WASHINGTON — Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced the latest push in the organization’s largest get-out-the-vote effort in its more than 35-year history. It’s a multi-state targeting campaign that for the first time reaches well beyond the nation’s nearly 10 million LGBTQ voters to mobilize the growing ranks of allies and others with a history of supporting equality.
“Our new model allows us to reach out directly to hundreds of thousands of voters not yet affiliated with HRC, but who have demonstrated an openness to creating a more equal and fair society,” said HRC President Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin). “LGBTQ equality is no longer a wedge issue, but one embraced by a clear majority of Americans, and particularly younger Americans. In fact, being anti-LGBTQ is now a liability.”
HRC’s dynamic new model, developed with the elections data firm Catalist, makes possible some of the most sophisticated targeting ever of potential pro-equality voters. It allows direct outreach to hundreds of thousands of potential pro-equality voters in crucial swing states through both new and traditional means.
In North Carolina alone, HRC expects to reach more than 400,000 voters through phone calls and an online persuasive advertising campaign unprecedented for the organization. Potential pro-equality voters have been identified using years of HRC polling, public voter files and other available data. HRC is initially targeting five states — North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, with more to come.
This historic targeting effort is part of an unprecedented #turnOUT campaign that HRC launched earlier this year, which includes massive voter mobilization efforts across all 50 states and deployment of more than 100 staff members to battleground states and races. The targeting campaign announced today represents a new dimension of HRC’s work, and is expected to be replicated in years to come as the organization mobilizes the nation’s growing ranks of equality voters to help fuel ongoing efforts to ensure full equality for LGBTQ people.
