Want to get a sneak peek at just some of the incredible work our partners are doing to get a jump start on 2026? We’ve got you covered. As we roll into the holiday season, check out this incredible sampling of the 2026 nonpartisan work our partners are already cooking up, and consider making a year-end gift to help organizers hit the ground running in January.
Photo: Michiganders for Money Out of Politics rallying in support of a ballot measure to limit corporate campaign contributions. (Photo: Luigi Macairan, Survival Media Agency)
Area #1: Strengthen Statewide Organizing
Michigan: Win Ballot Measures for School Funding and Money Out of Politics
Our Michigan partners are continuing two ballot measure campaigns they launched in 2025: Invest in MI Kids, which would increase public education funding by taxing the wealthy, and Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, which would ban political contributions by regulated utilities and government contractors.
Both campaigns have been engaging volunteers, building a base, and shaping the narrative to drive signature collection, which will continue in 2026 to gather enough signatures by March to qualify for the November ballot. They are collecting more than the required number of signatures to ensure their efforts are foolproof, and are not disclosing the number of signatures collected until they file.
- Building a base: Each ballot initiative must submit about 450,000 valid signatures to qualify for the November 2026 ballot. Both campaigns are using signature collection as an effective tactic for building a base of engaged voters and volunteers, offering an easy on-ramp for participation and significant opportunities for leadership development.
- Bolstering a shared narrative while developing new-media infrastructure: Coming together as “Michigan for the Many,“ groups are telling a story about making Michigan work for the many, not a wealthy few, by working with online influencers and developing their members’ digital storytelling and organizing skills.
- Leverage the Resistance: Grassroots groups have formed a resistance coalition to coordinate and encourage increasing mobilizations against regressive policies, and have created feedback loops and opportunities for resistance volunteers, activists, and organizers to get involved with Michigan for the Many, especially for the 94 Indivisible chapters across the state.
More about each campaign:
Invest in MI Kids is a ballot initiative to raise a billion dollars for public schools annually, with a 5% fair share surcharge on annual income over $1 million for joint filers and $500,000 for single filers. Steering Committee partners include the Michigan Education Justice Coalition, 482Forward, Student Advocacy Center, Up North Advocacy, Oakland Forward, and Urban Core Collective. Participating organizations are identifying and training 5,000 volunteers across the state to collect 700,000 signatures over a 180-day period to qualify the initiative for the November 2026 ballot.
Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (MMOP) is a ballot initiative to ban campaign contributions by regulated utilities and government contractors. The Steering Committee partners include MOSES, Voters Not Politicians, Clean Water Action, Detroit Action, Michigan United, Hip Hop Caucus, and Michigan League of Conservation Voters. This campaign is an evolution from the legislative Taking Back Our Power campaign, launched in 2022 by the same groups. Participating organizations are identifying and training 5,000 volunteers across the state to collect 600,000 signatures over a 180-day period to qualify the initiative for the November 2026 ballot.
Both campaigns are part of Michigan for the Many, a coordinated effort of dozens of MVP partners and other allied groups to build a multi-racial, working-class movement over the next two years.
Photo: One PA for All canvassers talking to voters in their communities.
Pennsylvania: Engage Voters Through “Deep Canvassing”
With so many regressive, federal policy changes — including cuts to SNAP and other social benefits programs — MVP partners in Pennsylvania are focused on hearing directly from impacted community members about the effects of these policies and the solutions they want to see.
Our Pennsylvania partners will use “deep canvassing” — a highly effective method of voter engagement based on curiosity, listening, and connection — to engage Pennsylvanians in Allegheny County, the Lehigh Valley, northeastern Pennsylvania, and the region around Harrisburg through the first part of 2026. They will engage people at their doors and in their communities, listening and learning about how federal policy changes are harming working families and striving to build lasting relationships with voters who can help push for solutions. Groups doing deep canvassing will also share information about how Pennsylvania’s members of Congress have been involved in these federal policy decisions, providing opportunities for residents to hold their elected leaders accountable.
501(c)(3) Pennsylvania partners include: CASA, Make The Road PA, One PA For All, Pennsylvania Stands Up Institute, Pittsburgh United, and Changing The Conversation Together
501(c)(4) Pennsylvania partners include: CASA in Action, Make the Road Action PA, One PA, Pennsylvania Stands Up, Pennsylvania United, and Changing the Conversation Together for Progress
Photo: People Not Politicians collecting ballot measure signatures in Missouri.
