Hi John,

I saw a map recently from the Brennan Center that absolutely blew my mind.

The map projects which states will gain – and lose – congressional seats in 2030, based on current population trends. 

Take a look, and notice what many of these states have in common. The states gaining Congressional seats are mostly southern states – and, they’re voter suppression states. 

That means in the long term, if we’re going to win the U.S. House, and win the electoral college and the presidency, we’re going to need a southern strategy that includes voter protection. 

We know that lasting change doesn’t happen overnight – and it won’t happen at all if we start over from scratch every two years. It takes sustained and strategic investment, and a long-term commitment to stay the course.  

That means we can’t afford to wait four or six years to start building towards a southern strategy for 2030. 

At Power the Vote, we’re already there. Ahead of the presidential election, Power the Vote is investing in voter protection programs in five of these seven southern states – Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Florida. (It just so happens that Georgia, Arizona, and North Carolina top the list of states where, according to Tufts University, the youth vote will shape the 2024 presidential election. And Texas ranks for the Senate race.)

But it’s not just about 2024. The work we’re doing now is building lasting voter protection infrastructure in the south, where – as the Brennan Center noted, “increases in population will be driven largely by growth in communities of color” and where (not coincidentally!) Republicans are using voter suppression and gerrymandering to dilute the power of these same voters.

And because we’re committed to staying the course, every dollar we invest now is also an investment in programs that will support Democratic wins in 2026, and 2028, and beyond. 

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Help us fund voter protection work in Georgia!

The RNC plans to recruit tens of thousands of poll workers and poll watchers in 2024. It’s more important than ever that we build a pro-democracy movement to fight back against voter suppression and election subversion. 

Funding voter protection staff is the single best way we can prepare now. Help us make it possible for the Democratic Party of Georgia to hire and staff up their program for 2024! 

* Will you give today? *

In Other News…

Our Atlanta fundraiser was a blast!  We had so much fun getting together and talking about the impact and potential of voter protection programming. Sen. Jon Ossoff joined and shared how the voter protection program Saira organized in 2020 helped to propel him to the U.S. Senate. The event left us feeling energized for the work to come. Thanks to everyone who turned out!

From left to right:  U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, Power the Vote co-founder Kim Allen, GA State Sen. Elena Parent, and GA State Rep. and Power the Vote co-founder Saira Draper.

GOP “election integrity units” overwhelmingly target minorities and Democrats – “The analysis found that 76 percent of defendants whose race or ethnicity could be identified were Black or Hispanic… Registered Democrats made up 58 percent of those charged whose party could be identified… The cases that the units pursued often collapsed.”  Read more here.

“Voters with disabilities face unaddressed barriers to the ballot” – “One in 5 voters with disabilities either needed assistance or had difficulty voting in 2022 — three times the rate of people without disabilities, according to the most recent survey from the U.S. Election Assistance Committee (EAC).” Read more here.

“Why election laws in Georgia and Texas remain a threat” – Two voting rights attorneys spoke to Politico about why voter turnout is a “fickle metric for measuring the impact” of voter suppression laws and why, instead, we should look at the cost of voting. Read more here.

Accountability for election subversion – Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced felony indictments of two GOP Cochise County officials for refusing to certify the 2022 election results by the legal deadline. Read more here.  (As we’ve highlighted in prior newsletters, AG Mayes won her race by just 280 votes – out of 2.5 million votes cast – and voter protection made the margin!)

We hope you had a joyous holiday season – thanks for your support of this work, and for everything you do for democracy!

Kim

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We Fund Voter Protection

In 2020, we ran the Democratic Party’s Voter Protection Program in Georgia, when the state flipped blue for the first time in nearly 30 years.

We pioneered a new model of voter protection, built on sustained investments and long-lasting relationships.

Now, we’re building on that success and adapting the Georgia model to fight voter suppression in other battleground states.

But we can only do it with your support. Join us – and join the fight for voter protection!