Young people are organizing early to help Democrats win nationwide
By Morgan Stahr, Co-Executive Director, Blue Future + the Youth Progressive Action Catalyst
2020 has proven to be anything but ordinary. In this year of change and uncharted territory, Blue Future felt it was necessary to meet this critical moment and provide a summer organizing opportunity for young people nationwide. We knew that in order to be successful, we would have to start investing in youth organizing early.
We want to explain how and why the work we are doing today is so critical as we gear up for the most important election of our lives.
About Blue Future’s Summer for Progress and Change campaign
On the heels of raising over $30,000 for bail funds and community-based racial justice groups across the country, Blue Future launched a six-figure investment in youth organizing, powered by thousands of small dollar donors nationwide. Over the next 10 weeks, 120+ students will be trained in all areas of grassroots organizing and volunteering 10 hours per week on some of the most competitive campaigns across the country.
Breakdown of our Cohort
This summer we are working with our largest group of organizers comprised of:
- 68% identify as women
- 51% identify as People of Color
- 31% identify as LGBTQ+
- 18 different languages spoken
- 30 states and the District of Columbia represented
Our first week came to a close with approximately 1,200 phone banking hours for the North Carolina Democratic Party. Blue Future’s Summer for Progress and Change organizers provided invaluable support to the Cal Cunningham campaign as well as the entire Democratic Party of North Carolina. Our organizers were able to make attempts to every voter in the NC Dems database, running out of numbers to call two days in a row.
Types of voter contact and why this work is so important
What is even more important is the types of calls our organizers were making. They were making calls to registered voters in the state of North Carolina. That means they were calling Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike. The North Carolina Democratic Party referred to this as “list cleaning.” Our organizers helped clean up the voter database by removing staunch Republicans and folks who have moved, changed numbers, and addresses.
As a result, Democrats in North Carolina now have an advantage as we look ahead to November because our organizers were able to effectively clean up their lists and prepare accurate and effective data for phone calls in the future. Although this work is often more tedious and challenging, it is a critical component of an effective campaign organizing operation.
Additionally, Blue Future organizers have been performing a number of wellness calls to check in with folks in our target states. With these calls, organizers ask voters how they are doing and provide local resources and testing sites for COVID19. These calls also serve as a reminder to folks that the election is still happening and provide information on how to vote by mail.
As we move into our second week of the program, students are making calls to support Tina Smith’s reelection campaign in Minnesota. Donald Trump lost in Minnesota by about 40,000 votes. So far, we’ve called well over 40,000 voters and will be texting hundreds of potential volunteers to turbocharge the campaigns voter contact program.
We are specifically targeting Minnesota Congressional Districts 6 and 7, traditionally low turnout voters and voters with whom Tina Smith has low name recognition. Our students are using persuasion techniques to inform voters about the Senator and focus on key issues in her platform like mental health and education. Senator Tina Smith herself was able to join our training call and express her gratitude to our organizers.
Blue Future organizers will virtually travel around the country this summer volunteering in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
Our Student Testimonials
Here are what a few students have said about the program so far:
Nate from California: “Through the Blue Future program, I’m learning how to change and shift my approach depending on the person I’m speaking to, and figure out how to meet them where they are in order to get my points across. The phone banking and trainings are teaching me the groundwork of organizing and I can feel myself developing as an activist with every passing day.”
Ainsley from North Carolina: “This past week I had an excellent and very rewarding experience talking with voters in North Carolina. It was so exciting to get a feel for the current political climate in North Carolina and be able to see the enthusiasm for Democrats coming out of the state. I felt like I had many positive conversations and was able to help voters navigate the upcoming election. As a North Carolinian myself, I was thrilled to see the excitement for the upcoming election and the strong support of Democrats across the state.”
Other components of our organizing program
To help our students develop deeper connections with one another and the issues we are fighting for, we have developed community teams for them to come together to work on issues they care about and share ideas on how we can push elected officials to support issues that are important to our generation.
To put the trainings to practice, we have launched an Innovation Incubator Competition where our organizers will have the opportunity to team up and create a campaign focused on fundraising, volunteer recruitment, communications, social media, or something else — to help support a local candidate or organization. Blue Future will be rewarding the best campaigns with a grant to get their ideas off the ground. We’re excited to share more on the Innovation Incubator in the coming weeks.
As we look forward, we are beyond excited to work with our largest cohort ever making a nationwide impact on the most competitive Federal campaigns this cycle! Our students are energetic, passionate, and when given the resources to succeed, can change the world.
Join our efforts this summer by starting early and getting involved when it counts most. To help our efforts, you can sponsor a student organizer through a donation. If you are unable to give at this time, you can join us for a few hours of phone banking!
