Dear fellow MoveOn member,
Did you know that young voters reject Donald Trump's MAGA agenda by more than 20 points?!1 If we can get these voters to the polls to vote for Joe Biden in huge numbers, this year's election won't even be close.
But there's a big problem. Trump is doing everything he can to keep young voters away from the polls through voter suppression in swing-state college towns like Ann Arbor, Michigan.2 And when he and his MAGA supporters can't keep young voters away from the polls entirely through voter suppression, Trump's mega-donors are doing everything they can to misdirect young voters' energy by steering them toward third-party presidential spoiler candidates, like RFK Jr.3
It's terrifying but true. In fact, the largest individual donor for both Trump and RFK Jr. is the same MAGA billionaire, Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune.4 He's poured millions of dollars into craven efforts to support RFK Jr., who has absolutely no chance of winning the general election but whose candidacy could very well throw the election to Trump.
We've got to make sure that young voters—and all Democratic and progressive voters who skipped voting in the last few elections—show up to vote for President Biden. My friends at MoveOn have a highly effective plan that is laser-focused on doing just that.
But, unfortunately, MoveOn is facing a $307,277 funding gap with the first quarter coming to an end. That's alarming, because MoveOn's track record of success in developing cutting-edge strategies to get out the vote and win elections is outstanding. That's why I'm writing you today with an important request:
Or, if you can't pitch in monthly, click here.
I'm convinced that Trump can be beaten. But to ensure Biden's reelection, we must communicate effectively and concretely with one another about how to do so and what we're going to contribute to the effort.
We cannot be spectators. We must do everything we can to fight against Trump, the MAGA movement, and Republican attempts to seize power through lies, disenfranchisement, and voter suppression.
For 25 years, MoveOn has been using innovative, data-driven strategies to reach voters, including young voters. MoveOn's strategies work—and they are crucially needed this year. Unprecedented misinformation, generative AI, and even entirely fake videos aim to disenfranchise voters this year.5 That's why trusted, one-on-one conversations—the ones MoveOn and its members are engaging in—are going to be an incredibly powerful tool for breaking through.
Or, if you can't make a monthly gift today, click here.
As I mentioned, one reason that I am particularly excited about MoveOn's program is its focus on young voters, who reject the MAGA agenda by more than 20 points. But the reality is that young voters' votes can make the crucial difference only if they register, are able to cast a ballot, and vote for President Biden.
Efforts to disenfranchise young voters are out of control this year.6 They're at a scale I have never seen in my more than 50 years in politics. That's saying a lot. I am gravely concerned about them. And while I wish that right-wing efforts to convince young voters to throw away their votes on a candidate with no chance like RFK Jr. would fail, the reality is, the risks are rising—and fast.
As Politico recently reported—and MoveOn warned us about earlier this week—"Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is polling as high as the low twenties in a three-way race with President Joe Biden and Donald Trump."7 He is particularly strong with young voters.8
Between the right wing's voter suppression, RFK Jr., and other third-party efforts that risk spoiling the presidential election, we have our work cut out for us. We have got to start talking to young voters NOW about the stakes of this election and the issues they care about, and make it clear why their vote is critical. We need to make sure they are registered, turn out to vote, and vote for President Biden.
MoveOn identified more than 1.5 million surge voters—those who have shown they will vote for Democrats but may not vote consistently, who live in swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin, and are contactable by phone or email. MoveOn is laser-focused on contacting those 1.5 million voters; if MoveOn members can sway even a small fraction of them to vote, and make sure they vote for the Biden-Harris ticket, it may be enough to tip the election in our favor.
Will you chip in $5 a month, or whatever you can afford, to help MoveOn reach swing-state voters?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Many of MoveOn's efforts engage volunteers and involve person-to-person conversations with voters. One example is vote tripling, which is MoveOn organizing voters to reach out to three of their friends or family, talk to them about the issues at stake, help them make a plan to vote, make sure they're registered, and make sure they vote.
In 2022, MoveOn used vote tripling to turn out 50,000 people in key states and districts who otherwise might not have voted. That's an incredibly large and powerful number of voters, since our country's elections are typically decided by exceedingly narrow margins.
But even with MoveOn volunteers doing the heavy lifting—and even though MoveOn's election program is far more effective per dollar spent than TV ads, direct mail, and other traditional approaches—reaching swing-state voters still costs significant amounts of money. There is simply no way around that.
