MVP Joins Public Call to Harris Campaign & Others to Fund the “Grassroots Ground Game”
For Immediate Release
September 24, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT
Zo Tobi, Director of Communications
press@movement.vote
With Election Day approaching, Movement Voter PAC is joining a public call for the Harris-Walz campaign, independent Super PACs, and Democratic donors to address major funding shortfalls in grassroots voter outreach.
A new memo from Blue Tent, a prominent independent Democratic-aligned donor advisory group, highlights funding gaps of over $165 million among locally-based field operations engaging key Democratic constituencies in battleground states and districts, particularly Black, Latino, AAPI, young, and cross-pressured voters.
The memo, sent to the Harris-Walz Campaign, Future Forward, and Democratic donors, highlights the urgency of scaling up locally-rooted, person-to-person turnout efforts — outreach that has proven most effective in turning out infrequent and first-time Democratic voters.
“The funding shortfalls cited by many organizations are modest,” states Blue Tent, “compared to the sums raised by the Harris-Walz campaign, Future Forward, and top super PACs in an election likely to cost over $10 billion…. Still, a failure to close these gaps will leave votes on the table and could cost Harris the election.”
Movement Voter PAC (MVP), whose recent report of budget gaps informed the new memo, echoed Blue Tent’s concern.
“We’re thrilled at the recent surge in overall Democratic funding,” said Zo Tobi, MVP’s Director of Communications, “but our concern is that the funding isn’t getting to the local voter organizing groups that could make the difference between winning and losing.”
In its memo, Blue Tent urges Democratic donors to channel funding to quickly-scalable grassroots turnout efforts through quick-acting funding intermediaries such as America Votes, Building for Democracy, Way to Win, Committee on States, Democracy Alliance, MVP, and others.
Coincidentally, as an indication of the seriousness of the situation among Democratic-aligned groups, a second memo was also released today by Priorities USA and ProgressNow, warning of budget gaps for grassroots organizations working to mobilize young Black and Latino voters in particular.
“There really is a consensus here. If we don’t stage a major intervention to fund the grassroots ground game,” said MVP’s Zo Tobi, “we risk losing the Presidency, Senate, and House by a few thousand votes instead of winning by that same margin. With battleground states and races polling within the margin of error, this would be a mistake we can’t afford to make.”
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