Why we invested in Mississippi
Vote.org’s goal is straightforward: We work toward an electorate that matches the population in terms of racial, economic, age, and gender diversity. That’s called “reflective democracy” and it determines where and how we invest our funds. We’re true believers in reflective democracy, and we won’t stop until we achieve it.
Striving towards a reflective democracy is why we invested big in Mississippi this year — and our efforts paid off.
Mississippi is one of the most diverse states in the nation and has the highest percentage of black citizens of any state in the nation. Yet Mississippi has not elected a black candidate to a statewide office since Reconstruction, over 140 years ago. Mississippi also has some of the lowest voter turnout rates in the nation.
We chose to invest in Mississippi because it is criminally overlooked by both political parties, despite being one of the most diverse states in the nation. If the Mississippi electorate accurately reflected the Mississippi population in terms of racial diversity, Mississippi would be one of the most competitive states in the country.
So Vote.org went big. We put up hundreds of billboards, viewed millions of times. We sent over a million SMS messages to voters of underrepresented groups. We placed full-page ads on the backs of every major college campus paper. We worked hard to get out the vote in the general election — and again in the runoff a few weeks later.
Vote.org spent almost 1 million dollars in Mississippi in 2018. We’re the largest non-partisan investor in Mississippi in at least the past 30 years, and quite possibly ever. And our investment worked.¹
- Only 29% of the voting eligible population in Mississippi voted in the 2014 midterm election. Yet in 2018, 40.7% of the voting eligible population voted in the November 6 midterm election.
- There was almost NO drop-off between the November 6 and November 27 election. 950,000 MS residents voted on November 6. Over 900,000 returned to vote again on November 27.²
These results underlie our philosophy. Vote.org isn’t looking to create an arms race of spending. We look for places where relatively modest investments can have a measurable impact on turnout. We create cost-effective, award-winning methods to inform, encourage, remind, and help people to vote. Because we believe targeted outreach to the rising American majority will help us achieve a democracy that reflects our nation’s makeup.
In 2019 and 2020, we’re ready to keep investing in states like Mississippi. Year after year, we’re helping the rising American electorate — youth, people of color, and unmarried women — turn out to vote, in hopes of creating a reflective democracy that represents the U.S. population.
(1) The full voter turnout file isn’t yet available for public consumption, but Vote.org has already hired a team of researchers from Skidmore to do a post-election analysis.
(2) https://mississippitoday.org/2018/11/30/rematch-in-2020-espy-files-statement-of-candidacy-to-challenge-hyde-smith/
