Partnership for a New American Economy, Organizing for Action, and Republicans for Immigration Reform Kick Off the Largest-Ever Virtual March on Washington

NEW YORK, May 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Partnership for a New American Economy, Organizing for Action (OFA), and Republicans for Immigration Reform today kicked off the March for Innovation (#iMarch), the largest-ever virtual march on Washington in support of bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform. The March, a two-day event that will end Thursday night, brings together leaders from politics, business, tech, sports, media, and entertainment to create a digital storm across an array of social media to back bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation. (Full list of leaders below.)

Beginning at 8:30 this morning with a Twitter Town Hall led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that will include Jeb Bush, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Condoleezza Rice – just a day after the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" immigration bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee – top #iMarch supporters will take part in a pass-the-baton style event that will feature a number of online venues and digital tools including Huffington Post Live, Google Hangout, Thunderclap, Twitter Town Halls, Facebook, Reddit, Vine, and others. All of this activity will help drive thousands and thousands of supporters to www.MarchForInnovation.com where they will be able to use social media and digital call tools to urge their elected officials in Washington to pass comprehensive immigration reform. (Full list of scheduled events can be found here.)

"Across the country and among Americans of all political stripes, there is a broad and growing consensus that we must bring our outdated immigration system into the 21^st century in order to keep our future bright," said Partnership for a New American Economy Co-Chair and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "By utilizing the power of technology to capitalize on the power of democratic expression, our virtual march on Washington will help ensure that lawmakers hear from the people they represent – and help make immigration reform a reality."

"The March for Innovation is another great opportunity for Americans to come together from across the country and from all walks of life to say that they want Washington to pass comprehensive immigration reform," said OFA Executive Director Jon Carson. "The American people have been clear that the time is now for Washington to listen and act to fix our broken immigration system so we can continue to strengthen our country and our economy."

"Our nation's broken immigration system continues to negatively impact our ability to sustain both an economic recovery and the American Dream for future generations," said Republicans for Immigration Reform Chairman and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. "The present reform debate in Washington is one of the most important public policy discussions in years. Republicans for Immigration Reform looks forward to taking part in the March for Innovation to highlight commonsense immigration reforms that will help strengthen the creation of American jobs."

The #iMarch will also host four live events on Wednesday evening with tech and innovation leaders in the following cities (more information in the links below):

• New York City at 6:30 p.m. EDT: www.marchforinnovation.com/nyc
• Austin at 7:30 p.m. EDT: www.marchforinnovation.com/austin
• San Antonio at 8:15 p.m. EDT: www.marchforinnovation.com/sanantonio
• San Francisco at 9:00 p.m. EDT: www.marchforinnovation.com/sanfrancisco

All events will be live streamed online.

The #iMarch was initially launched in late February with support from Mayor Bloomberg, AOL Co-Founder Steve Case, Somesh Dash of Institutional Venture Partners (#iMarch Co-Organizer), Padmasree Warrior of Cisco Systems, Brad Feld of the Foundry Group, venture capitalist Mike Maples, angel investor Ron Conway, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, and other leaders. Joe Trippi, the former campaign manager of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid, developed the social media content behind the #iMarch.

Since February, thousands of Americans have signed up to help lead the #iMarch, queuing up their Twitter and Facebook calls to action through the #iMarch Thunderclap represent a social media reach of more than 41 million people, making the #iMarch Thunderclap the largest political Thunderclap in the history of the website.

By concentrating the collective voices of leaders across the country and the American people, the #iMarch aims to bring attention to the importance of comprehensive immigration reform and generate a surge of contacts to lawmakers in Congress.

Top Supporters Include:

• New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
• Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post Media Group
• Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez
• Jon Carson, Executive Director of Organizing for Action
• Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
• Newark Mayor Cory Booker
• Steve Case, Chairman and Chief Executive of Revolution LLC, Co-Founder of AOL
• Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush
• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada
• Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Somesh Dash, #iMarch Co-Organizer
• Russell Simmons, Co-Founder of Def Jam
• Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York
• Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona
• Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida
• Mark Cuban, Owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Chairman of AXS TV
• Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform
• Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist.org
• Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas
• California Governor Jerry Brown
• Pete Cashmore, Founder and CEO of Mashable
• Alexis Ohanian, Co-Founder of Reddit
• Carl Guardino, President and CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group
• Fred Wilson, Principal at Union Square Ventures
• Congressman Darrell Issa of California
• David Karp, Founder and CEO of Tumblr
• Rosario Dawson, Founder and Chairwoman of Voto Latino
• Michigan Governor Rick Snyder
• Ron Conway, Angel Investor
• Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois
• Mike Maples, Venture Capitalist
• Former Governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno
• San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee
• Jose Antonio Vargas, Founder of Define American
• Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino
• Wilmer Valderrama, Voto Latino
• Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco Systems
• Baron Davis, Former NBA Player
• Brad Feld, Managing Director of the Foundry Group
• Mike McGeary, Co-Founder and Director of Engine Advocacy
• Gaby Pacheco, United We Dream
• Jalak Jobanputra, Managing Partner at FuturePerfect Ventures
• Emily Lam, Senior Director for Federal Issues of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group
• Michael Carpenter, CEO of Ally Financial
• Kevin Burke, CEO of Con Edison
• Washington Governor Jay Inslee

About the Partnership for a New American Economy
The Partnership for a New American Economy brings together more than 500 Republican, Democratic and Independent mayors and business leaders who support immigration reforms that will help create jobs for Americans today. The Partnership's members include mayors of more than 35 million people nationwide and business leaders of companies that generate more than $1.5 trillion and employ more than 4 million people across all sectors of the economy, from Agriculture to Aerospace, Hospitality to High Tech and Media to Manufacturing. Partnership members understand that immigration is essential to maintaining the productive, diverse and flexible workforce that America needs to ensure prosperity over the coming generations. Learn more at www.RenewOurEconomy.org.

About Organizing for Action
Organizing for Action (OFA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to advancing the policies that the American people voted for in 2012.  In just three months more than 1.4 million volunteers have taken action through Organizing for Action. As a grassroots funded social advocacy group, OFA is committed to tipping the scales of power back to the American people instead of special interests in Washington. OFA is working to advance policies like job creation, strengthening the middle class, gun violence prevention, comprehensive immigration reform and measures combating climate change that a majority of the American people support. More information at www.BarackObama.com.

About Republicans for Immigration Reform
Republicans for Immigration Reform will provide political support for Republicans who advance common-sense solutions to address the nation's broken immigration system. These common-sense solutions must be implemented through comprehensive legislation that recognizes U.S. borders, Rule of Law, dignity of individuals, and policies that address the needs of our economy in the 21st century. Learn more at www.RepublicansForImmigrationReform.org.

CONTACTS
Alex Katz, Partnership for a New American Economy: [email protected], 212-788-7617
Ben Finkenbinder, Organizing for Action: [email protected]
Chris Maloney, Republicans for Immigration Reform: [email protected]

SOURCE Partnership for a New American Economy