∼ ∼ ∼ This article is part of a series — At 250, Who Will America Be? — reporting on threats to American democracy as we approach the nation’s Semiquincentennial, on July 4, 2026. ∼ ∼ ∼
You might have heard that Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, have been campaigning in pro-Trump counties in swing states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The strategy is to reach the Trump voters in those areas who may be tired of the “American carnage” rhetoric the former president used in his 2017 inaugural speech and has been doubling down on ever since. Since the Electoral College favors Republicans, such at-the-margins efforts to flip Trump voters can make the difference between a Harris win and, possibly, the third time since 2000 that the loser of the popular vote — in 2000, George W. Bush lost to Al Gore by 543,895 votes; in 2016, Hillary Clinton beat Trump by 2,868,686 votes — gains the White House.
Back in 2022, we ran a pair of articles that focused on where your political donations might do the greatest good. We batted .625 with our recommendations, correctly picking 10 of 16 races, including three losses we pointed out were more about betting with your heart than your head. One of those races was against J.D. Vance, in his run for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio. We noted then that his Dem challenger, Tim Ryan, was losing ground to the Silicon Valley–backed Vance, but the author of Hillbilly Elegy was such an obvious MAGA toady, we figured Ryan was one of the best longshots to take a flyer on. Ryan lost by six points, but perhaps we were unconsciously playing the long game, since Vance is a political Gumby who has contorted himself into the most unpopular — at 9 points underwater in favorability ratings — VP pick since Hillary Clinton’s choice of Tim Kaine, in 2016 (negative 4 points) and John McCain’s anointment of Sarah Palin (down by 2). In contrast, Tim Walz has +5 favorability numbers, but he and Harris will still need every donation they can muster to counter the massive influx of cash to Trump from crypto bros, whom he’s promising not to regulate.
We don’t have to give you guidance on how to help the Harris/Walz ticket — that’s Taylor Swift’s job. But this week we do want to focus on those organizations that are working to cut Trump’s margins in the race for the White House and to elect progressives in down-ballot races across the nation.
GIVING PERMISSION
First, let’s look at an organization that is working to peel former Trump supporters away from the convicted felon. Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT) has the advantage of the zealousness of converts — maybe not to the Democratic party, but certainly to the fact that small-d democracy is the bedrock of the American dream. Video testimonials on the site feature one- and two-time Trump voters imploring others in his camp to join them in not voting for the twice-impeached former president.
Conway noted that the money was “gonna come out of my kids’ inheritance, but the most important thing they can inherit is living in a constitutional democracy.”
Donations to RVAT support, among other actions, billboards in swing states that feature former Trump voters offering succinct pitches, such as “Dwight from Michigan,” who emphatically states, “I’m a former Trump voter. I’m a gun owner. I’M VOTING FOR HARRIS.” Jackie, also from the Wolverine State, says matter-of-factly, “I’m a two-time Trump voter. I’m a Christian. I’M VOTING FOR HARRIS.”
Nobody likes negative ads, but as a University of California study has found, they’re effective: “The beauty of negative attacks — from a campaign standpoint — is that they influence everyone. Even a candidate’s supporters will be affected by negative attacks … Once a negative idea has been planted, it’s very hard to shake.” RVAT has the advantage (in political advertising, at least) of baseline negativity. But more importantly, the group also gives permission to Republicans to leave the Trump cult, by offering camaraderie and positive reinforcement for their actions — like being in recovery and getting clean. As Donna from Nashville says of Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party, “it’s gone deeper, darker, into this cesspool of nonsense and hypocrisy and just real bad behaviors.” The two-time Trump voter states that she likes that “Kamala is bringing her messages about hope. Her message is about, you know, love. Her message is about freedom,” and concludes, “I’m not anxious anymore. I’m not fearful. I’m just, I feel really good and inspired about what’s gonna take place this year with Kamala Harris.”
