Democrats unveil $5M voter registration campaign

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Wednesday unveiled a $5 million voter registration drive, mainly targeting communities of color, as it gears up for the 2022 midterms.

The effort, announced in a press release, will focus on battleground states including Arizona, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada. It will be partially responsible for registering new voters, re-registering former voters and sustaining contact with new registrants.

“While Republicans are waging an attack on Americans’ fundamental right to vote across the country, we at the DNC are not only committed to protecting that right, we are dedicated to expanding it in communities where people have been historically disenfranchised,” said DNC Chair Jaime Harrison.

“The DNC’s historic voter registration program will strengthen our ground game across the battlegrounds, laying the foundation for Democrats up and down the ballot to be successful in 2021, 2022, and beyond,” he added.

The DNC in April had already rolled out a $20 million investment in boosting local communication efforts and fighting back against voter restrictions being passed in GOP-led states. Vice President Harris also announced in July a $25 million expansion of the DNC’s “I Will Vote” initiative, which also focuses on combating the restrictions.

The new investment, the DNC’s biggest ever commitment to voter registration in a midterm cycle, comes as Democrats face headwinds to keeping unified control in Washington next year. The GOP is favored to retake the House, and Republicans need only a net flip of one seat in the Senate to take back the upper chamber.

Democrats struggled with voters of color last year, particularly among key groups such as Hispanics in south Florida and along the border in Texas, hindering their gains. Instead of expanding their majority in the House, the party ultimately lost about a dozen seats.