Increasing voter turnout with a robust Democratic ground game is the difference between two more years of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan setting the agenda or a Democratic Majority ready to work with the next Democratic President of the United States. That is why less than five months ago we launched the Progressive Turnout Project with one clear mission: boost Democratic voter turnout in 2016’s most competitive races by investing in on-the-ground organizing and focusing on having one-on-one conversations with voters.
Right out of the gate, we have received outstanding support from the Progressive community. We’ve always known that it will take a team of hundreds of thousands of passionate, grassroots supporters to accomplish this goal, and passionate Americans from all across the country have rallied to our cause.
Since our launch in mid-August, Progressive Turnout Project has seen tremendous growth and now counts approximately 400,000 supporters across every state and US territory:
Additionally, we have:
Raised more than $400,000 with an average donation of $14.00.
Amassed over 14,000 Grassroots Donors who have chipped in at least $5 to become Original Members.
All this support has allowed us to hit the ground running in 2016 by opening our headquarters and hiring important staff.
Brian Koppe joined the team as Supporter Communications Director and has begun reaching out to supporters to help build alliances in preparation for our field efforts. We’ve already heard some great stories about successful turnout programs in supporter communities that inspire us. Whether it’s feedback about messaging, ideas about strategy, or tips about existing turnout efforts, all that input from our supporters and allies will play a crucial role in helping to shape our approach in 2016.
For example, our Field and Training Director, Alex Morgan, is diving into the feedback from 232,762 PTP survey responses over the past four months. He is taking your input regarding tactics and implementing it into the early stages of our field plan for 2016. These responses are a critical part of shaping our program and will play out in Congressional Districts across the country later this year.
Our Research Director, Claire Rogerson, is analyzing competitive congressional races across the country to make sure we’re investing in the districts where our field representatives are going to make the biggest difference. Our analysis looks past conventional wisdom about which races are going to be close, looking instead at a variety of metrics as well as the situation on the ground to make sure we’re sending out field representatives to the races that are going to matter.
She is also working with research institutions, progressive allies, and our field team to make sure that we’re using the most innovative, cutting-edge techniques to turn out voters and gathering the data we need to generate meaningful answers about what works.
All of this is thanks to our many donors and supporters. Deploying a state-of-the-art field operation that will lead to one-on-one conversations, outpace Republicans, and eventually boost voter turnout, takes resources. Thankfully, thousands of Americans are standing with Progressive Turnout Project, and as word spreads about PTP and our mission we expect thousands more to join with them in support of our efforts.
We are extremely proud to have the support of so many passionate Americans and we can’t wait to show the country what we can accomplish together!
- January 23, 2016
