Michigan Campaign Timeline

• RepresentUs launches national “drop the suit” campaign
• Online petition launches, signatures sent directly to Michigan Chamber of Commerce Chair Mark Davidoff’s Deloitte email account

• Petition hits 3,000 signatures

• Campaign video launches – viewed over 31,000 times

• Facebook ads go live, targeting:
  • Chamber Chair Mark Davidoff’s hometown, financial services professionals and business executives in Michigan, and everyone located in the Deloitte office building in Detroit
  • West Shore Bank area customers and residents
  • Grand Hotel guests and visitors to Mackinac Island
• Campaign targets Mark Davidoff and MI Chamber on Twitter

← Social media ads

• Chamber of Commerce Chair Mark Davidoff calls RepresentUs HQ, asks that we stop targeting him
• RepresentUs rallies our national membership to deluge Deloitte’s social media with posts asking why they support the lawsuit

← Social media deluge targeting Deloitte

• RepresentUs publishes a Twitter thread calling out Mark Davidoff for supporting this lawsuit, reaches 33,075 people
• Chamber Chair Mark Davidoff contacts RepresentUs again with complaints

• Michigan Chamber of Commerce Chair Mark Davidoff deletes his Twitter account

• We run full-page ads targeting the Chamber’s Chair in his hometown papers, the Oakland Press and the Daily Tribune, and the Detroit Free Press, the largest daily paper in Detroit

• Michigan Chamber of Commerce and Deloitte make public statements responding to the campaign:
  • Chamber denies they support gerrymandering
  • Deloitte claims the company doesn’t “take positions on political matters such as this”

• Dozens rally outside of Deloitte, deliver petitions
  • Livestream from protest
• RepresentUs releases “marked-up” version of Chamber’s press release to clarify facts
• #DropTheSuit solidarity protests held around the country
• Celebrities join the fight on Twitter
  • Adam McKay shares on Twitter
  • Actor Elizabeth Banks sends this tweet
  • Actor Jon Cryer retweets this tweet and the lead singer of Slipknot likes it
  • Sarah Silverman likes this tweet about our work
  • Anna Ortiz likes this tweet
  • Actor Kate Walsh likes this tweet
  • The Executive Producer of the Big Bang Theory, Adam McKay, and Public Citizen retweets this tweet
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger liks the tweet, too
• We publish a Reddit post to spread the campaign
• MI Chamber publishes 2nd press release about the campaign

• Press coverage increases, with print, radio, and video coverage across the state (see below)
• The Detroit News’ Noah Finley accuses RepresentUs members of “terroristic tactics“

• Detroit Free Press article accuses RepresentUs of using or encouraging violent language—without proof

• Patrick Levine Rose, MI election attorney, publishes letter defending RepresentUs against unsubstantiated accusations
• Detroit Free Press updates article alleging violent speech, includes quote by local chapter leader Hugh McNichol IV

• RepresentUs issues press release: Chamber’s claims of intimidation baseless, lack evidence

• RepresentUs airs radio spot advertising Wednesday protest on local stations TEAM 92.1 FM , WJIM , and WILS AM 1320
• Deploys billboard truck to drive around MI Hall of Justice area all day

• Ad calling out MI Chamber President and CEO Rich Studley runs in the Lansing City Pulse
• Hundreds rally outside MI Hall of Justice
• MI Supreme Court hears case concerning ballot initiative—oral arguments can be viewed here
• Michigan Supreme Court Justice Viviano: “I don’t know what the voters are going to do. But the point is, it’s their power.”
• Represent Lansing co-leader Hugh McNichol IV publishes opinion piece clarifying RepresentUs’s position
• Actor Chris Pratt tweets in support of Hugh McNichol’s opinion piece

• MI Supreme Court rejects dark money lawsuit to keep anti-gerrymandering measure off the ballot
• Video celebrating the court’s ruling is released