The GenVote Expansion Strategy: A Deeper Dive

How we’re expanding the GenVote movement

GenVote @ Binghamton team members

With the start of a new school year, we at Generation Vote are so excited to expand our movement and empower young leaders throughout the country.

Last school year (2018–2019), our GenVote teams did amazing things. GenVoters flipped one of the most competitive house seats in the country, reformed one-hundred-year old election laws in the Empire State, and even won local office. We tested our model, built an innovative training program and expanded our national staff. We know that we have the tools young people can use to elevate their voices and make progressive change in their communities.

Even more, our generation drastically increased its turnout in 2018. We showed up to knock on doors, make phone calls, attend rallies, and rocked the vote. Young people swung close statewide elections and flipped congressional races across the country. In the lead-up to 2020, it’s time to deepen our engagement at the local level and fight for our ideas in every community.

At Generation Vote, we are committed to expanding the GenVote Model of Engagement in communities where our students can have the most impact. In the next two years, we’ll focus our efforts in communities where our teams can swing races and make an impact at the local level.

Why local?

We focus on local political engagement for three reasons:

1. It makes a difference in people’s day to day lives
2. Local politics is where we build the future leadership of progressive movements
3. Local engagement is often overlooked and under-resourced

UAlbany Team Leader Brendan Cushing canvassing with Albany County Legislator candidate Dustin Reidy

Young people often feel strongly connected to their local communities and are inclined to volunteer on behalf of their neighbors and friends. We believe that the same values of community engagement and volunteerism can continue into our political life. Our generation is highly motivated to participate locally, and want to work on issues that directly impact their communities.

At the local and state levels, we often find governments that do not reflect our beliefs or our values. From suppressing the right to vote, to blocking anti-gun legislation, and rejecting DREAMERS, there are decisions being made that will affect our generation the most, largely without our input.

How do we choose states?

Our work in 2018 showed our team how important is to train young organizers in states not typically thought of as “swing states.” We started in our home state of New York which, even though it’s generally thought of as a solidly blue state, contains several critical swing districts in the House of Representatives. For instance, our teams partnered with newly elected Congressman Anthony Brindisi’s campaign for the House of Representatives, and helped tip the balance in one of the closest swing districts in the entire country.

At the moment, we don’t have the capacity to start a GenVote team in every community (yet). So we have determined a set of priorities for expanding to colleges and universities in places where a GenVote team can make the greatest impact. We started by selecting states where we can swing races on the local level.

Our expansion is based on what we call “local swing states.” In these states, 30% or more of the house districts are rated as “Lean Republican”, “Tossup” or “Lean Democratic.” We judge based on House races because the House of Representatives is the highest office which we recommend our teams work on, and they can often yield insights into local politics. To pick out these districts, we used the 2018 Political Atlas, created by the University of Virginia Center for Politics and Ipsos. We averaged the results of the UVA Crystal Ball rating, the Ipsos rating, and their analysis of social media trends in the district.

Maximizing our generation’s impact

We used the Reaching All Youth Strengthens Engagement (RAYSE) Index, to narrow down our priority states and find communities where our generation can have the most impact in local politics. The RAYSE Index is an online tool that uses county-level demographic and civic-related data to inform youth-focused organizations about the “strengths and assets of a community for civic engagement.”

We look for states where at least 40% of counties have a population of 50,000 people or more, and have a rating of 4 out of 5 or higher on the RAYSE Index. A rating of 4 or 5 on the RAYSE Index indicates that the county has high levels of youth voter leverage (high registration, turnout, and share of the population) or high potential to build it. These communities are smart locations to invest organizing resources and have the most potential for young voters to affect elections. In each county, we then identify colleges and universities which have a student population of 2,000 or higher, and at least 2 active advocacy or political organizations on campus.

Where we will focus

Based on our criteria we have identified a handful of “local swing states” to focus our efforts for the next two years:

1. Virginia
2. Florida
3. Pennsylvania
4. Ohio
5. Minnesota
6. Michigan
7. Wisconsin
8. New Jersey
9. Colorado

As of 2019, 90% of our teams operate at public universities and colleges, and we are committed to building the political power of young people in public institutions across the country.

Expanding Access to Organizing

Students have a lot of responsibilities to balance, not the least of which is supporting themselves financially. We want to make sure that GenVote doesn’t exclude people who want to be involved, but can’t spend time and energy organizing without an income. To make sure we’re building an inclusive movement, we’re planning need-based stipends into our model. We want to make sure everyone can contribute their voices, no matter their means.

GenVote @ UAlbany team members calling potential voters

We’ve used this method to build our list of priority states and schools, laying the foundation for GenVote’s Roadmap to 2020 and beyond. We will reach out to faculty, students, and administrators at these schools to spread the word about GenVote, invest in targeted social media outreach, and partner with local organizations that support youth organizing in their local communities.

In the next two years, we are excited to expand our movement and to share our journey with you. If you are interested in joining our movement or starting a new team in your community, you can sign up here.