With less than 50 days to Election Day, progressive teams are investing millions in voter registration, schooling, and mobilization efforts in battlefield states amid the coronavirus pandemic.
These teams do not claim to be affiliated with any of the political parties, but obviously explicitly express their preference to prevent President Trump from being re-elected in 2020. A progressive agenda, those teams aim to teach the electorate about the political procedure and advise him on voting step by step amid the coronavirus pandemic In addition, the maximum number of local teams organized in the states long before the 2020 election cycle.
In some cases, the efforts of these progressive teams have been underway for more than a decade, and while the coronavirus has forced them to devote themselves more temporarily to virtual organization this year, top teams say it has led to a shift in budget priorities and forced them to think of cutting-edge tactics to succeed voters.
Way to Win is a progressive organization that invests in network organizations across the country to create multiracial coalitions that can help win elections. Supporters of the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, Way to Win was also one of the first sponsors of the struggle for Amendment Four in Florida, which aims to repair the voting rights of others in the past convicted of crimes. The organization is a strong advocate for the right to abortion and also supports calls for social and racial justice through partnerships with teams such as the Black Lives Movement. .
In 3 years, Way to Win has raised the budget of many individual donors and committed more than $80 million for teams in battlefield states such as Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Prior to the 2018 mid-term election, Way to Win raised more than $22 million, and the numbers have only increased since then, with the organization raising $27 million in 2019 and more than $60 million in 2020. Way to Win attributes the increase in investment to the organization has shown good fortune and donors ‘ that there is a lot at stake to win in 2020. According to Way to Win, the organization has a 75% win rate in the races it has supported. The team adds that its donors must invest in the organization because there is evidence that it “can produce a genuine reversal of investment” before the November election.
In collaboration with local partners, Way to Win president and co-founder Tory Gavito said the group’s investments have helped win nearly 176 races since 2018.
“It is vital that teams on the local network are at the center of voter turnout in this election, not just for the final results of Election Day counts,” Gavito said. “Gavito or lose, if organized communities mobilize and call for a replacement in politics, they are the real winners. “
Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, is a base organization that has targeted the electorate in communities of color since 2010, Tomás Robles, CO-CEO of LUCHA, said the organization had gained more monetary investment in this political cycle than ever before. before. In 2018, Way to Win invested more than $700,000 in LUCHA. This year, Way to Win increased its investment and donated more than $1 million to LUCHA.
Robles and LUCHA executive co-director Alejandra Gómez said more investments are being made in communities of color to inspire voting and education around progressive politics.
“Our communities have been organized for generations [and] we’ve been at the front line of so many struggles because our lives depended on it,” Gomez said. “For our communities to thrive in fact, it means that we. . . elections above 50 plus one. We are looking for candidates who constitute our values . . . who have a broad view of what equity means.
Since 2018, LUCHA has held 3,500 electorate listening sessions to better perceive the problems that resonate with Arizona communities and, despite the transition to virtual organization in March, the organization introduced a crusade for 1 million electorates to vote by user mail on Election Day.
In North Carolina, Way to Win is expected to move at least $1. 5 million to teams in North Carolina this year, up from $871,500 invested in the state in 2019. From 2019 to 2020, Way to Win increased its investment in Advance Carolina, one of Way to Win’s North Carolina partners, through thousands of dollars and have now donated more than $1 million to the organization.
Marcus Bass, 33, is the group’s CEO and said his team is educating the electorate about downward racing and begins planning socially est distanced face-to-face conversations with the electorate. with gloves, masks, hand sanitist, pens and an election advisor containing demand data by mail.
“We make other people perceive where the force is,” Bass said. “There is a genuine protection challenge due to coronavirus, but the genuine racist detail of exposing racism, whether it has a mask or not, forces us to have interaction in this capability right now. “
NextGen America is a progressive organization whose goal is to mobilize the young electorate in a handful of battlefield states, adding Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. in organizing efforts has nearly doubled, with $ 45 million invested in 2020. In North Carolina, NextGen’s investment has risen from more than $ 500,000 in 2016 to $ 4. 5 million in 2020. A NextGen spokesperson told CBS News that 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer continues to be a key sponsor for the organization.
“Investment is so important . . . [because] we must make sure that no stones are discovered, that no voter is isolated, that everyone has the opportunity to fulfill this civic duty and vote,” said Rachel Weber, NextGen America North Carolina press, “We have noticed that our investments in North Carolina and other states on the battlefield translate into increased participation of young voters. “
The Progressive Participation Project, which is the largest-based electoral outreach organization in the country, focused on individual conversations with inconsistent electorates who generally vote for Democrats but do not move to the polls.
Lately, the organization employs about 1,000 people. The plan was, first of all, to attack 10 million doors in 17 states on the presidential battlefield and Congress, but the coronavirus replaced the tactics of the TPP. However, in May, the organization announced plans to invest more than $52 million in its outreach efforts for the 2020 Election Cycle, and this investment remains in effect despite cash replacement operations
Based on the number of calls made, the TPP predicts it will have more voting commitments than the margins through which Trump beat Clinton in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida in 2016.
For Our Future Action Fund has invested between $40 million and $50 million in past cycles in states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida. In 2016, investment for For Our Future came from a variety of resources, adding a coalition of unions and NextGen America. In 2018, more investment resources came from individual donors and organizations seeking to expand their systems with an additional cash partner. For our future, Florida has the largest operation on the floor and, according to its team, before the 2018 election, reached 3 million doors and reached the electorate through 2 million TEXT messages.
Blake Williams, communications director for For Our Future Florida, told CBS News that even in the midst of the pandemic, his team moved into the organization online with training from Zoom SMS, phone banking, and even the creation of online offices to through Facebook groups.
“What we want to achieve and what other teams want to achieve is the same thing. Array. . . go through your universe, get your electorate out, take other people to the polls, but the plan to do so is a little different,” Williams said. .