200+ Napans convene to ‘Rock the Congress’
“It’s not what you do once in a lifetime. It’s what you do to keep democracy alive.” — State Sen. Christopher Cabaldon
On Saturday, the Culinary Institute of America transformed into a political organizing school.
Starting bright and early, attendees of the 2026 Rock the Congress split off into rooms in the CIA at Copia for a full day of workshops like How to Run for Office; Terminally Online Gen Z Politics; Organizing 101; Truth From Tale in the AI Age and more.
Hundreds convened to plan for what Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) called “the most important election in our lifetime”: the 2026 midterms. Election results will determine which party controls the U.S. House and Senate and, possibly, the extent of President Donald Trump’s political power.
Napa County is typically a stronghold for Democratic candidates, but some locals want to get outside that comfort zone and work to influence votes across the state, especially for youth. Much of the day was focused on building democratic power among young people.
“It’s a launchpad,” said Rock the Congress organizer Valerie Opry at the lunch break.
“The goal is for people to leave feeling like they know what they’re going to do next. Some people have done a lot of this work, some have never done it,” Opry said. The event was the second Rock the Congress in Napa; the first was in 2018.
The day’s crowd was mostly older adults but included a number of high schoolers and youth organizers. “We’ve had a lot of new young people get on board,” Opry said.
Lecture halls and rooms all around the institute were filled with people listening closely to presenters, asking questions and taking notes.
“Compared to a couple years ago, today would have been different,” said panelist Aidan Chavez on Rock the Congress who was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. Chavez, president of Napa Valley College’s Pride Club, noted a shift in Napa toward progressive politics. “Now, they’re more like, ‘We need to get this done, and this is how we’re going to do it.’”
Opry and the team put together panel discussions with a number of grassroots organizations, including CSO North Bay, Stop Napa Hate and North Bay Rapid Response Network. The list of mostly local presenters ran the gamut: high school counselors, North Bay housing specialists, queer activists, lawyers, elected officials and high schoolers.
Jovannia Barrientos, a sophomore at Napa High, and Reina De Haro, a freshman at Vintage High, were among them. The two coordinated Napa’s Feb. 6 student walkouts, which drew thousands to the streets to protest rampant Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrests in the U.S.
Since the walkout, they’ve started up a student activation group called Tlatolli, a Nahuatl term for language. “We’re working on trying to spread awareness,” said De Haro. “A lot of kids see what’s going on, but they’re not fully educated.” Alongside Rep. Thompson, two led a workshop of mostly high schoolers to flesh out how Tlatolli will organize.
In a room off the atrium, a panel of speakers discussed building movements inclusive of diverse races, sexualities, abilities, genders and ages for a workshop called Creating an Inclusive Container.
“It’s kind of like constantly being a little bit anxious, to be a person of color,” said Audrianna Jones, a community organizer in Sonoma. “We just have to come back to love.”
“We have to get out and win,” said Sen. Christopher Cabaldon in closing remarks. “Democracy depends on stepping up, on showing up for protests, on running for office, writing a check, making phone calls. It’s not what you do once in a lifetime. It’s what you do to keep democracy alive.”
