San Mateo Daily Journal – November 25th, 2025 – by Craig Wiesner
A year ago a friend and I came up with an idea to have an impact on the upcoming election we called “The Great American Listening Tour.” I read about a group of people on the peninsula, who had been getting together for years, working on various campaigns, and I thought they’d be a good sounding board for our idea. They were, and they inspired me with all of the work they had been doing, their successes, their wisdom, their kindness and passion, and all of the existing ways people could make a difference without inventing something new. For the last six months they’ve been meeting at my shop once a month. Despite the outcome of this election which certainly wasn’t what our group had hoped for, I’m thankful to have met these people and for all the work they and volunteers across the country did with millions of letters and postcards, texts, phone calls, and doors knocked upon.
Among organizations we heard from over the months was SisterDistrict.org, a grassroots organization with over 70,000 volunteers working to get Democrats elected at the state level. Coincidentally, I ended up canvassing in Arizona with one of the Sister District co-founders. We had a great time in the 100 degree heat knocking on doors and I’m thrilled that Ruben Gallego won the Senate seat there. Our group heard from the Georgia Voter Protection team. We were saddened by the measures being taken to prevent people from voting, and impressed by the advance work the protection team had done recruiting a massive nationwide volunteer team. Many of our group volunteered with SwingLeft.org, a grassroots organization with over a million members communicating with tens of millions of voters.
One of the sweetest presentations we got was from Dina Jacobson, the founder of Bake Back Better (bakebackbetter.com), an organization that selects and sponsors “down-ballot” progressive campaigns and causes across the country where a few thousand dollars can make a huge difference. When someone makes a donation to the campaign or cause, volunteers deliver four delicious homemade cupcakes as a gift to the donor or to someone they love. Of course Dina brought cupcakes to our gathering and they were awesome. Dina says recruiting volunteers is easy. There are a lot of folks who are open to different ways of fundraising and enjoy baking and delivering more than phone banking, letter writing and canvassing. Bonus: if you happen to be delivering cupcakes, the recipients are always happy to see you! The other huge bonus of volunteering is community building. Rather than fretting about the world you can get together with nice people, bake, decorate, box up and deliver cupcakes, and create new friendships. Dina quipped “Come for the cause, stay for the fun!”
Since their 2020 founding they have raised $367,000, delivered over 23,500 cupcakes, with over 250 volunteers across the country. In this year’s election Bake Back Better supported winning candidates Woodson Bradley and Lisa Grafstein, breaking the Republican supermajority in North Carolina’s legislature, giving incoming Governor Josh Stein more power over legislation he might oppose.
One of Dina’s motivations for doing this work comes from her son Joseph, a special needs adult who lives in a group home and is on Medicaid. Like many parents of special needs children, knowing that someday you won’t be there to advocate for your child makes it critically important to foster a loving, compassionate, and caring society and government. So, despite or maybe because of the results in this year’s presidential election, the dough must go on (I am NOT sorry for the baking pun). Dina will be vetting causes and campaigns for the 2025/26 election cycle and I’ll look forward to seeing who gets the baker’s nod.
With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I’m grateful to all of the people who took time out of their daily lives to volunteer during this election season. While I am disappointed in the Presidential and Congressional results, my love of country and belief in Democracy remain strong. The work continues to build a more loving, inclusive, and healthy community locally and nationally. Where we find fear, let’s spread hope, where we find hate, spread love, and where there is anger, spread peace. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t loudly speak out and demand justice when we see harm being done to people or the rest of creation. We must. I will. Silence is not an option.
While some may think that there’s not enough room at our table to feed all who are hungry, I say build a bigger table. That’s the work of our lifetimes. May it be fruitful and may your Thanksgiving be as sweet as Dina’s cupcakes.
Watch a news story about Dina at bit.ly/3UWMTSI
NOTE: The AcTEAvists is the name of the group that gets together in our shop. Join us on December 18th from 7-8:30pm as we plan what we’ll be doing next to keep our democracy thriving.