Airlift supports local feet on the street
Airlift Special Projects send money to high-powered, under-resourced groups on the front lines based on up-to-the-minute guidance from our advisors. This money is used to pay organizers, not consultants and TV. For example, we sent thousands of dollars almost overnight to the Black grassroots groups in Alabama that won the election for Doug Jones.
We help the people who are already there
This time, we’re helping five heroic midwestern groups making urgent repairs to the old blue wall that crumbled in 2016. They’re getting out the vote by fighting for criminal justice reform in Ohio, organizing people to take down Scott Walker in Wisconsin, cleaning up politics in Missouri, keeping Joe Donnelly (D-Indiana) in the Senate and passing redistricting in Michigan. They are doing whatever it takes to get people involved and to the polls.
Airlift is an all-volunteer, zero-overhead organization
This is an incredibly strategic way to help bring these states back into the fold. The Movement Voter Project kicked in $50,000 to start the ball rolling. And so far people who know us have raised almost $25,000 more. Now it’s up to us! See below for details on each group.
>>>DONATE HERE<«
These are the groups this special project is supporting. All of them are C4s, so donations are not tax-deductible
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: 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.