NC Democratic Party Gives Grassroots Tech to Down-Ballot Candidates – For Free
An alternative to nickel-and-diming campaigns
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First launched in 2006, Epolitics is written and edited by Colin Delany, who has helped nonprofits and political campaigns use digital tools in effective and creative ways to achieve their political, policy and organizational goals for close to three decades. For more, contact him at cpd@epolitics.com.
Welcome, new readers and new paid subscribers! I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate all of you. And, greetings from New Orleans, the city of my birth! I rolled in Wednesday evening for Netroots Nation, which wrapped up with an excellent party last night that began with a second line parade to the venue. It was a great gathering as always, with many old friends and the chance to meet new ones, and you’ll see the first fruits of my extensive note-taking in the piece below.
Readers may remember that my family was planning to move my mom to assisted living close to me in DC three weeks. We kept having to postpone the trip for logistical reasons, which naturally gave her time to fall and break her hip. Oof! A gut punch, but we’re doing the best we can.
She has a pin on one side and a partial replacement on the other, but she’s been out of the hospital and in a rehab nursing home since the beginning of August. So I’ll be driving back to East Texas tomorrow, with good tunes on the stereo and fond memories of Netroots on my mind. If Mom can get her strength back, we still hope to get her to the East Coast and me back home in the lovely DC neighborhood of Mt Pleasant soon. Fingers crossed.
On with the show.
North Carolina Democratic Party Gives Grassroots Tech to Down-Ballot Candidates – For Free
In a Netroots Nation session this week, North Carolina Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton revealed something that the audience was audibly surprised to hear. She said that her party now gives every local, state and congressional Democratic candidate free access to vital grassroots tools, including the Votebuilder voter-data platform. Many or most other parties charge candidates for Votebuilder access, meaning that campaigns on tight budgets may delay using it or eschew it altogether.
Rather than nickel-and-dime their candidates, North Carolina Dems have raised enough money to pay for Votebuilder access for every credible candidate, both in the primaries and in the general election. That’s a big deal! As Anderson pointed out, many more campaigns across the state will be adding data from canvassing and other outreach to the voter file early and often, including from areas where the party has had relatively little voter contact in the past.
That voter data is more likely to stick around than before, since campaigns will updating a central repository of information. In the past, some might have used an alternative to Votebuilder that didn’t add to the state party file, and the results of their voter outreach might be lost after Election Day. Instead, NC Dems have created a compounding benefit: every campaign that employs the system helps create a web of voter data that future campaigns can rely on.
Of course, depending too much on a single platform brings its own vulnerabilities, and the national Democratic party is already looking for alternatives to Votebuilder/NGP VAN. In that case, though, NC Dems could of course pivot to a different standard data-management system if they needed to, bringing campaigns along for the ride. That transition would probably not be a whole lot of fun, but it’s at least an option.
Besides Votebuilder access, the NC party also provides tactical and technical training for candidates and staff, and it helps campaigns set up ActBlue accounts to begin fundraising online as soon as possible. Once the primaries are decided, the party pays for the winners to access Mobilize, a powerful toolset for managing events and volunteers. Anderson noted that she’d LIKE to help primary campaigns get Mobilize as well, but that the platform is too expensive for them to afford it early for everyone. Once again, though, having campaigns on a common platform means that data can survive and that other candidates should have a head start getting grassroots outreach programs up and running in the future.
These decisions by the North Carolina party demonstrate a commitment to the kind of persistent, sustained field outreach that I think is essential for long-term voter persuasion. Democrats can’t just keep preaching to the faithful; we must connect with skeptical voters in bulk and (whenever possible) via people they already trust, including friends and family. This week’s redistricting feeding frenzy only hints at how far the other side will go to tilt the political field in their favor, and Dems will likely need huge vote margins to overcome many of the structural obstacles Republicans are building to a fair and representative vote. Once the midterms have passed, Democrats must look to 2028 and presidential-year turnout. With many occasional voters showing up at the polls then, mobilization alone won’t cut it — Democrats need to coax millions more Americans into our tent.
Other state parties should look to North Carolina’s approach to grassroots tech as an example, just as people on the Netroots panel with Anderson mentioned that THEY see persistent field organizing campaigns in Michigan and Wisconsin as an inspiration. Party leaders should approach a tool like Votebuilder as a means to build capacity for the entire Democratic movement, not as a short-term money-maker. With autocracy in the air, Democrats had better be playing for keeps.
– cpd
Top photo via Wikipedia
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