For Immediate Release
Press Contact: Tracy Mayfield
tracy@turnoutpac.org
May 9, 2017
PROGRESSIVE TURNOUT PROJECT SPENDS $180,000 TO ELECT ROB QUIST IN MONTANA
Group’s spending on field staff, digital, and mail geared at turning out Democratic voters
This week, Progressive Turnout Project (PTP) is spending $180,000 on field staff, digital ads, and mail to turn out Democrats to vote for progressive Rob Quist in Montana’s At-Large Congressional District special election. In total, PTP will spend more than $200,000 in support of Quist through the election.
PTP’s spending funds seven full-time field staffers who canvass Democrats in the Butte area, as well as digital ads and mail aimed at Democrats all over the state. The group is also mobilizing their 2 million supporters asking them to make volunteer phone calls to Democrats statewide.
Turnout programs are especially critical in special elections, in which overall turnout is typically extremely low. In the five special elections held during the 114th Congress that did not coincide with a federal election day, turnout never exceeded 100,000 voters, and rates of participation fell as low as 10%.
State records show there are 177,709 Montanans who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and 80,000 likely Democrats who have voted in all of the last four general elections. Democrats have more than enough loyal and consistent supporters to win this seat if they can just get them to the polls. PTP is laser focused on making sure these voters know there is a special election and have the information they need to cast a ballot
“We don’t need more deceitful and dangerous Republicans in Congress. That’s why our two million supporters are passionately backing our work to help elect Rob Quist, an honest and authentic Montanan,” said Senior Advisor Tracy Mayfield. “Our field work is built on decades of research demonstrating the effectiveness of one-on-one conversations at the door, and we’re confident we can break through the negativity and noise to reach voters.”
Though the state can be challenging territory for partisan Democrats, Montana has a strong history of electing independent and populist Democrats in the vein of Quist, such as Governor Steve Bullock and Senator Jon Tester. Recent public polling shows that Quist is within single digits of Republican Greg Gianforte, even after millions of right-wing attack ads.
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Progressive Turnout Project is a grassroots Political Action Committee (PAC) with a single mission: get Democrats to the polls. They design, test, and execute specialized voter turnout programs targeting inconsistent Democratic voters in the most competitive districts in the country. In the 2016 cycle, they raised more than $5 million from over 93,000 donors and ran programs in 19 congressional races.