Area #2: Protect Fair Representation
Multi-State: Fight for Fair Maps
The mid-decade redistricting fight has heated up across the country, including in Missouri and Virginia, where MVP will continue to focus our nonpartisan redistricting efforts. We will also continue to closely watch other states to ensure partners have the resources to launch rapid-response organizing campaigns, to both push back against additional gerrymandering attempts and to uphold fair maps where they exist.
Current state-based efforts include:
Missouri
In September 2025, the Missouri governor signed a new, gerrymandered congressional map into law. The state constitution gives voters the right to a referendum that allows them to veto laws passed by the legislature. MVP partner People Not Politicians has been leading the effort to collect enough signatures to place the referendum on the November 2026 ballot. The campaign has mobilized nearly 800 volunteers and, as of the December 9 deadline, collected 305,000 signatures — nearly triple the 107,000 required to put the referendum before voters in November.
In a surprise move, the Missouri Secretary of State has allowed the gerrymandered map to stand and be used in the 2026 midterms while his office reviews and verifies submitted signatures. While this move will likely be challenged in court, a final decision may not come early enough to freeze the map ahead of the candidate filing deadline in August and the general election in November. In the meantime, People Not Politicians will be focused on public education, narrative development, and galvanizing public support for fair maps.
Virginia
Our partners in Virginia have joined the redistricting effort to ensure fair representation in the Commonwealth, where the population has become more racially diverse over the past two decades.
In October 2025, the Virginia General Assembly passed a constitutional amendment that would allow Virginia to redistrict if another state does the same. The legislature will need to take up the exact same measure again in the new legislative session in January. If passed a second time, the constitutional amendment will go before voters, likely in a special election in April, providing Virginians with a direct say in their democracy.
To prepare for an April special election, MVP partners — including New Virginia Majority Education Fund, New Virginia Majority, CASA, and CASA in Action — will need to rapidly reignite their nonpartisan voter engagement operations in early 2026 to conduct voter education and nonpartisan get-out-the-vote efforts.
Other States
MVP is working closely with Fair Representation in Redistricting, a funder coalition that is supporting underrepresented communities in fights for fair maps and deploying resources to fill gaps and meet urgent needs. We are monitoring developments in additional states and will share updates as we have them.
Photo: Maine People’s Resource Center pressuring Senator Susan Collins to stand up for Mainers.
Area #3: Hold Congress Accountable
Sustain Local Organizing to Oppose Harmful Policies
MVP partners across the country are engaging voters to hold their congressional leaders accountable for some of the worst federal policies in 2025 — cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, ACA subsidies, and more. Partners are mobilizing community members, faith leaders, veterans, federal workers, and other impacted community members to participate and pressure their elected leaders to oppose policies that are harming millions of people.
Here is a sampling of important nonpartisan congressional accountability work in early 2026:
Maine
Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC) is mobilizing communities to spotlight the harms of anti-healthcare legislation. MPRC’s organizing around Senator Collins’ vote on Medicaid cuts shows how coordinated outreach, media engagement, and coalition building can inform constituents and also strengthen civic power.
With organizers in every region of the state — including in under-resourced, rural areas — MPRC will recruit members and volunteers to make their voices heard and put pressure on their congressional representatives. They will also build their base by reaching tens of thousands of readers with their MaineBeacon.com website and through a year-round canvass program, which employs dozens of young people to knock on tens of thousands of doors to recruit new members and engage them in their legislative advocacy and congressional accountability work.
New York
The Public Policy and Education Fund of New York (PPEF) along with partners, For the Many NY Education Fund and Make the Road NY, has worked tirelessly in communities across the state — urban, suburban, and rural — to educate, engage, and mobilize people to oppose efforts to dismantle the social safety net. They recently expanded their work to the more suburban and rural Hudson Valley, launching deep canvassing efforts to educate and connect with community members in four counties. This work will continue through early 2026, ensuring voters are aware of important policy issues that will impact their lives.
Photo: Alliance for Youth Action organizers registering voters.
Area #4: Jump-Start Youth Organizing
Leverage the Spring Semester to Engage College Voters
With the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA set to run the largest, most well-resourced program in its history, campus-based organizing among movements for progress has never been more important.
Voter engagement organizations on college campuses must use the spring semester (January to May) to build the foundation for successful education and turnout programs in the fall. For many programs, the spring semester is the time to recruit and train staff or fellows and begin educating students on the issues that will be at stake in November. This sets them up to hit the ground running with Welcome Week programming in August.
MVP partners Alliance for Youth Organizing and Alliance for Youth Action will work with state-based organizations on their campus organizing programs in 18 states, including Ohio, North Carolina, and Michigan.
