PROGRESSIVE TURNOUT PROJECT LAUNCHES VOTER OUTREACH PROGRAM IN SOUTH CAROLINA’S 5TH DISTRICT SPECIAL ELECTION

For Immediate Release
Press Contact: Tracy Mayfield
tracy@turnoutpac.org
June 2, 2017

PROGRESSIVE TURNOUT PROJECT LAUNCHES VOTER OUTREACH PROGRAM IN SOUTH CAROLINA’S 5TH DISTRICT SPECIAL ELECTION
Group spending more than $25,000 on text messages to turn out Democratic voters

Progressive Turnout Project (PTP) is launching a text message program to turn out Democrats in support of Archie Parnell’s candidacy for Congress in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District Special Election. PTP will send text messages to more than 40,000 likely Democrats in the district, spending more than $25,000 on the program.
PTP’s program in South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District will improve the organization’s understanding of which groups are most mobilized by texting, as well as which texting methods most increase turnout.
“Our data-driven program in the South Carolina special election will help boost Democratic voter turnout. Our results here will help us gather valuable information on how to more effectively run voter turnout programs at the congressional and legislative level this cycle,” said Senior Advisor Tracy Mayfield.
Donald Trump’s appointing Mick Mulvaney to head the Office of Management and Budget triggered this special election, pitting Democrat Archie Parnell against Republican Ralph Norman on June 20th. The district covers north-central South Carolina and was held by Democrat John Spratt for 14 terms. Recent public polling shows Parnell down by ten points to Norman, a gain of six points since March.
In addition to its program in South Carolina’s 5th District, PTP has staff on the ground talking to Democrats in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District Special Election and multiple Virginia House of Delegate districts. The organization spent $225,000 on field staff, mail, text messages, and digital ads geared toward Democrats in Montana’s At-Large Congressional Special Election
Progressive Turnout Project was founded in late 2015 with a simple mission: get more Democrats to the polls. Since then, PTP has raised more than $8 million from a powerful grassroots base of 140,000 donors.

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Progressive Turnout Project is a grassroots Political Action Committee (PAC) with a single mission: get Democrats to the polls. PTP designs, tests, and executes specialized voter turnout programs targeting inconsistent Democratic voters in the most competitive districts in the country. In the 2016 cycle, the group raised more than $5 million from over 93,000 donors and ran programs in 19 congressional races.