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NextGen America organizers will send a message to Senator Chuck Grassley by mail, they told CNN on Monday.
NextGen has hired a homing pigeon service called “PigeonGram” to get the message out, prompting Grassley to delay voting for a Supreme Court candidate.
The Iowa Republican has yet to comment on whether he thinks a vote on a nominee should occur this year following the death of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week.
The plans by NextGen, the progressive youth voter participation organization founded by businessman Tom Steyer, come after Grassley tweeted about a dead pigeon on Friday.
Grassley, known for having his own Twitter account, found a dead pigeon on his lawn and tweeted, “If you lost your pet’s pidgin / it’s dead in the front yard of my farm in Iowa JUST DISCOVERED here r identifiers Right Paw Blue 2020/3089 / AU2020 / ELLA /// LEFT LEG GREEN BAND NO PRINTED INFORMATION. Sorry for the bad news. “
“We saw that there was a lot of attention around the pigeon and we wanted to draw more attention to the topic that we have been talking about with young people, which is to honor RBG’s last wish,” Murphy Burke, organizer for NextGen in Iowa, told him to CNN.
NextGen plans to have the message delivered to Grassley at the United States Capitol after President Trump announces his election to the Supreme Court later this week.
The US Postal Service will assist with most of the delivery.
Burke noted that while the message will be delivered in part by a dove, the act is primarily symbolic. The message Grassley receives will come in a PigeonGram envelope, indicating that it was carried in part by a carrier pigeon.
“A pigeon can’t really deliver mail in this day and age,” Burke told CNN. “But we like the fact that the envelope will say that the message was carried by a carrier pigeon.”
In addition to its plans to contact Grassley by mail, NextGen is urging young people across the country to message their senators to refuse to vote on a Supreme Court candidate until after the November election.
Following Ginsburg’s death, NextGen released new Senate announcements in Maine, North Carolina, Iowa and Arizona on Saturday highlighting the importance of electing Democrats to the Senate, which could allow them to regain a majority.
NextGen’s efforts come as various youth-led groups work to convince senators to delay voting for the Supreme Court nomination.
Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate organization, demonstrated in front of the houses of Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Thom Tillis of North Carolina on Monday.
The group plans to target other Republican senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, as well as potential Supreme Court candidate Barbara Lagoa of Florida later this week.
“We only need four Republicans to do the right thing and stick to McConnell’s precedent,” Aracely Jimenez, Sunrise’s deputy communications director, said in a statement Monday. “We must do everything in our power to hold vulnerable Republicans and also Senate Democrats accountable to avoid a bench appointment before Biden is sworn in.”
In the coming days, March For Our Lives, the gun violence prevention organization, plans to demonstrate in front of the offices of Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, David Perdue of Georgia, Mitt Romney of Utah and Martha McSally of Arizona.
March For Our Lives is also encouraging participants to get virtually involved by emailing senators using a pre-filled form, sending text messages and faxing letters to senators asking them to delay a vote.
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