Why #MeToo founder Tarana Burke is already planning for the 2026 midterm elections

Even though Tarana Burke is still correcting some past misconceptions about the #MeToo movement that went mainstream about eight years ago—it’s not dead, for example, and it wasn’t a witch hunt—she’s focused on the future. Specifically, the movement’s founder said organizing has already begun for the 2026 U.S. midterm elections.

“I’m really looking forward to what we can do to build on the campaign we started in 2024,” Burke, chief vision officer of Me too. International, said Saturday during a discussion at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW. “I’m really excited about the idea of building a constituency; imagine us voting along the lines of our survivorship.” 

One goal for the movement’s future, Burke said, is to help people see how sexual and gender-based violence is interwoven with so many other issues, including gun violence, homelessness, prison reform, food deserts, and maternal mortality. 

“Part of our work is helping people to understand that there’s not an issue that you care about that does not touch on sexual and gender-based violence,” she told the audience. “We need to stop trying to silo these issues; there’s so much work that we can do together.”

Working in tandem on social issues may elicit more attention from politicians or leaders who don’t address issues of sexual and gender-based violence, according to Burke. “We need to keep holding people’s feet to the fire.”

Solving a solvable issue

That said, activists face new challenges. Funding for support work to end sexual and gender-based violence is at an all-time low, Burke said, while local rape crisis centers are at-risk of losing all of their federal funding.

Writing a check, of course, is one solution, but the fight to end sexual and gender-based violence will require interventions on various fronts—similar to approaches taken to make America smoke-free.

“This is a solvable issue if we want to solve it,” Burke said.

There are still problems to be fixed, however, like the framing that a man’s life is being ruined if he’s accused of sexual violence and a frequent premise that the person making the accusation isn’t telling the truth. That’s why it’s important for people to be given the respect and dignity of an investigation, Burke said.

“That helps everybody involved,” she added. “If you are the person being accused or you’re the person who has the accusation, everybody involved should be treated with respect and humanity.”

A focus on accountability

Another misconception is that people who inflict harm on others must be banished, and there’s no pathway back for them. Burke wants to see accountability from the people who have caused harm, rather than for them to disappear for a while and reemerge again as though nothing happened.

“What we’re saying is, if you want to be amongst civil society, we need to understand that you won’t cause harm again, that you understand that you caused harm in the first place,” Burke told the audience. “And the biggest problem with a lot of these men who have these accusations and have these things that have actually been proven is that we don’t see any of that.”

Without accountability, it’s tempting for voters to excuse past accusations by justifying some of the good work a politician did in the past. And there’s a pertinent example right now that Burke, a New Yorker, weighed in on. 

New York City currently has a “terrible” mayor in Eric Adams, at least in Burke’s opinion, but she feels “a little angry” that he could be replaced by another “terrible” politician. That’s because Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York who stepped down amid numerous sexual harassment accusations, recently announced he’s running for mayor.

“I just want us to do better and dream better and think bigger,” Burke said of this political situation. “If we actually want these things to stop, if we want to make an impact on the issue of sexual and gender-based violence, we have to figure out where the line is and hold the line.” 

A movement of ‘everyday’ people

Of course setbacks are inevitable, as Burke acknowledged, though when the pendulum swings back the other way, she said there are tangible signs of the movement’s progress since #MeToo went viral in 2017 that won’t simply disappear. She points to law and policy changes in that time, along with the way people think and talk about sexual violence.

“There has been a cultural shift,” said Burke, who coined the “Me Too” phrase nearly two decades ago while working with sexual assault survivors. “This is a movement that has empowered so many survivors, that has helped so many find community, that has been such a catalyst for healing and action, which is what our organization is about.” 

Still, she said there is more work to be done. And looking to the future, Burke is calling on the public’s help. 

“Movements are not just about the people with the microphone, the person with the bullhorn in the front,” Burke said. “Movements are built from everyday people.” 

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