Red2Blue Action Team

2022 Midterm Elections

by Tara Carey from the Red2Blue Action Team

2020-2021 Accomplishments

Red2Blue pushed the end of the Trump Administration’s assault on our democratic ideals and GOP Senate’s obstructive measures by supporting targeted races in PA, FL, GA, NC and SC.  We did this through:

•Cultivating partnerships with campaigns and allied grassroots organizations outside Maryland to connect with phonebanking, textbanking and postcarding initiatives.

•Increasing participation in our action team via an Active Citizenship 101 Seminar (February, 2020), IndivisibleHoCoMD’s virtual General Membership Meeting (May 2020) and attendance at monthly virtual New Member Coffees.

•Creating election “squads” to execute strategic initiatives.

•Redesigning the R2B webpage and created a special R2B events calendar, better directing IndivisibleHoCoMD activists to targeted election initiatives.

•Further eroding previously strong GOP margins in aggressive down-ballot challenges in South Central PA & helping drive turnout at the top of the ticket to flip PA blue for Biden/Harris!

•In  Polk Co., FL our Postcard Brigade increased turnout for Biden (compared with 2016 outcome) by 25,000 votes, writing >93,000 postcards and increasing Democratic Vote by Mail ballots by >10%.

2022 Goals and Plans

•In Virginia, the political pendulum has swung several times in the statehouse over the past decade. Elections will be held for the state’s 100 House of Delegates seats in November. Currently there is a +5 Democratic majority. We’re jumping in to help keep VA blue! 
 
•Support the Pennsylvania Democratic Party campaign to register 125,000 voters by May of 2022 by engaging marginalized communities typically left out of the political process — including Black, rural, Hispanic, and AAPI communities.

Make sure you are signed up for our weekly/biweekly updates for current news and feel free to contact our team facilitators Lynn Foehrkolb (lfoehrkolb@yahoo.com) and Tara Carey (taracarey@hotmail.com).

 

Phone banking

We support both Vote by Mail (VBM) initiatives and specific candidates to increase voter turnout. Our target audiences are independent and Democrat voters. You make calls from the comfort of your own home using your computer and cell phone. We provide training, including a script, and ongoing support in the use of virtual automated dialer software.

Text banking

Text banking is an effective means of directly communicating with a lot of voters quickly, and a valuable method of communicating with those less receptive to answering their phones. As with phone banking, you send the texts from the comfort of your own home using your computer and cell phone. We provide training, including a script, and ongoing support in the use of text banking software.

Postcarding

We partner with particular campaigns or Democratic committees to learn what message they want to communicate, to whom, and why. We provide you with the text to write, a list of addresses (as many or as few as you’d like), and the target date for mailing. Themed postcards can be purchased through our Postcard Brigade (3.5 cents each) or you can use your own. You supply the stamps (35 cents), which can be purchased at usps.com or at a Post Office.