Movement Voter Project

“MVP donors moved $45,000 to fuel the largest all-volunteer voter activation effort in Indiana. With their support, Faith in Indiana bumped voter turnout 13% among African Americans and 24% among Latinos in 2016 to win the nation’s most progressive transit tax by 19 points. Already, 250 new bus routes are getting people in isolated communities of color to work across central Indiana. With a stronger electoral muscle, we overturned the state’s cash bail system, beat back an immigrant detention camp slated in Elkhart IN, and launched Act Indiana – a new c4 state table gearing up to reshape Indiana’s electorate by talking to 100,000 Blacks, Latinos, and working families ahead of the 2018 midterm.”

Black Voters Matter

“Movement Voter Project has been an amazing partner for the Black Voters Matter Fund. MVP donors quickly moved close to $100,000 in resources that we deployed to 35 grassroots organizations in 17 counties in Alabama and helped drive historic Black turnout in the 2017 Senate race. More importantly, MVP stuck with us after the election and has continued to be a thought partner, movement building ally, and key funding conduit that has allowed Black Voters Matter Fund to spread our model and deepen our work in 5 additional states in the South, with a focus on supporting local leadership in dozens of extremely neglected black rural counties in states like Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee.”

Ohio Student Association

“MVP donors moved $40,000 to OSA in 2018, which helped us double our fellows capacity. Our fellows are building volunteer student teams in ring counties to close out signature collection for our historical criminal justice ballot initiative. This campaign is the only sentence reform state ballot in country in 2018! Their added capacity has helped us close out 30 of the 44 counties we need for qualification of the ballot. Building their expertise in the field will make them and OSA’s fall GOTV program one of the strongest in the country.”

Ignite NC

“In 2016 Movement Voter Project moved over $20,000 to seed and launch our first statewide C4 program along with continued support for our C3 work. We were able to hire an additional 15 fellows on 12 campuses to pass our voter guides, send text messages, and host events at the polls. This funding helped to flip the governor’s race and win a decisive NC supreme court seat. Most importantly, this funding allowed us to be a stronger organization for 2018.

BLOC

“MVP donors have allowed us to really reshape who we think of civic engagement in the Black community. Through their support we are able to connect candidates for Governor and Sheriff’s candidates directly to the community. We are able to shift the narrative and educate the Black community in Milwaukee on what is at stake and why we need to show up for a political process that was not meant for us to participate in.”

Latest Updates

House Strategy

The time for the 2018 wave is here and NOW! And it won’t happen on its own. We have to be the biggest, most beautiful moon pushing up the tide!

That’s why Movement Voter Project has put a ton of time and energy over the last few months figuring out 78 organizations in 66 House Districts that are critical to taking back the House – which is a start to taking back this country!

We know that just pouring money into TV ads and candidate campaigns doesn’t turn out the low-propensity voters we need coming out in huge numbers this midterm election. What does turn these voters out? Authentic, robust, and dogged grassroots, community-based organizing!

But this organizing needs way more resources and support to take the wave to its full potential this year.

Here’s the truth – and some numbers: we think Democrats are overconfident about their chances for winning back the House. Democrats need to net 23 seats to regain control. Due to extreme partisan gerrymandering in 2011, and lower comparative Democratic base turnout in midterm cycles in general, Democrats will face a steep climb – even in a potential wave election year. There are 23 House seats won by Clinton but carried by a Republican – which sounds like good news. 23 is the magic number. But only three of those incumbents won by less than 5% in 2016. Another four won by less than 10%. A full sixteen of these 23 GOP incumbents won by double digits. Defeating them in 2018 is by no means a slam dunk.

Toss-up races are obviously our top priority.But they aren’t our only top priority. Protecting vulnerable Democratic seats is also a top priority – not to be taken for granted (it’s usually easier to protect a Dem seat than to pick up a new one). And we can’t depend solely on the Toss-up races to get us to 23. Inevitably, we’re going to lose some of them. That’s why we have put a comprehensive list together of all key races that have strong local organizing going on in them that can help make the difference between winning and losing.

At the end of the day, we have the responsibility to invest in the grassroots. At MVP we work hard every day to make this happen because we strongly believe that one day poor people will rise up, immigrants and the Muslim community will be protected, people of color will live without fear in their own communities, everyone will have access to healthcare, women and our LGBTQ community will have the respect they deserve, and our environment will stop suffering the consequences of our actions.

Take a look at our recommendation memo to see all of the toss-up, defend Dem, and likely Dem seats that you can help support organizing in.

The wave isn’t a given. The wave is US. And it must happen now.