National Convening Registration is OPEN!
We can’t wait to see you in Baltimore, MD on July 9-11 for the 2026 National Convening! Over the past year, the community care amongst the incredible Local Progress network in this moment makes crystal clear what we’ve always known: that even in the midst of relentless attacks on our communities, localities serve as the bedrock of transformative change. It is this movement of local elected officials leading fearlessly that inspires our 2026 theme: Fearless Leadership * Joyful Liberation. Check your email for your personalized invite link and register today!
Over 135 Local Officials Call For Minnesota Eviction Moratorium
For well over a month now, Trump’s secret police have terrorized Minnesotans – deporting hundreds of people, killing two unarmed civilians, and arresting children as young as two years old. Families are terrified to leave their homes; kids can’t go to school; and people can’t safely go to work. Without an eviction moratorium, many Minnesotans won’t be able to pay rent this month. We cannot let families be thrown out of their homes onto the streets while masked men are descending on their communities, looking for innocent people to brutalize. Over 135 state and local electeds across 30 states demanded that Governor Tim Walz allow Minnesota cities to pass eviction moratoriums. “When going to work to pay rent risks people being permanently disappeared, we need to protect our communities and make it possible to stay home,” said HwaJeong Kim, Vice President of the St. Paul City Council.
🎙️ Listen to the Preemption Download
From state capitals to D.C., state and federal representatives continue to pass new laws that strip local governments of their powers. But across our network of nearly 1,800 local officials, there are many incredible stories of resistance and new strategies for fighting back against preemption. Local Progress is proud to launch our new audio series, “The Preemption Download”! Over the course of ten episodes, we’ll introduce you to ten local elected officials who have faced preemption and came away with a stronger understanding of how to fight it. Listen to all the episodes on Instagram:
- EP 1: Interference in Tallahassee with Commissioner Jack Porter
- EP 2: Two for One in Ypsilanti with Councilmembers Amber Fellows and Desirae Simmons
- EP 3: Preempting Democracy with Nashville City Council Member Delishia Porterfield
- Ep 4: Preemption as Revenge with St. Louis Council President Megan Green
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🤝 Introducing the Collaborative Governance Academy
We’re proud to launch our refreshed program with re:power Fund, the Collaborative Governance Academy (CGA) – formerly known as the Progressive Governance Academy (PGA). We equip local and state elected officials, their staff, and movement leaders with the skills, strategy, and shared language to govern collaboratively and courageously. Through shared learning and organizing practice, participants in the CGA program strengthen relationships, bridge institutions, and build strategies that sustain the democratic power needed to fight this moment of rising authoritarianism.
Together we can build a new culture of governance rooted in collaboration, inclusion, and shared power! Learn more about the CGA and check out photos from the Washington CGA in collaboration with Sage Leaders.
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🪧 A Year of Local Action for Renters: Rental Price Fixing in California
On January 2 of this year, California’s statewide ban on the use of algorithms to coordinate rental prices took effect. This marks just the second state in the US, following New York, to ban the harmful and predatory practice that explicitly puts profits ahead of people’s ability to access housing. The passage of these statewide bans means that renters in the two states with the highest concentrations of renters are now protected from exploitative price fixing. Read about how the past year of organizing by LP members to pass algorithmic rental price fixing bans at the local level built the momentum and pressure for eventual statewide passage.Â
đź“ś Introduce a Resolution to Demand: ICE OUT!
Our resistance is working! Some members of Congress are holding the line and refusing to continue funding DHS, including ICE and Border Patrol, triggering a partial shutdown of the department as an agreement was not reached by February 13. Negotiations are ongoing as some members of Congress try to leverage funding for more restrictions on immigration enforcement. As local elected officials, we must use our power and our voices to turn the pressure up and together say: ICE OUT.Â
Local Progress members have been calling on Congress to use the power of the purse to stop ICE. Last month, Local Progress member Teresa Mosqueda (King County, WA) introduced and passed a first-of-its-kind resolution calling for funding restrictions and regulations for DHS. We are following her lead and organizing members like you across the country to pass resolutions of your own. We’ve created sample resolutions for cities, counties, and school boards to give you a head start. Already, five localities around the country have taken action to say: ICE OUT! Join our organized force to protect our communities and stop ICE and DHS from wreaking more havoc!
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🍎 Municipal Groceries Start Here: From Concept to Ownership Models
Local governments across the country are moving beyond diagnosing the grocery crisis and asking a harder question: how do we actually build and structure alternatives to last? Join Local Progress Impact Lab for the second policy snack in our municipal grocery series on March 19 at 11am PT/ 2pm ET, Municipal Groceries Start Here: From Concept to Ownership Models. This session will focus entirely on ownership models, from full municipal ownership to cooperatives, nonprofits, public‑private partnerships, and city‑owned buildings leased to independent operators. Together with Rial Carver, Rural Grocery Initiative and Erion Malasi, Economic Security Project, we will dig into real design choices: governance, store format, and discussion on how these questions translate in rural vs. urban contexts.
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âš˝ Protecting Our Cities Against Human Rights Abuses During the World Cup
Earlier this month, Philadelphia City Councilmember Kendra Brooks, New York City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, and San Francisco City Supervisor Jackie Fielder authored a joint op-ed in NextCity on the opportunities and threats posed by the World Cup. “When the World Cup comes to town, the people who make our cities what they are can find themselves pushed to the sidelines: displaced, surveilled and shut out of decisions made behind closed doors. As local elected officials, we want to welcome the world — but not at the expense of our backyard, our planet, our workers, our finite budgets or our neighbors who live here.”
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đźš« How Local Electeds Nationwide can Protect their Communities from ICE
Together with several national partners like the National Immigration Law Center and Indivisible, we’re launching the No Secret Police campaign – a coordinated effort to fight back against the surveillance, detainment, and deportation of our neighbors. The cornerstone of this campaign is our newly released No Secret Police Policy Toolkit, a call to action for local governments to use their regulatory, procurement, and legislative powers to counter the rise of authoritarian tactics used by the Trump administration and protect community members.