Hello and good morning. I am taking a break from writing about the Majority Savers for one Tuesday because I realized something important — we only have *5* months until the midterm elections! Now is the time to start gearing up for a tough fight this fall, and we haven’t got time to waste. The incumbents I have highlighted have been working hard to raise cash, and that cash has been needed as the GQP tries to win back Congress.
Instead, the article today centers around this thought: what is another smart way to spend more of your limited amount of money to people who are willing to help us win in November? What did we lack in the 2020 election that made it close? The answer I explored right before the Georgia Senate runoffs in 2021 involved crowdsourcing a 50 state strategy through grassroots GOTV organizations. I thought that $5-10 a month over time to an organization would add up like a subscription does. Candidates can turn to high dollar donors and Super PACS. Can these grassroots GOTV organizations rely on that kind of money?
NO. They need US to help them. That’s where this diary comes in. I will highlight organizations you can choose to spend some of your donation money or volunteer time to that would really appreciate it. Some of these groups I learned about on DailyKos, while others came from Twitter or through ActBlue.
If I were you, I'd think about which organization best matches your values and pick 1 or 2 and give them some money or give them some time. These organizations run the gamut from voter protection to canvassing to minority voter outreach to GOTV efforts. I will try to write a small blurb about each of them and of course a link to find out more information.
But first, some beginner guidelines for political activism below the fold…
I would be negligent if I didn’t give some advice to first time donors or activists.
Guideline #1: Try not to donate or volunteer because of emotion. I get it. Many political choices we make in terms of donating are based upon how we feel about a candidate (or the GQP person they are trying to kick out) or in reaction to an e-mail or an ad that we saw. That’s the whole philosophy behind the millions of DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! e-mails everyone seems to get and detest. Yet they must work, because they keep coming.
Instead, do your homework (if you can) and see whether or not they really need the donation or time. That was one of the reasons I started writing the Majority Savers series in the first place — I wanted to highlight races where donations could be better used to help keep Congress under our control. That series and this diary are meant to broaden your horizons and widen your possible donation or volunteer opportunities. Combine your emotion with a dash of logic and forward thinking.
Guideline #2: Set up a spam e-mail account and use a burner cell phone if you can afford it for political activity. Do it for your sanity. I listened to others about the avalanche of e-mails that WILL come your way asking for more donations or time. I set up a spam e-mail account and I am not bothered by the inundation of political e-mails at any time.
I didn’t do it for my cell phone, and I get texts constantly (3-5 a day). Unsubscribing doesn't help, because campaigns share/sell contacts with one another. As soon as I get off one list, another campaign tries to contact me. I just block the numbers now and delete the texts. Use a burner phone if possible to avoid this fate.
Guideline #3: Listen to the volunteers who have done it before, especially if they are locals. They know what will happen when canvassing. They can help you out of a jam when phone banking or text banking. They know what messages work best on the postcards and other means of contacting voters.
Guideline #4: Set strict limits on how much money and time you are willing to donate. Once you cross the Rubicon and donate or volunteer, campaigns will always come back to you begging for more of what you have given them. Sometimes, I feel that all the nagging turns off voters and volunteers as much as it helps. Either way, set a budget and stick to it.
Now that those guidelines are out of the way, let's take a look at some GOTV organizations!
BIPOC PACs and Organizations
These PACs or organizations help register, canvass, GOTV, and protect the votes of people of color. Do your homework before selecting an organization to donate to! If you know of any that I am missing feel free to chime in.
This one came from our own DailyKos. It got 151 recs but not a lot of comments. Four Directions focuses on Native American political activism. The results of unprecedented Diné and other tribal turnout in Arizona speak for themselves. They also do work in other states!
Voto Latino focuses on finding and supporting the next generation of Latino and Latina voters. They also are a progressive organization that seeks to find Latino and Latina candidates that stick to progressive values. They do voter registration, vote plans, help voting, and much more.
Mijente PAC focuses more on activism for Latino and Latina issues, but they also support candidates and do GOTV drives.
Make the Road Action focuses more on reaching out to working class Latino and Latina voters that the above organizations may miss. The group is big on phone and text banking and voter mobilization. The group may be especially important in states like Pennsylvania and Nevada, in addition to their work in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Black Voters Matter is a political fund meant to focus on turning out black voters, including voter registration, GOTV, development of candidates, and grassroots training. They are also trying to support black communities in any way they can.
Justice Unites Us is a new PAC meant to focus on Asian American voters. DailyKos ran an article on them if you wish to find out more about this group.
State Specific Organizations
These are examples of swing state specific organizations that help with the grassroots. There are probably many excellent ones to sign up with in your home state, so do your homework and find one you can donate to or volunteer with! Feel free to share one from your state in the comments and I will credit you!
One Arizona focuses on Native American and Hispanic turnout. They also reach out to new arrivals in the state. They were the only ones who reached out to me about voting in the AZ 08 Lesko/Tipirneni special election in 2018. That was a ballot that would have likely gathered dust on my table (I signed up for mail in ballots because I didn’t know where the polling location was). They knew my lack of history, they took a chance, and they got a vote for Dr. Hiral. This I knew was happening in Arizona. It broadened my donation pool to grassroots organizations above.
A diary that just was written yesterday for Daily Kos by Sarah Hogg gives plenty of organizations in North Carolina to donate time or money to. I was overwhelmed by the number of choices there — so check it out!
Fair Fight. To me, this is the BEST of all long term strategic donating money that gave us proven results in Georgia. Abrams totally changed my perspective about her 2018 run based upon helping deliver RESULTS in Georgia in 2020. It is the perfect storm of voter registration, issue advocacy, grassroots organizing for a state, and running a parallel operation to the official election campaign that supplements it.
Hope Springs from Field PAC does canvassing, voter protection, GOTV drives, and so much more in the critical battleground states. DailyKos user snowbored posts the results of their efforts almost every single day in a diary, so you can see exactly what is being done with your donation and time!
National Progressive Organizations
If I am missing a good national organization, please let me know so I can add it in!
Progressive Turnout Project is probably the largest canvassing and turnout organization for Democratic candidates in the country. They do a lot of phone banking, text banking, etc.
Community Change Action is focused on turning out low income voters, especially low income PoC. They work on voter outreach and voter persuasion.
VoteAmerica uses data analysis to find potential voters and guide them through the voting process from registration to casting the ballot.
When We All Vote was created by Michelle Obama to promote voting in the younger generation and by PoC. It is the next generation of Rock the Vote and is meant to get Generation Z politically involved.
Other Organizations
These organizations are just as important, but they don’t fit neatly into the categories above.
Democracy Docket Action Fund is the legal firm that defended the election in 2020 against TFG. Marc Elias works REALLY hard to make sure that gerrymandering and voter suppression do NOT go unchallenged. With red states restricting the vote in increasingly barbaric fashion, having a solid legal team on our side is vitally important.
Postcards to Voters is all about writing to voters in critical races to remind them to vote for a specific candidate. Progressive Muse is an excellent person on DailyKos to follow if you want to know more about Postcards to Voters. You can go at your own comfort level and pace and know that you can do it from the comfort of your home!
DailyKos made me aware of another Arizona based organization trying to protect the vote by getting an initiative on the 2022 ballot. DailyKos member EricAZ is promoting Arizona Deserves Better in order to pass this critical ballot initiative.
I hope that by giving you options, I have inspired you to broaden your donation horizons and also given you opportunities to volunteer when you can. For instance, I donate monthly to most of the organizations above because I think GOTV and voter registration is that important! I may do Postcards to Voters closer to the election as well.
Thank you for reading!