Poor People’s Campaign looks to mobilize voters in key battleground states

Poor People’s Campaign, an organization led by Rev. William Barber of North Carolina and 2024 Co-Chair of Mobilization and Strategy Dorothy Jackson, is taking steps to mobilize low-income voters in key battleground states ahead of the November election.

The Poor People’s Campaign will hold a series of press conferences in more than 30 states across the country this week, including battlegrounds such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, where it will detail ita upcoming voter mobilization efforts, according to the group’s plans first shared with The Hill. 

The press conferences come after the organization announced earlier this month an effort to mobilize 15 million poor and low-wage voters ahead of the election. Barber will be joined by the  Rev. Liz Theoharis, and both will serve as the group’s 2024 mobilization co-chairs. 

“As we go to statehouses, we are pushing for a Third Reconstruction agenda, that’s not about left versus right politics, but about what’s right versus what’s wrong,” Barber, the founding director of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, said in a statement to The Hill.

“A Third Reconstruction agenda says everybody deserves a living minimum wage, affordable and adequate housing, basic human rights, basic civil rights, universal healthcare, fully-funded public education, women’s rights to their own health, the right to clean water and a clean environment, amongst other issues.” 

“We are demanding politicians on both sides of the aisle embrace a Third Reconstruction agenda that builds from the bottom.”

As part of the effort Tuesday, each of the group’s state coordinating committees will give out a fact sheet and a letter to the state’s leaders. The letter and fact sheets detail the struggles the low-wage people in the U.S. face. In the letters, the group also demands state officials make greater investments in public education, child care, food assistance and other services, according to the copy first reviewed by The Hill. 

The Poor People’s Campaign will organize marches to statehouses on March 2 in more than 30 states. The group also plans to hold a rally in Washington, D.C., on June 15. 

The press conferences Tuesday and statehouse marches in March will take place in Alabama, Arizona, California, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

The turnout for low-wage voters is 20 to 22 percent below the average turnout during the election, according to the group. 

“These are the issues that respond to the needs of the 85 million poor and low-wage eligible voters in this country,” Barber said.