In 2016, a group of friends and neighbors in Brooklyn, NY, created #GetOrganizedBK. We were alarmed after Trump Republicans won the White House, the Senate, the House, and numerous state legislatures. Many GetOrganizedBK participants wondered how they could effectively channel their energy, talents, and resources to allies in red states. This idea led to the founding of Red2Blue.
Since then, R2B has grown into a highly effective member-led organization, with broad impact thanks to fantastic on-the-ground allies and 2,000+ volunteers in more than three dozen states and the District of Columbia. Below are highlights from recent and ongoing work.
2017
Our first election! Focusing on Virginia, Red2Blue volunteers created websites, ran phone banks, managed Facebook pages, held fundraisers, canvassed in swing districts, and texted more than half a million voters in 45 House of Delegates races. Our efforts helped Democrats gain 15 seats in the state legislature. And, in Alabama, we partnered with community leaders and local representatives to text more than 300,000 constituents, aiding Doug Jones’s victory in that U.S. Senate race.
2018
The year of the grassroots-powered blue tsunami! Some 2,000 Red2Blue volunteers took part. Our texters reached almost 4 million voters in 18 states, helping narrow Republican control in the Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida state legislatures. We wrote more than 46,000 postcards for Pennsylvania and New York candidates and in support of a Florida measure that restored voting rights to people who have served time for felony convictions. In Pennsylvania, we knocked on more than 15,000 doors and made more than 10,000 calls for state legislative candidates. We managed the Facebook pages of four U.S. Congressional candidates and held fundraisers for 10 candidates. Our Creative Support Team worked for 35 candidates across the country, creating websites and videos, developing scripts for phone and text banking, designing postcards, palm cards, door hangers, and other materials, and providing executive coaching, media strategies, and photography. Four of our Congressional candidates prevailed, helping flip the House, and our victorious New York state candidates secured Democratic control of the State Senate.
2019
In this “off” year, Red2Blue supported more than 130 local and state candidates in 20 states. In Virginia, we texted more than 2 million voters, made 7,000 phone calls, wrote almost 30,000 postcards, and raised $12,000 for five underfunded candidates. In Virginia and New Jersey, our Creative Support Team provided website development, social media assessment, flyer design, video editing, and other assistance to candidates. Forging new partnerships, we teamed up with WinVirginia, Sister District, and the Democratic Party of Virginia to run texting for 72 state legislative candidates, helping Democrats win a majority in the Virginia Assembly. In Florida, Oregon, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey, we partnered with grassroots activists, local Democratic parties, and political organizations to provide campaign and texting support. And we strengthened our connections with groups that do electoral work to aid and elect candidates from marginalized communities in all these states.
2020
Hundreds of Red2Blue volunteers made wide-ranging contributions in this decisive year. We wrote more than 100,000 postcards and letters to support Democrats in Pennsylvania and counter voter suppression and re-register purged voters in Georgia. Our Creative Support Team provided 35 campaigns in 11 states with writers, designers, videographers, and other creative professionals. Some 100 R2B volunteers in Pennsylvania put in over a thousand shifts at phone banks, reaching 4,600 voters, while scores of us distributed over 20,000 door hangers. On election day, more than 100 volunteers worked as poll greeters for four State House candidates. We’re proud that our work contributed to President Biden’s Pennsylvania victory.
2021
Following 2020’s big election year, we returned to Virginia and again helped Democrats in lesser-funded down-ballot races. Red2Blue volunteers texted, phone banked, and wrote more than 20,000 postcards. Though Democrats didn’t hold the House of Delegates, our candidates outperformed the top of the ticket — a very unusual outcome.
2022
In the 2022 Midterms, R2B intensified our efforts to build voter power, especially among young, Black, Latinx, and new citizens in Pennsylvania. With allies like the New Pennsylvania Project, Turn PA Blue, and Indivisible, we helped register nearly 15,000 new voters and engaged thousands more through canvassing, phone banks, texts, database support, letters, and postcards. And we raised more than $22,000 for the NPP’s voter registration actions. We made a difference in this crucial swing state – and we aren’t through yet!
2023
In Virginia, R2B helped boost huge statewide victories! Voters turned out to protect Democratic control of the state Senate, FLIP the House of Delegates blue, and stop GOP aims to ban abortion and suppress the vote. Our volunteers teamed up with Rural GroundGame and Swing Blue Alliance to spark voter engagement, especially in too-often overlooked communities, winning measurable success. For example, right after 34,633 voters were contacted, 21,306 of them (nearly 62 percent!) cast early ballots.
2024
With abortion rights, climate, and democracy itself on the line, R2B volunteers jumped to action early in this critical election year. We powered up phone banks, canvassing, and letter campaigns in New York and Pennsylvania, and helped allies from Alabama to New Hampshire. With a special election in February, we notched a win as part of the groundswell of activism that helped now-Rep. Tom Suozzi take New York’s Third Congressional District back to blue. In March, we supported Marilyn Lands for her landslide victory in Alabama, where she flipped a state House seat and won national headlines by targeting the state’s notorious abortion ban and court ruling that frozen embryos are people.