The group needs 425,000 signatures by Monday to get on the November ballot. Kelly Dillaha, the program director of Michigan’s Red Wine and Blue, said they have collected nearly twice that amount. They are now going through the validation process. Dillaha said...
In The Press
Ohio Democrats see abortion restrictions as an opening against DeWine
CLEVELAND — When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, Ohio’s previously unconstitutional “heartbeat bill” that effectively bans most abortions snapped into place. For Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine, an abortion-rights foe who signed the bill...
Democrats hope Roe v. Wade ruling is game-changer for suburban women
Katie Paris says it best: "We don’t like extremism,” said Katie Paris, an organizer who founded Red Wine & Blue, a group working to mobilize suburban women in battleground states like Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina. “We’re seeing it in deeply personal, local...
Analysis: Republicans got what they wanted with Roe. Will they come to regret it?
"We can't sit by and let this happen without fighting back," said Crystal Lett, the Ohio program director for a national advocacy organization called Red Wine & Blue. It organizes suburban women to fight state and local officials on issues from book banning in...
MI group working to put abortion rights on November ballot
“To not have the assistance of medicine to get, when we know how we can do that and how we can help women and families to be able to conceive babies, that part just is horrible. And then also, too, when you think about birth control, it really should be your choice...
After national backlash, Ohio GOP leader says ‘genital inspections’ won’t be part of anti-transgender athlete bill
Mother and Northeast Ohio Democratic activist Katie Paris knew former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was speaking at the City Club event, however, she didn't know that Huffman was there. "No child, regardless of gender, should be subject to internal genital...
Parents push for parental rights when it comes to school books
“When our children don't get to see people who look like them in the stories they are reading at school then they have to think well, maybe I'm not a part of this society. Maybe I'm not a part of this world.” Proud of our very own Julie Collins and Katie Paris,...
Book bans and the threat of censorship rev up political activism in the suburbs
On a school night in late January, Stephana Ferrell, a 39-year-old mother of two elementary school children in Orange County, Fla., logged onto a virtual meeting with more than 200 other parents around the country who, like her, have been alarmed to see books pulled...
Education advocates rally after Lt. Governor calls for banning certain books
This is an orchestrated culture war started by think tanks out of DC who are using this as a tactic to scare suburban moms and particularly white suburban moms into showing up at the polls and voting for right wing candidates up and down the ballot," said Janice...
Suburban moms push back against book bans in schools
Typically quiet school board meetings have turned hostile across in many communities, with heated debates over hot-button political issues like critical race theory, book bans and mask mandates. A nationwide group of women called "Red Wine and Blue" is working to...
Recent Posts
Watch This: The Right to Read is Under Attack
We are proud to be one of more than 200 organizations and tens of thousands of individuals who make up the American Library Association's Unite Against Book Bans. Together, we’re helping our communities advocate for the freedom to read. On April 7, 2025, we’re...
Read This: A New Era of Fighting Book Bans
In a few weeks, we’ll celebrate Right to Read Day as part of National Library Week. National Library Week celebrates how reading and libraries enrich our lives and communities. It started in the 1950s over concerns that Americans were reading less and spending more...
Do This: Get Your Copy of the Costs of Conflict Report!
We’ve learned that extremism cost our public schools $3.2 billion last year. Now we’re also seeing that President Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon fully intend to defund and destroy the U.S. Department of Education entirely. That means our public schools...
Watch This: The Costs of Conflict
A new research report found that extremist attacks on schools and teachers — from book bans to new laws controlling what is taught about race and history — cost our public schools $3.2 billion last year alone! Watch this short video to hear directly from one of the...
Read This: The Costs of Conflict
Between 2021 and 2024, more than 300 bills were introduced in state legislatures to ban books, restrict schools from teaching about race and racism, and set restrictive policies for LGBTQ+ students. It’s all part of an extremist effort to attack our public schools...