Rust Belt Rising Increases Registered Democratic Voters in Swing States

Challenge

In 2020, Rust Belt Rising (RBR) came to Civitech with the challenge of registering Democratic voters in crucial battleground states. RBR had trained candidates in Midwestern states on how to advocate for the economic issues working families face every day. After training the candidates, the organization wanted to do more to reach voters and ensure people turned out for these candidates.

Solution

Civitech and RBR worked together to identify nearly 185,000 unregistered voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, states critical to winning the presidency that also had candidates up and down the ballot who reflect the diverse coalition of the Democratic Party.

Civitech mailed those unregistered voters prefilled voter registration forms, and the Rust Belt Rising team completed calls to ensure voters registered to vote and turned out on Election Day.

The Results

The combination of efforts led to amazing results. Nearly 50,000 voters registered, and roughly 30,000 voted in 2020. In places like Wisconsin — where Joe Biden won the state by about 20,000 votes — adding these new voters to the process was invaluable. Potential voters within Civitech’s PIR data are younger and more likely to be women and people of color than the general population. They represent the new American Majority and the people who will be voters for decades.

This program was essential in battleground states where margins were tight and progressive candidates and causes needed help to spur voters into action.