John, we always knew the work wasn't going to be over on November 3rd.

So the minute we found out both Senate races were heading to a runoff in Georgia, we didn’t skip a beat. We got right to work on a plan to continue the movement-building and turnout work that is winning elections — and we're already kicking it into high gear.

This is a longer email than we usually send, but this special election is so important that I wanted to bring you up to speed on all the details in our plan. Before I do, I have to ask: Will you chip in to our Georgia Runoff GOTV fund to sustain this critical organizing work in the weeks ahead?

Chip in $5 »

Thanks for being a part of this,

Britney Whaley
Senior Political Strategist
WFP

MEMO
From: Britney Whaley, WFP
To: Interested Parties
Subject: Georgia Working Families Party Senate Runoff Program

OVERVIEW

Control of the US Senate all comes down to Georgia on January 5th.

WFP has been organizing in Georgia for three years now and growing rapidly — and now we're well-positioned to play a critical role in mobilizing the high turnout we'll need to win the upcoming special election and continue building sustainable progressive power in the state.

Almost 2.5 million Georgians voted for Biden. If we can ensure those voters show up again in January, we'll win.

During the General Election, Georgia WFP sent over 1.4 million texts, made 400,000 phone calls, and built an army of 250 volunteers. In the final weeks of the campaign, we also hosted GOTV rallies, organized GOTV street teams, and distributed face masks in Dougherty, Glynn, Lowndes, and Houston counties. In these counties, our work contributed to 22,000 new voters participating in absentee and early vote. Given the razor-thin win in the Presidential race, we know our job was critical.

As we move into the runoff election and work next year to build progressive power in local elections, we will continue to mobilize voters while building leadership in communities of color. WFP's approach relies on activating supporters and turning them into activists by providing them with the resources, skills, and community to make a difference in their networks and communities.

THE PROGRAM

GA WFP is running a comprehensive, data-driven plan that layers in-person door-knocking (with full safety protocols), distributed organizing through phone and text banks, digital organizing, and GOTV Joy to the Polls. We will focus on high-potential voters and utilize tactics customized to the demographic groups we are communicating. Voter turnout will be determined by how well we share accurate information with our voters and move them to the polls.

With additional resources, we are confident in our ability to scale and carry out the work needed to win in Georgia. We have the technology, infrastructure, and a network of volunteer and member institutions eager to support GA WFP in this campaign.

Here's a little more detail on each element of the program:

Peer to peer texting

Our local and national volunteers are trained and excited to help win the US Senate. Our text program is the most efficient way to channel energy and integrate them in ways complementary to our programming happening on the ground. Our goal is to send six million text messages to Georgians providing information about requesting absentee ballots, making a plan to vote, and moving voters to participate in early voting. During our first text-bank, we sent 700,000 texts, so we could even surpass this goal.

Relational organizing

Relational organizing means giving people the tools to organize their neighborhoods and networks. There's no better contact than contact from a person you trust. With less than two months to educate and move voters to the polls, relational organizing will be critical to our program's success.

We will activate state and regional teams to move Georgians to action. Our goal is to recruit 2,000 volunteers to contact 100 voters using Reach, our relational organizing app. Overall, 250,000 voters will receive a personal note from someone they trust, asking them to vote for Democrats in the runoff election.

Phones

While you can reach more voters more quickly by texting, you can have more in-depth conversations on the phone — which is an incredibly useful tactic when walking people through plan-making conversations. Our goal is to build a phonebank program that includes 400,000 attempts to Georgians who we believe are more likely to answer phones than text messages. The program will be staff-run and volunteer-led.

Joy to the Polls / Vote GA Today

The goal of the Joy to the Polls program is to ensure that people find voting as safe as possible given current conditions and are not deterred from voting by intimidation or long lines. It is about creating a joyful voting experience while keeping our people safe. It was hugely successful in November in cities like Philadelphia and Detroit.

We will work with partners to bring music for election defense to polling places. With long lines during the primary and general elections, we want to ensure every voter stays in line until they vote. We are organizing artists and musicians to provide roving converts to high trafficked polling areas in the state to motivate every single person to stay in line.

SMS Program

With GA voters likely to be saturated with peer to peer messages, building a Georgia list of folks who are actively opted in to receive WFP messages will be crucial to have our voice heard through the noise. Data shows that people who opt in are much more receptive to a message from a trusted voice.

Digital

Though Facebook is still blocking political advertising, we anticipate that digital ads will be an essential component of the program. We anticipate utilizing digital ads on various platforms to help voters make a plan to vote, build our volunteer base for direct voter contact, and use cultural organizing and validators to get the attention of Millennial and Gen Z voters and make sure they show up again in a January election in high numbers that they might otherwise miss. We'll be ready to launch ads as soon as the ban lifts.

CONCLUSION

Georgia's election system is rooted in racist Jim Crow era politics.

In Georgia, no candidate can advance through a primary or a general election without earning more than 50% of the votes. If no one does, the top two vote-getters move to a runoff election, ensuring that no one wins without a majority of the votes cast.

Historians say that Georgia's runoff system was designed to make it harder for the preferred candidates of Black voters to win and to suppress Black political power. They say this because it's true.

Because of this, Democrats haven’t had a lot of luck in Georgia — until now. Joe Biden's win results from decades of work from Black grassroots organizers who didn't give up.

And together, we will carry this momentum into winning these runoffs, flipping the Senate, and getting to work on creating the type of country and world we all want to live in.

But these runoffs are expected to be incredibly expensive. If you're ready to fight the corporate special interests with people power, please make a contribution to our Georgia Runoff GOTV fund today.

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Paid for by Working Families Party IE Committee (http://wfpiepac.org/) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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