That's because MoveOn has to pay for tech support, staff, and platforms to be able to organize volunteers at scale to contact millions of voters, make millions of phone calls, and send millions of emails and texts.
MoveOn also needs to buy crucial advertising space and—believe it or not—a lot of that space books up months in advance. And right now, according to the numbers MoveOn's team shared with me, MoveOn is still behind its fundraising goal by some $307,000. To fill the gap, they need to sign up 2,558 monthly donors by the end of the month.
To fill its budget gap, MoveOn needs to sign up 3,197 monthly donors by the end of March. Will you help close MoveOn's first-quarter budget gap and ensure that it doesn't fall behind when it needs to make crucial decisions about how much it can invest in its powerful election program?
Or, if you can't pitch in monthly, click here.
Ever since it became clear that Trump was going to be the Republican nominee, I've found myself immersed in many conversations about the threat that he poses to our nation and the world. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about conversations with Trump supporters. I'm referring to conversations with people like you and me, who are fully aware of the damage Trump has already done and the even greater danger he presents if reelected.
Understandably, many of the people I talk with express rage and despair.
It's natural that we want to share our anger. Someone who has attempted to jettison the rule of law, unleashed violence on the U.S. Capitol, and seeks to wreck our constitutional system is once again the candidate put forward for president by the Republican Party. Why hasn't he been convicted and imprisoned already?
When rage is driving us, despair is often in the passenger seat. It's easy to feel dismayed that so many of our fellow Americans—sometimes even our own family members—have been ensnared by this man and manipulated by his Republican lapdogs and the right-wing media. Our hearts ache for our nation and the ideals on which it's based, and for the previous generations that have sacrificed their lives in service of those ideals.
But rage and despair alone will not defeat Trump. To reelect President Biden, we need to connect in a meaningful way with voters—particularly young voters—who are on the fence, do our absolute best to discourage potential Biden voters from voting for third-party candidates, and get out the vote in swing states.
Will you start a monthly gift today, to help MoveOn close its funding gap so it can end its first quarter in a strong financial position? If just 3,197 new recurring donors sign up at an average of $12 a month, MoveOn will close its first-quarter budget gap. MoveOn has millions of members but is counting on you to step up today.
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
We obviously do not want MoveOn to be facing a funding shortfall. Not when their team has critical decisions to make about how much they can afford to invest in their election program. Not when it will determine how many young voters they can reach. And not when Trump's biggest donor is funneling money into RFK Jr.'s campaign to mislead young voters—who are our best hope of stopping Trump this year.
We simply cannot afford another election like 2016—where Trump wins the Electoral College while losing the popular vote by millions—but with even more devastating consequences. It's unthinkable. That's why your support for MoveOn today is so important.
Thanks for all you do.
–Robert Reich
Sources:
1. "New poll highlights young voter interests for 2024," The Hill, March 4, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188543?t=12&akid=378900%2E53570607%2Edwk9Ws
2. "Trump's Allies Ramp Up Campaign Targeting Voter Rolls," The New York Times, March 6, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188238?t=14&akid=378900%2E53570607%2Edwk9Ws
3. Ibid.
4. "Donald Trump and RFK Jr Have the Same Largest Donor," Newsweek, February 22, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188955?t=16&akid=378900%2E53570607%2Edwk9Ws
5. "Welcome to the generative AI election era," Axios, January 3, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188956?t=18&akid=378900%2E53570607%2Edwk9Ws
6. "Trump's Allies Ramp Up Campaign Targeting Voter Rolls," The New York Times, March 6, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188238?t=20&akid=378900%2E53570607%2Edwk9Ws
7. "RFK Jr. and the ballot access wars," Politico, March 21, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/188530?t=22&akid=378900%2E53570607%2Edwk9Ws
8. "A Batshit Number of Young Swing State Voters Think RFK Jr. Should Be President," Vanity Fair, November 7, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/188531?t=24&akid=378900%2E53570607%2Edwk9Ws
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MAGA movement's book bans have forced teachers and librarians across the country to remove books from their shelves and censor what young people can learn. MoveOn is fighting back, including by filling a "Banned Bookmobile" with books that the far right has banned and driving it to key cities and towns to raise the visibility of book bans, hand out banned books for free, and bring people together to stop censorship. To keep up the fight against book bans and the MAGA politicians who support them, we need your help.
Will you start a monthly gift to power and sustain MoveOn's critical work?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
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