We Need to Be Working on the Ground Game

Since November, P4D has been working to understand the lessons from the last election and how they might affect our mission and strategy. While we must directly confront the worst of the Trump administration, we must also continue to focus on our core missions, which include promoting select grassroots groups that identify and engage with our voters year round. We have been reassessing those groups to make sure they have evaluated what went right and what went wrong in 2024, and have made appropriate adjustments to address the new realities.

Highlighting these groups beginning now is necessary because their work in 2025 will be an essential building block to successfully getting out the Democratic vote in key congressional races in 2026. This work can’t wait until a few months before the election. One thing we know is that grassroots groups are most effective at getting out the vote when they have a pre-existing relationship with voters. Relationship-building takes time, and these groups need to do their planning, build their connections, and hire their organizers now!

Last year we saw that some traditional Democratic constituencies shifted significantly to the right in the 2024 presidential election. These included young voters, especially young men. We need them back – but this will take time. We can no longer assume that a large majority of young voters will vote Democratic or that simply getting them to vote is enough. We need to persuade them to support Democratic candidates.

The critical building blocks are (1) relationship-building, (2) learning what matters to these voters, and (3) repeated discussion about issues that matter most to them. In this and future emails, we will introduce (or reintroduce) you to the groups that we trust and that are working with constituencies or in Congressional districts that are key to Democrats’ effort to re-take the House in 2026, and maybe the Senate too.

NextGen America

The first group we are promoting is one we supported in the past: NextGen America. NextGen engages, educates, and mobilizes young people in several states. In the 2024 cycle across eight key states (Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia), NextGen ran one of the most expansive civic engagement programs for young people in the country. It reports that it registered over 129,000 young people and collected nearly 198,000 pledges to vote, and that its staff reached 249 campuses, including 38 community colleges and 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It paired its in-person ground game with outreach online to meet young people everywhere they are.

In our discussions with its leadership, we learned that NextGen is scaling the programs it built and the tactics that the data shows work: earlier outreach, cultural fluency, repeated and varied contacts over time aimed at persuasion, and trusted messengers. And NextGen reports that it is doing that with sharper targeting and stronger messaging – powered by the data it collected and the lessons it learned in 2024. NextGen is working right now to flip the Governor’s mansion and win key state House races in the 2025 Virginia elections.

NextGen also told us that it is investing in regular focus groups, polling, and message testing to refine its persuasion strategy and share its learnings with peer practitioners in the Democratic ecosystem. The question for NextGen is whether it will have the resources early enough to meaningfully move young people up the ladder of engagement and to our candidates. You can learn more about NextGen’s accomplishments here.

There is another key point that we want to make about NextGen, which also applies to many of the other groups we will be recommending. Grassroots groups often are composed of multiple entities, and you can choose which one(s) to which to contribute.

A so-called “c3” entity (which refers to Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3)) raises tax-deductible money which generally can only be used to engage in non-partisan efforts such as registering voters (on a non-partisan basis), voter education and encouraging them to vote. In contrast, a “c4” entity can engage in partisan efforts such as attempting to persuade voters to vote Democratic, but contributions are not tax deductible.

NextGen has both types of entities. While NextGen is grateful for any support it receives, P4D encourages contributions to the c4 fund, if you are able, given the sizable rightward shift of the youth vote in the 2024 presidential election.

If you want to contribute to the NextGen-c3 effort, here is a LINK you can use. If you want to contribute to NextGen-c4 effort, use this LINK.

Yes, it may seem that it is too early to start supporting these groups. But the 2024 results show that we are already playing catch up. The process for a successful 2026 begins now.

Last Thursday, the House passed its version of the Reconciliation budget bill. It now goes to the Senate which will write its own bill. Not surprisingly, Democrats have already said the bill is wholly unacceptable. But because the bill needs only a majority to pass, any chance to improve it will require the support of at least four of the 53 Republicans in the Senate.

The 1100+ page bill is stuffed with mischief and worse, the parameters of which are still being discovered. We know the big picture:

• Over $4 trillion in tax cuts (i.e., revenue that the government will NOT get) which go disproportionately to a small group of extremely wealthy people

• 13.7 million people will lose health insurance in both Medicaid and Medicare to help pay for the cuts

• Millions of the poorest Americans will also lose SNAP (food stamps) benefits

• Billions will be cut from student loans, loan forgiveness and Pell Grant programs

• The bill authorizes the national debt to increase $4 trillion

Digging deeper, there are a number of other terrible provisions buried deep in this bill, using unrecognizable and obscure language, as the Republicans seek to remake our country in Trump’s image. Tax benefits and funds for renewable energy projects and electric vehicles would disappear. In a provision that would apply retroactively, the bill would render unenforceable countless already issued injunctions and restraining orders that found the Administration to have acted lawlessly. Reimbursements for bicycle commuting and personal work-related moving expenses would be taxable. Silencers on guns would no longer need to be registered or taxed. And there will be many more to be discovered as we have a chance to read the legislation.

The point is that if this bill is to change, it will require an engaged electorate. Most immediately, Senators need to amend the House bill to stop the momentum of the Reconciliation strategy, which requires total agreement between the two bodies of the Congress.

We need to show up at demonstrations. We need to insist that our elected representatives hold town halls, and we need to go to them. We need to make daily or weekly calls to our members of Congress. We need to ask our friends to do the same.

In short, we need to make a lot of noise. Let elected officials know we are watching them, and we expect them – Democrats and Republicans – to make big changes in this budget bill before it goes to the White House for signature.

