Putting People First
How America Votes Partners in Wisconsin and Michigan Are Focusing on Grassroots Engagement to Move Communities Forward
At its core, politics is about people.
We fight for and elect leaders we believe in because of the positive change we hope they’ll bring to our communities — our families and friends, congregations and coworkers.
Yet with the 24-hour political news cycle and unending affronts to our values from the Trump administration and its supporters, it can sometimes feel like elected representatives are worlds away from the people they represent.
That’s why America Votes partners nationwide are working from the ground up to engage communities in the fight to build back progressive power and elect leaders who really care about the issues that matter most to their constituents. In the second installment of our Spotlight 2018 series, learn how this approach is playing out in Wisconsin and Michigan.
The Power of Friends and Family in Wisconsin
2012 was a turbulent time for politics in Wisconsin. Governor Scott Walker had stripped the bargaining rights of many of the state’s public workers, and a recall effort was in full swing. Progressives statewide were fired up and ready to make Gov. Walker face the consequences of neglecting Wisconsin’s working people. We Are Wisconsin, the labor movement’s organizing hub in these fights, sprang into action, channeling activists’ enthusiasm into organic, grassroots engagements in the recall battle.
“The idea was simple: how do we get people to be able to take agency and actually do that thing that candidates always say on the stump: go talk to your friends and family and neighbors and help get out the vote?” said John Grabel, who was then helping organize We Are Wisconsin’s efforts and later served as the group’s executive director.
So they did just that. Activists talked to 22,000 voters leading up to the recall election, and while Gov. Walker survived the recall, the impact of We Are Wisconsin’s strategy of engaging friends, family and neighbors through organic conversations — an approach known as relational voter programs (RVP) — was clear. Turnout among those voters contacted by We Are Wisconsin was as much as 18 percent higher than what was expected.
Fast-forward several years, and RVP is a critical part of many America Votes Wisconsin partners’ efforts to build back progressive power in 2018 and beyond. “At its core,” said America Votes Wisconsin Political and Field Director Mike Pfohl, “RVP is just basic politicking: people talking to people they know about politics.” Although this people-to-people approach has been around in campaigning for hundreds of years, a more organized effort around RVP in Wisconsin has come into play since 2011, and there are a lot of reasons why progressive groups are integrating this approach into their broader strategies.
“What [RVP] does is just help amplify the work that activists are maybe already doing in an informal way and empowering them to become experts to their friends and families on a campaign or an issue,” said Pfohl. RVP allows activists to reach out to people they know who may not otherwise be involved in the political process and have a real conversation about why an election or issue matters to them. “That conversation certainly leads you to which candidate to support, but it moves beyond the partisan politics,” added Grabel. “We make it a much more powerful conversation when we have it that way.”
Now leading For Our Future Wisconsin, an America Votes partner, Grabel and his team are incorporating RVP into their 2018 canvassing efforts and encouraging peer organizations to incorporate RVP into their programs as well. They have a goal of reaching tens of thousands of voters through RVP this year and will be joined by many other America Votes Wisconsin partners running RVP programs as well.
“We never try to change other people’s values. We’re not trying to convince people to see the world the way we see it; we try to have them imagine a world in which their values are being expressed in the best possible way.”
— Nate Schwantes, Field Director, Planned Parenthood Wisconsin
For one of those partners, Planned Parenthood Wisconsin, RVP is something they are constantly incorporating into their work, and the 2018 election cycle is no exception. The organization focuses on a values-based approach, which emphasizes having respectful and meaningful conversations to engage community members ahead of critical elections like this year’s.
“We never try to change other people’s values,” said Nate Schwantes, field director at Planned Parenthood Wisconsin. “We’re not trying to convince people to see the world the way we see it; we try to have them imagine a world in which their values are being expressed in the best possible way.”
For these organizations and many others at the America Votes Wisconsin table, RVP will continue to be mainstay in their toolboxes after Election Day, engaging voters and policymakers on critical issues in 2019 and beyond. They see RVP as a year-round approach to engage with their activists in a dialogue, not just a short-term electoral outreach technique.
And what about other progressive groups that want to get in on the approach?
“Call us in Wisconsin,” said America Votes’ Pfohl. “We’re happy to train people!”
Michigan’s Communities Take the Lead
“A lot of people feel like their voices aren’t being heard.”
That’s Jeremy Waechter, lead organizer at Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES) Action, an America Votes Michigan partner, and this is what he and his team are trying to fix.
MOSES Action works with congregations of various faiths across Michigan to lift up the voices of these communities and the issues they care about through what they call a Voter Up program. With this approach, MOSES Action works with a team of volunteers across congregations who engage with the precincts around their congregations and are deeply ingrained in the local communities, having meaningful conversations about the issues that really matter to them. They then keep these community members engaged through efforts to hold local lawmakers accountable.
“MOSES Action is a great example of distributive canvass work because their model is really empowering congregations to take the ball and run with it,” said Jessica Newman, program director at America Votes Michigan.
And more than any other issues in 2018, MOSES Action and its volunteer teams are engaging their congregations on criminal justice as well as water equity, quality and affordability. They then weave in messages about upcoming elections into conversations about these priority topics.
“Our goal really is to connect on those core issues because people are reacting to issues and maybe not necessarily candidates,” said Waechter. “We want to make sure those get tied together.”
“It’s about identifying what people’s thoughts and feelings are in communities and really letting them drive the local issue and tying it back to what’s going on at the state level.”
— Jeremy Waechter, Lead Organizer, MOSES Action
Unsurprisingly, they’ve found that Michiganders are ready to talk and are ready for change. “What we’re finding,” Waechter said, “is people are ready to interact and talk about what’s going on. They’re also ready to engage, and I think that comes from just being ready to do something big and think about what kind of state they want.”
MOSES Action’s success stems in large part from its emphasis on letting communities take the lead when it comes to determining key issues on which to engage local lawmakers. “It’s about identifying what people’s thoughts and feelings are in communities and really letting them drive the local issue and tying it back to what’s going on at the state level,” Waechter said.
And that’s something MOSES Action is planning to do long past Election Day. Waechter and his team are working closely with America Votes Michigan staff to develop a long-term accountability plan to help communities hold new officeholders accountable after November 6. They have big plans for 2019 and beyond, including a goal to bring 60 congregations from across Michigan together at the state capitol for an accountability rally to ensure that lawmakers are acting on the issues MOSES Action volunteer teams heard communities speak up about this year.
Waechter know that MOSES Action’s community-first approach is one that can be applied outside of faith-based groups as well, something that America Votes’ Newman is excited to see grow in the near future.
“This is really a different way of thinking about how we engage in our electoral work and something that we can use beyond the faith community,” she said. “What’s important is coming in with the humility and understanding that these are organizations that know their communities like the back of their hand. They don’t need anyone coming in and telling them what the issues are.”
Waechter agreed. “In those relationships, really let the community help to drive and design the kind of engagement that takes place, because that kind of deep engagement will connect with so many more people than a traditional campaign.”
