#TalkRadio – October 28: Hey, New Jersey! Let’s Vote!’ TJC GOTV Tour in New Jersey Off To A Great Start!

Hi Igniters For Change! The Igniting Change Radio Show on Tuesday, October 28th, 2025, from 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Eastern Time, entitled “ ‘Hey, New Jersey! Let’s Vote!’ TJC GOTV Tour in New Jersey Off To A Great Start!”, will be live from New Brunswick, New Jersey with Radio Show Co-Hosts and Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC) Co-Leaders Attorneys Barbara Arnwine, Esq. and Daryl Jones, Esq. and will feature special guests Mayor Marty Small Sr.; Cameron Barnes; Anya Dillard; and, Angel Edwards.

This show will discuss the ambitious TJC and Partners Good Trouble Tour in New Jersey, including: TJC’s voter engagement activation in New Jersey: how people can get information about; The Tour’s Partners; where we’ve been since October 25th in the state of New Jersey; how important early voting is; where the next New Jersey stops will be; why TJC is in New Jersey; and, more. The Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC), the People’s Organizing for Progress, some local municipalities, and our many partners are spearheading a Get Out The Vote effort for the 2025 New Jersey General Election during Early Voting. We are in New Jersey from October 25th through November 2nd, 2025, continuing our nationally acclaimed John Lewis “Make Good Trouble Vote!” Votercade GOTV concept. The “Hey New Jersey! Let’s Vote!” Good Trouble GOTV Campaign has already rolled through Camden, Trenton, Bridgeton, Pleasantville, and Atlantic City, with more Good And Necessary Trouble on the way to rally voters!

The goal of the “Hey Jersey Let’s Vote!” campaign is to increase Black voter awareness, participation in the November 2025 elections and to counteract identified voter barriers in New Jersey, such as long lines, accessibility, and information deficits. The TJC GOTV programming is designed to make voting a fun and exciting experience while increasing voter knowledge and participation in the 2025 General Election. The focus of “Hey Jersey Let’s Vote!” is in communities and neighborhoods of color.

A Votercade is a large procession of vehicles, horns blowing, lights flashing, covered with John Lewis image signage educating and encouraging voters that voting season has arrived in New Jersey.  The Votercades create substantial “hoopla”, anticipation, media attention, and community involvement all leading to greater voter awareness and turnout.

On Monday, October 27th, Igniting Change guest Mayor Marty Small Sr., the mayor of the City of Atlantic City, led a 20+ car votercade through Atlantic City, beginning at a popular fishing location near Seawall, driving through middle class neighborhoods and around local schools, through the city and residential neighborhoods, and to a homeless shelter, and then to Brown’s Park which featured rides to the polls for unhoused individuals. From 12:05 PM – 12:20 PM Eastern Time, Mayor Marty Small Sr. will tell us about Atlantic City and why Atlantic City wanted TJC to come through with the John Lewis bus, and the impact of our visit.

Since 2020, the Votercade concept has been successfully used by TJC and partners in over two hundred (200) communities and neighborhoods throughout America.  Every polling place at which a Votercade has been used to encourage voter participation has experienced a significant increase in voter turnout. The Votercades call attention to the GOTV activities and are most effective when coordinated with local Rides To The Polls/Souls to the Polls groups to generate mass grassroot public education to marginalized and targeted communities that the voting season is here!  Uniquely, New Jersey is one of the only northern states where the African American population has increased between 2012 – 2020 (up six percent).  From the 2020 Census, the current percentage of Black Voting Age Population in New Jersey is 12.86% of the voters. (New Jersey Voting-age Population By Race and Ethnicity from Census 2020).  New Jersey is renowned for historically being in the top 10 of Black voter participation nationwide.  In 2024 Black voter turnout in New Jersey was 69.5%. Our plan is to increase this number.

Votercading is especially powerful during Souls to the Polls Sundays.  TJC has successfully used this strategy in partnership with ministerial alliances and churches/mosques and other religious institutions in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, DC and other states. Clergy have joined our stops at polling places and engaged voters waiting in long lines in prayer, song, testimonials and comfort. As New Jersey will have 2 Sundays included in its early voting, we will focus heavily on this strategy.

Votercading has been used to combat voter suppression, especially by encouraging voters confronting long lines throughout the voting period.

This GOTV Campaign also includes TJC’s team of “Freedom Riders” composed of Gen Z and Young Millennials who will help to canvas, wave signs, activate other youth, help with setting up the Celebration Village, and perform other activities at each stop. One of the many benefits of being a Freedom Rider is our purposeful scheduling of events in which they learn about major voting rights historical moments. For example, the Atlantic City route included a stop to learn from Mr. Maddox, whose family was close with Amelia Platts-Bonyton Robinson’s and whose father treated victims of Bloody Sunday including John Lewis. There was also a stop at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City to see Fannie Lou Hamer’s statue and rare historical pictures and learn more of her historical significance in the fight for voting rights.

On today’s show will be three of our Freedom Riders: Cameron Barnes, our Freedom Rider Team Leader; Anya Dillard, a graduate from Rutgers University Newark and a New Jersey resident; and, Angel Edwards, who organized an activation during our “I’ll Rise and Vote 2024 Voter Activations and GOTV Concert Series” for Jacksonville, Florida and is on the bus again for New Jersey!

Members of partner organizations are encouraged to join the John Lewis “Good Trouble Vote” bus as Freedom Riders.

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