And then there’s the Anti-Psychopath PAC, brainchild of conservative lawyer George Conway. The former husband of Trump sycophant Kellyanne Conway (née Fitzpatrick) believes in fighting fire with fire. Earlier this year, he went after Trump where he lives — figuratively and literally — by posting a billboard on the road from Mar-a-Lago to Trump’s Doral golf course, reading “Vote for Joe, not the psycho.” Conway puts his money — lots of it — where his heart is: In April, he donated $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund (which has now rolled over into the Harris Victory Fund). At the time of his contribution, Conway told CNN, “This election is about nothing less than whether we’ll continue to live in a democracy under the rule of law,” and further noted that the money was “gonna come out of my kids’ inheritance, but the most important thing they can inherit is living in a constitutional democracy.” Conway’s organization strives to get into Trump’s head with ads that feature high-level Republicans’ past statements about his unfitness for office.
EVERYONE LOVES AN UNDERDOG
While the ad testimonials at RVAT and Anti-Psycho PAC are seeking to hack away at Trump’s margins, other organizations are doing the hard, old-fashioned work of encouraging voter turnout for the Harris/Walz ticket and down-ballot Dems.
There is a perhaps counterintuitive reason this year why voter outreach is more important than ever. Sarah Longwell, the founder of RVAT, said during a recent video that she didn’t “want Kamala to be up eight [points in the polls].” Her reasoning stretched back to the time after Trump won in 2016, when she was talking to voters to try and determine why the reality-TV star had bested all the electoral predictions. As she explains, “I’ll never forget, during the focus groups after Trump won, when I was trying to figure it out, the number of people who said they voted for Trump because they didn’t think he’d win, because they were sure Hillary Clinton was gonna win. Or that they didn’t vote as Democrats because they were sure Hillary Clinton’s gonna win and they didn’t really like her. There’s a reason that the Harris campaign itself keeps being like ‘We’re the underdogs. We’re the underdogs.’ They do not want for one second want their coalition to think they have it in the bag.”
“State legislatures have done more good — and more harm — than any other level of government.”
If Longwell is right, the Harris campaign needs to continue beating the bushes to get every eligible voter to the polls. Progressive Turnout offers a smorgasbord of actions to help with all manner of canvassing, phone banking, and digital means to get out the vote. And not only will it do your conscience good to knock on a door and convince a low-turnout voter to actually head for polls in November, you can also make up to $250 a day just for talking to your fellow citizens. The site is chockablock with maps, schedules, and opportunities around the country.
Rock the Vote has been at it for more than three decades — starting out in 1990 with the slogan “Censorship is Un-American,” after cultural bluenoses sought to censor hip hop artists. In addition to offering “short, easy-to-understand” explainers about the workings of democracy, the site features opportunities to help register voters and turn them out in November.
The Movement Voter Project targets street-level voter outreach. Blue Tent, a clearinghouse for progressive voting organizations, says the MVP provides “funding conduits for hundreds of progressive organizations all over the country. In recent election cycles, the group has helped move hundreds of millions of dollars from small, medium, and large donors to grassroots organizers. It’s one of the progressive movement’s most successful and important funding intermediaries.”
And Blue Tent itself is loaded with links to local and national election organizations that focus on how various constituencies — Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, veterans, Black and Latino communities, young voters, and suburban women, to name just a few — can combine to elect progressive candidates.
Finally, The States Project focuses on electing progressives to statehouses across the country. As co-founder Daniel Squadron told The New York Times, “In the last decade, whether it comes to the right to reproductive health care or policies to raise wages for full-time workers, state legislatures have done more good — and more harm — than any other level of government.” And as Blue Tent points out in their “Top 2024 Recommendations” section, “While it’s hard to pinpoint the impact of any single electoral group, TSP’s strategic approach and unprecedented spending likely played a key role in helping Democrats flip four state legislative chambers in 2022. But TSP is not just about winning elections; it also has a record of working closely with Democratic leaders to advance policy change.”
So, that’s a glimpse of the national picture. In our next article, we’ll look at specific races around the country that will determine whether the Democrats can hang on to the U.S. Senate and also flip the House, and thereby continue undoing the carnage of the Trump era. ❖
