See Our Update: Mid-Year Progress Report June 2017

States Democrats won or lost in the 2016 Presidential election by less than a single-digit percentage margin:

In addition to the opportunity to take statewide power in the Frontline States, there are an additional 13 congressional districts outside of those Frontline States where the margin of difference is very narrow. Winning these districts in 2018— along with 15 Frontline Congressional Districts in the 17 Frontline States— would result in recapturing control of the House of Representatives and halting the efforts to dismantle the progress America has made towards justice and equality.

These groups have proven track records of conducting effective and accountable voter registration and mobilization work in the 17 Frontline States. Contact us if you would like us to consider adding a group.

“Return of the Majority: A Roadmap for Taking Back Our Country” is a detailed plan calling for Democrats and progressives to spend $1 billion over the next four years focusing on mobilizing 10 million new voters—primarily people of color and progressive whites—to the polls in the 17 closest battleground states where Democrats won or lost the 2016 presidential vote by single-digit percentages.

This national initiative was unveiled in March 2017 by Democracy in Color—a multimedia platform on race and politics—founded by Steve Phillips, author of The New York Times bestselling book Brown Is the New White.

It is designed to help progressives and Democrats win back the White House and down ballot offices by 2020 by calling on progressives nationwide to support voter mobilization groups in specific states and counties, especially those that mobilize voters of color.

• The Democratic Party wasted millions of dollars during the 2016 election cycle on TV ads, most of which were targeted at white swing voters, instead of on field operations aimed at existing New American Majority voters who helped re-elect Obama in 2012.

• The “Future Five States” to focus on are: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. These states are trending Democratic as the population of these five states is on the rise, especially the people of color populations.

• More Obama voters defected to third- and fourth-party candidates than the number who supported the 2016 Republican presidential candidate. The way for Democrats to win them back is by being more progressive, not less.

• Sending support to Frontline groups and individuals on the Frontlines of the struggle can be done for a fraction of the cost of what is traditionally spent on political campaigns. Every two years, the Democratic Party committees and allied outside groups spend in excess of $500 million. Traditionally, most of that money goes to television ads targeted at white swing voters.

In order to win in 2020, and in the coming months and years, we need a disciplined, effective, large-scale electoral operation that is rooted in and led by community-based organizations and leaders in all of the critical areas in the ten states that we lost by single digits (and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the seven states we won by single digits or less).

Lisa Garcia Bedolla, a political science professor at U.C. Berkeley and author of the award-winning book, Latino Politics, has studied effective neighborhood-based voter engagement programs. She describes the essence of their structure, operations and key to success as a “Civic Web.” A Civic Web ties together existing community, family, and neighborhood social networks to form an integrated and coordinated voter engagement and mobilization operation. At the center of the web is a small team of paid staff rooted in an existing respected community-based organization. That team recruits and trains volunteer Neighborhood Team Leaders who take responsibility for mobilizing a particular “turf,” recruit block captains, and provide feedback to paid staff regarding the best way to mobilize targeted voters.