After years of advocacy, Alabama Arise and our partners secured several huge victories for low-income and working people at the State House this year! These legislative wins included:

• An additional reduction of the state grocery tax.
• A law removing the state sales tax on many women’s health products, maternity care items and baby care items. 
• The first-ever state appropriation to expand no-cost school breakfast.
• Continued funding for Summer EBT, known as SUN Bucks. 
• Guaranteed paid parental leave for all state employees and teachers.
• Improved health care access through the Alabama Maternal Health Act.
• Reforms to the state’s funding formula for K-12 schools through the RAISE Act.

In most years, we would be celebrating the passage of just one of these bills, let alone seven. We also successfully opposed several bills targeting people participating in safety net programs like SNAP, Medicaid and unemployment insurance. And we successfully opposed some of the bills attacking our immigrant neighbors.

Our wins at the State House show that solidarity works. Multi-issue advocacy works. Long-term investment in power-building and community organizing, focused on engaging everyday people, is effective.

But even as we celebrate these victories, we see that our idea of an inclusive democracy is under threat. Bills attacking immigrants and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have been passed and implemented. These measures use a time-tested “divide and conquer” approach to try to make working-class people turn against each other instead of uniting around their common interests.

The passage of a cruel federal budget law has challenged our collective hopes for our country. This legislation could throw a major wrench in our plans to expand health coverage and alleviate hunger. And it could undermine our efforts to build a more progressive tax system, a more responsive government and a more inclusive democracy.

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, we have a lot of work to do to defend and expand our democracy to be “responsive, inclusive and justice-serving,” as we say in Arise’s vision for an Alabama “where all people live with concern for the common good and respect for the humanity of every person.”

We need your support now more than ever. When the history of these times is written, Arise members will be those who were working on the side of dignity, equity and justice, for all of us. Thank you for standing with us.