with to make real foreign policy change.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

We helped send Sen. Merkley to the Senate in 2008. Since then he has become one of the Senate's leading voices in favor of ending the war in Afghanistan. In January of 2009, when he was sworn in, there was hardly any sign of Senate opposition to the military strategy in Afghanistan. In his first term, Sen. Merkley has organized two letters to the president supporting withdrawal, signed by more than two dozen senators. In late 2011, his amendment requiring a plan for accelerated withdrawal passed the Senate by a voice vote—the first piece of withdrawal legislation to pass either the House or the Senate.

In 2008, when candidate Jeff Merkley decided to run against sitting Republican Gordon Smith, he faced a highly competitive race. At Peace Action West, we mobilized our supporters to raise funds for his campaign. We sent an organizer who spent the last month of the campaign organizing around the clock, leading the effort to get out the vote in a key part of the state. After days of counting ballots, Merkley won by 3 points, becoming the first person to unseat an incumbent Oregon senator since 1968.

When Sen. Merkley’s Afghanistan amendment passed, he thanked Peace Action West as one of the groups that made the victory possible, stating, “Yesterday’s vote shows that a smart, engaged, fierce grassroots effort can make a difference.”

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN)

Former comedian and author Al Franken made a splash when he threw his hat in the ring against Republican Senator Norm Coleman. Sen. Coleman was a supporter of billions of unaccountable dollars for war, missile defense, and flouting years of nonproliferation law, and Peace Action West jumped at the chance to oust him. Our supporters stepped up, raising thousands of dollars for Franken’s campaign. We also sent one of our best organizers to help his campaign in the last weeks before the election in Minnesota. It turned out that every single vote counted in this election, and Peace Action West helped tip the scales in Franken's favor. After a nail-biting recount, Senator Franken was finally seated in July of 2009.

Sen. Franken has been a vocal champion of eliminating the threat of nuclear weapons. In a speech on the New START treaty to reduce nuclear arsenals, Franken said, “This new treaty will also allow us to lead by example in arms reduction, and this will in turn greatly aid our vital nonproliferation efforts. Indeed, while the arms reductions in the treaty will be relatively modest, entering into the treaty will be a significant step in the renewal of our arms control and nonproliferation agenda for the 21st century. It will put us on firmer ground as we confront the dangers of nuclear weapons in this new world.”

Sen. Franken stepped up to rein in massive war spending, introducing a Pay for War resolution that would force any future wars to be paid for by revenue cuts or tax increases, to make sure every politician and taxpayer thinks through the decision to throw billions into war. He has joined his colleagues in calling on the president to bring our troops home from Afghanistan, and has taken the lead in pushing for protections for US citizens accused of terrorism.

Rep. Janice Hahn (D-CA-36)

Rep. Hahn has hit the ground running in the short time she’s been in Congress. Peace Action West endorsed Janice Hahn in the 2011 special election in California’s 36th district when Rep. Jane Harman retired, and we are supporting her run for reelection in the new 44th district.

Rep. Hahn has taken advantage of every opportunity to push for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, issuing statements, signing letters, cosponsoring legislation, and even giving a press conference on the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan war at Arlington West, a memorial to fallen soldiers maintained by Veterans for Peace.

In the wake of the Arab Spring, Rep. Hahn has also pushed to shine a spotlight on how US arms sales impact human rights, and to make them more accountable. She signed a letter raising concerns with the administration about arms sales to Bahrain and is an original cosponsor of the Arms Sales Responsibility Act.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO-2)

When Democratic Rep. Mark Udall decided to run for Colorado’s open Senate seat in 2008, he opened up a race for Colorado's 2nd district in the House of Representatives.

Udall had proven to be a disappointment for peace voters because of his support for spending billions of dollars on the war in Iraq and his reluctance to embrace a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. The open election for Colorado’s second district was our chance to help elect someone who truly represented the interests of voters in the Boulder area. Peace Action West helped Jared Polis, the first openly gay man elected to Congress for a first term, over the finish line in the November election.

Since then, Polis has consistently voted to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to cut wasteful military spending. In 2011, he led the charge to bring home tens of thousands of US troops from Europe, offering amendments to the Defense Authorization bill to limit the size of the military presence there and save money that could be spent more wisely.

Paid for by the Peace Action West Voter Fund.