Marti Rosenberg is a longtime liberal activist in Rhode Island. So it’s no surprise when she asks the more than 50 people gathered at the Blue Room, a bar and music venue in the Pawtuxet Village section of Cranston, to contribute to Kamala Harris’ campaign for president.
“Give big, give now, spread the word,” Rosenberg said from the stage on a recent weeknight. “Take out your phone and use this QR code.”
But this is not your standard political fundraiser.
The get-together was part of a national campaign called the Movement Voter Project. The idea is to raise money from Harris supporters in predictably blue and red states — and funnel it to grassroots groups to mobilize voters in the swing states that will decide the November election.
“The approach in MVP is completely different,” said Rick Brooks, another of the dozen or so volunteers organizing the Movement Voter Project in Rhode Island.
Brooks said the project is a far more targeted approach than old standbys like mailing postcards to out-of-state voters or opening a campaign office in a strip plaza for a few months before an election.
With the Movement Voter Project, he said, “They’re investing in organizations that have been in existence, that have credibility, have a track record and are going to be there a day after the election, win or lose.”
The groups getting money through the Movement Voter Project focus on issues popular among Democrats like abortion rights, immigrants’ rights and voting rights.
THE MONEY HUNT
Through house parties and events like the one at the Blue Room, organizers said the project has raised close to $100,000 in Rhode Island since February.
That may seem like a drop in the bucket when the Trump and Harris campaigns are raising and spending hundreds of millions of dollars. But the last few presidential races have turned on a small number of votes — about 40,000 in 2020 — in just a few swing states.
While an uptick in voting in key battleground states fueled Joe Biden’s victory four years ago, Brooks said the increase was even greater among voters targeted by the Movement Voter Project.
“If you look at what the turnout, the increase in turnout, was for voters of color and young voters, it’s dramatically greater,” he said. “And that is directly attributable to organizing and mobilizing those communities.”
REPUBLICAN THUNDER
Republicans have their own efforts to bolster support from more voters, including a project called Trump Force 47.
A Georgia man named Mike Collins posted a video, about training team captains for Trump Force 47, on Facebook in August.
“I encourage you,” Collins said. “Get involved with this campaign. If you’re anyone around Jackson, Georgia, tonight, 6:30-8, we’ve got another training session going on. We had almost 30 people in this first session and we’re expecting a big crowd tonight.”
But according to its website, Trump Force 47 is not staging any upcoming events in Rhode Island or Massachusetts. Local Republicans were unaware of other efforts to promote a counterpart to the Movement Voter Project.
Regardless, Kyle Kondik, director of communications of The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, is skeptical about claims by the Movement Voter Project that it won the 2020 presidential race for Joe Biden or that similar groups can swing an election.
“Look, it’s so hard to evaluate really any sort of campaign activity,” Kondik said. “These campaigns still spend hundreds of millions of dollars on television advertising and even that is up for debate in terms of the efficacy. When you have an election that’s so close, you can point to any number of different things that might have been decisive in the outcome.”
WHAT DIFFERENCE?
Decisive in the outcome? Perhaps not.
But back at the Blue Room in Cranston, the crowd loved it when U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse appeared to talk about the prospect of Democrats keeping the White House and Senate in November and regaining the U.S. House.
“What could actually really happen if we do our work and win the trifecta?” Whitehouse asked.
If Democrats run the table, Whitehouse said the possibilities include a permanent child care tax credit, tougher environmental laws, codifying Roe v. Wade, and his pet issue, U.S. Supreme Court reform.
“And if we get that done on that schedule and more we could be gathering here a year from now to celebrate all of that already happening,” he said, as the crowd responded with a burst of applause. “How about that?”
Republicans have their own wish-list of priorities if Donald Trump can regain the White House. And with less than two months until the November election, polling shows that the race between Trump and Harris appears to be razor tight.
