Dear John,

We’ve now gotten the first wave of polls since Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for president, and there’s a lot of good news.

The A-plus-rated New York Times/Siena College poll, for instance, had Donald Trump leading Joe Biden by 6 points four weeks ago. But in their most recent poll, it’s a statistical dead heat, with Trump leading by just one point, 48–47.

Here’s the problem: A tie in the national popular vote means we will very likely lose in the Electoral College. So in order to stop Donald Trump and save our democracy, we still have a lot of work to do.

That’s why I’m so excited about the test results we’ve just gotten back on our latest videos.

Let me explain. Every day, our team is dreaming up new ideas for videos that we can push out on social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Then we show those videos to a random sample of our target audiences to see whether they’re effective at changing people’s minds.

The public opinion experts we work with tell us that if we can increase support for our side by even 2–3 points, that’s a win. But our latest videos have been moving the numbers by 14 to 18 points — including among undecided voters in key battleground states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.

So I’m asking you today: Will you donate $5 a month to help educate the public and get these new videos in front of as many voters as possible to stop Donald Trump?

Yes, Robert! I’ll start a monthly donation.

No, I’m sorry, I can’t chip in monthly.

There’s no question that Kamala Harris has revived enthusiasm among Democratic voters, and she has started to win back a lot of traditional Democratic Party voters who had begun to drift away.

But to win this election, it’s simply not enough to get all the people who usually vote for Democrats. We need to persuade voters in the key battleground states who are unhappy with the way things are under President Biden and are seriously thinking about voting for Donald Trump.

That’s where our latest videos really stand out. We asked people who watched these videos whether they are more or less likely to agree with the Republican or Democratic position on key economic issues, like inflation and corporate greed, and then we compared those numbers to the results from people who hadn’t seen our videos.

Here are some of the results we got back:

• Former Biden supporters in Wisconsin moved in our direction by 19 points.
• “Right-leaning” voters in Pennsylvania moved our way by 17 points.
• Trump voters under the age of 25 moved 16 points.
• “Right-leaning” voters in Arizona moved 12.5 points.

Will all of these people automatically become Kamala Harris voters? I can’t promise you that. There are so many factors that influence who people vote for — or whether they vote at all.

But I know that in order to win, we must reach people who are not currently in the Democratic Party coalition, and when it comes to persuading undecided voters on key economic issues, these are some of the most effective videos we’ve ever tested.

And if we’re going to get these videos in front of the tens of millions of people who need to see them, we need your help.

Will you donate $5 a month to help get these videos in front of as many people as possible and stop Donald Trump?

Yes, Robert! I’ll start a monthly donation.

No, I’m sorry, I can’t chip in monthly.

Thank you for joining with us,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action