Milwaukee-based BLOC has canvassers out knocking on doors in neighborhoods that political pros gave up on long ago. Their results are turning heads.
Angela Lang, Executive Director, of a Milwaukee-based organizing group called BLOC, says “There’s been a lot of blame on black Milwaukee for Donald Trump’s election. Ask them how many black people they talked to. If you just talk to them and treat them as full people and not just as votes or commodities, people will vote.”
As Alan Pyke reported recently in a Think Progress story, BLOC reacted swiftly to the disaster of 2016. Instead of using algorithms and assumptions from the young politicos’ tool box, they decided to canvas in Merrill Park, a neighborhood that is 83% black, and the single most incarcerated zip code in the U.S.
Angela says “When you target the traditional way, you talk to people who voted in 3 of the last 4 elections, and you leave out a lot of people. You can literally paint a picture of who we’re leaving behind, people who are black and brown and formerly incarcerated.”
When BLOC knocked on doors, they asked: “Hey, what does it look like for the black community to thrive?” BLOC is taking the long view approach rather than treating black people as a group of voters to be called upon when needed. This spring they knocked on 35,000 doors and helped elect Rebecca Dallet to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court and got Earnell Lucas across the line to win the Democratic primary for Milwaukee County Sheriff. Now the focus is on taking down Scott Walker.
BLOC is one of 5 groups you can support in the new Airlift Lift the Midwest special project. This is one way we fund high-powered, under-resourced groups on the front lines. This money is used to pay organizers, not consultants and TV. For example, we helped fund the hiring of 600 organizers in Alabama’s Black Belt while Joe Trippi, Doug Jones’ campaign manager, was spending $5 million on a TV campaign aimed at white suburban voters.
Details on the groups are below. Give what you can. As Angela Lang says, “It’s time to widen the map.” Airlift is an all-volunteer, zero-overhead organization based in Mill Valley, CA.
>>>DONATE HERE<<<
OH: Ohio Student Action
OSA is fighting for Issue 1, which will bring tens of thousands of young people to the polls and make Ohio the most advanced state in the country by taking low-level drug offenses away from the state prison system. They are registering 30,000 new voters and distributing 200,000 young voter guides on 22 campuses.
WI: BLOC (Black Leaders Organizing Communities)
BLOC is taking a long-view approach to building civic engagement instead of treating black Milwaukee as a group of voters to be called upon when needed. They are knocking on doors in neighborhoods that political pros gave up on long ago. This spring they knocked on 35,000 doors and helped elect Rebecca Dallet to Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. Now, the focus is on taking down Scott Walker.
MO: Action St. Louis
Action St. Louis is a Black-led organizing collective that grew out of the Ferguson protests. They played a big role in electing Wesley Bell as St. Louis County’s top prosecutor. Now they are fighting for a number of ballot measures that will get unlikely voters to the polls: Clean Missouri (a redistricting and anti-corruption package), a $12 minimum wage, medical marijuana, and to re-elect Claire McCaskill.
MI: MI-Liberation
There are 3 big initiatives in Michigan that will get voters out like never before: citizen-led redistricting, automatic voter registration and marijuana legalization. MI Liberation is a new group started by experienced organizers who are getting out the vote in Kalamazoo and Detroit. They are focusing on bringing home a winnable Congressional open seat in MI-11 for Haley Stevens. Here is a report we just received from them yesterday: Our team is on track to hit our statewide goal by Friday. We want to keep this capacity up, full steam, through Election Day. We've adjusted our precincts to be in areas of CD MI-11 & Detroit where there has been little to no campaign activity or canvassing by other orgs. We're meeting many people who no one has talked to about the election. Our canvassers are persuading disenchanted voters to vote progressive every day. Some have even joined our canvass team!
IN: ACT Indiana
ACT has run Indiana’s largest neighbor-to-neighbor integrated voter engagement program over 3 election cycles. They boosted turnout among its contacted universe by 24% for Latinos, 11% for African-Americans, 11% for women and 7% for voters under 35. Their vote goal is 5% of the US Senate victory margin (Joe Donnelly) and 13 times the vote deficit of 4 statehouse races that could end GOP control of the Indiana House.