We Need to Be Working on the Ground Game

Since November, P4D has been working to understand the lessons from the last election and how they might affect our mission and strategy. While we must directly confront the worst of the Trump administration, we must also continue to focus on our core missions, which include promoting select grassroots groups that identify and engage with our voters year round. We have been reassessing those groups to make sure they have evaluated what went right and what went wrong in 2024, and have made appropriate adjustments to address the new realities.

Highlighting these groups beginning now is necessary because their work in 2025 will be an essential building block to successfully getting out the Democratic vote in key congressional races in 2026. This work can’t wait until a few months before the election. One thing we know is that grassroots groups are most effective at getting out the vote when they have a pre-existing relationship with voters. Relationship-building takes time, and these groups need to do their planning, build their connections, and hire their organizers now!

Last year we saw that some traditional Democratic constituencies shifted significantly to the right in the 2024 presidential election. These included young voters, especially young men. We need them back – but this will take time. We can no longer assume that a large majority of young voters will vote Democratic or that simply getting them to vote is enough. We need to persuade them to support Democratic candidates.

The critical building blocks are (1) relationship-building, (2) learning what matters to these voters, and (3) repeated discussion about issues that matter most to them. In this and future emails, we will introduce (or reintroduce) you to the groups that we trust and that are working with constituencies or in Congressional districts that are key to Democrats’ effort to re-take the House in 2026, and maybe the Senate too.

NextGen America

The first group we are promoting is one we supported in the past: NextGen America. NextGen engages, educates, and mobilizes young people in several states. In the 2024 cycle across eight key states (Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia), NextGen ran one of the most expansive civic engagement programs for young people in the country. It reports that it registered over 129,000 young people and collected nearly 198,000 pledges to vote, and that its staff reached 249 campuses, including 38 community colleges and 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It paired its in-person ground game with outreach online to meet young people everywhere they are.

In our discussions with its leadership, we learned that NextGen is scaling the programs it built and the tactics that the data shows work: earlier outreach, cultural fluency, repeated and varied contacts over time aimed at persuasion, and trusted messengers. And NextGen reports that it is doing that with sharper targeting and stronger messaging – powered by the data it collected and the lessons it learned in 2024. NextGen is working right now to flip the Governor’s mansion and win key state House races in the 2025 Virginia elections.

NextGen also told us that it is investing in regular focus groups, polling, and message testing to refine its persuasion strategy and share its learnings with peer practitioners in the Democratic ecosystem. The question for NextGen is whether it will have the resources early enough to meaningfully move young people up the ladder of engagement and to our candidates. You can learn more about NextGen’s accomplishments here.

What is the Most Impactful Way to Contribute?

There is another key point that we want to make about NextGen, which also applies to many of the other groups we will be recommending. Grassroots groups often are composed of multiple entities, and you can choose which one(s) to which to contribute.

A so-called “c3” entity (which refers to Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3)) raises tax-deductible money which generally can only be used to engage in non-partisan efforts such as registering voters (on a non-partisan basis), voter education and encouraging them to vote. In contrast, a “c4” entity can engage in partisan efforts such as attempting to persuade voters to vote Democratic, but contributions are not tax deductible.

NextGen has both types of entities. While NextGen is grateful for any support it receives, P4D encourages contributions to the c4 fund, if you are able, given the sizable rightward shift of the youth vote in the 2024 presidential election.

If you want to contribute to the NextGen-c3 effort, here is a LINK you can use. If you want to contribute to NextGen-c4 effort, use this LINK.

Yes, it may seem that it is too early to start supporting these groups. But the 2024 results show that we are already playing catch up. The process for a successful 2026 begins now.

The House’s Disastrous Budget Bill

Last Thursday, the House passed its version of the Reconciliation budget bill. It now goes to the Senate which will write its own bill. Not surprisingly, Democrats have already said the bill is wholly unacceptable. But because the bill needs only a majority to pass, any chance to improve it will require the support of at least four of the 53 Republicans in the Senate.

The 1100+ page bill is stuffed with mischief and worse, the parameters of which are still being discovered. We know the big picture:

• Over $4 trillion in tax cuts (i.e., revenue that the government will NOT get) which go disproportionately to a small group of extremely wealthy people

• 13.7 million people will lose health insurance in both Medicaid and Medicare to help pay for the cuts

• Millions of the poorest Americans will also lose SNAP (food stamps) benefits

• Billions will be cut from student loans, loan forgiveness and Pell Grant programs

• The bill authorizes the national debt to increase $4 trillion

Digging deeper, there are a number of other terrible provisions buried deep in this bill, using unrecognizable and obscure language, as the Republicans seek to remake our country in Trump’s image. Tax benefits and funds for renewable energy projects and electric vehicles would disappear. In a provision that would apply retroactively, the bill would render unenforceable countless already issued injunctions and restraining orders that found the Administration to have acted lawlessly. Reimbursements for bicycle commuting and personal work-related moving expenses would be taxable. Silencers on guns would no longer need to be registered or taxed. And there will be many more to be discovered as we have a chance to read the legislation.

The point is that if this bill is to change, it will require an engaged electorate. Most immediately, Senators need to amend the House bill to stop the momentum of the Reconciliation strategy, which requires total agreement between the two bodies of the Congress.

We need to show up at demonstrations. We need to insist that our elected representatives hold town halls, and we need to go to them. We need to make daily or weekly calls to our members of Congress. We need to ask our friends to do the same.

In short, we need to make a lot of noise. Let elected officials know we are watching them, and we expect them – Democrats and Republicans – to make big changes in this budget bill before it goes to the White House for signature.