In this special series in the lead-up to the 2022 midterm elections, The Real News Network highlights the solutions on-the-ground organizers are deploying to expand ballot access and to get out the vote in key battleground states that will decide the legislative balance of power.
With decisive federal action to protect the right to vote all but dead, the upcoming election cycle will be defined by disenfranchisement. What strategies are being used to restore voting power to the communities whose votes will be most suppressed? How are organizers working to not just get out the vote, but to build real community power? And how can faith in democracy be rekindled when the promises made by incoming Democrats in 2020 have yet to be realized?
If there’s one thing the upcoming election will show clearly, it’s that democracy in principle is not the same as democracy in practice—and that creative solutions are needed to turn the promise of the former into the reality of the latter.
Featured Reports
How Georgia’s Latinx community is working to ‘out-organize’ voter suppression
We talk to community organizers about how they are fighting Georgia’s harsh new voter suppression laws by empowering the state’s rapidly growing Latinx population.
How progressives are winning over the rural voters Democrats abandoned
Activists with Pennsylvania Stands Up, part of a national effort by People’s Action, are winning over rural voters by deploying an organizing tactic that harnesses meaningful conversations and that research shows is proven to fight bigotry and build support for progressive causes.
How Native organizers won voting access and reached record turnout in 2020
Native Americans continue to face a multitude of obstacles to voting, including lack of polling sites on reservations. We speak to Native organizers in Nevada who fought for and secured voting access on tribal lands.
How do you fight voter suppression? Grassroots organizers in Wisconsin have an answer
Voter suppression is a grave threat to democracy in places like Wisconsin. But you can’t mobilize voters to fight back unless the communities whose votes are most suppressed know that their vote can matter.
How organizers in rural North Carolina are bridging racial and class divides
While Democratic party strategists have all but given up on connecting with voters in deep-red rural counties, these organizers in North Carolina are showing how it can be done.
How America’s broken electoral system made the Jan 6 insurrection possible
Jaisal Noor and Maximillian Alvarez dive into America’s broken, increasingly less democratic electoral system, and examine the existing opportunities within that system for the left and right to organize.
Wisconsin
Democrats are in for a world of hurt in swing states like Wisconsin
Democrats already have a steep hill to climb to combat voter suppression in states like Wisconsin. If they keep losing voters by reneging on their campaign promises, the next election will not go well.
Community organizing in America’s most segregated city
Angela Lang, executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, explains the challenges involved in building genuine community power in Milwaukee, one of the most disinvested cities in the United States.
Democrats are courting disaster (again) by betraying their base
Democrats risk turning off voters and losing their 2020 electoral gains if they don’t deliver meaningful change for working people, warns Angela Lang, who leads voter engagement and turnout efforts in Milwaukee’s most underserved neighborhoods.
Pennsylvania
How progressives are winning over the rural voters Democrats abandoned
Activists with Pennsylvania Stands Up, part of a national effort by People’s Action, are winning over rural voters by deploying an organizing tactic that harnesses meaningful conversations and that research shows is proven to fight bigotry and build support for progressive causes.
Meet the progressive activists organizing Trump country
Pennsylvania Stands Up’s Onah Ossai explains the process of deep canvassing, an organizing tool that breaks through bigotry and disinformation by having compassionate conversations.
North Carolina
These rural organizers have found an answer to dog whistle politics: Multi-racial, working-class solidarity
Organizers with Down Home North Carolina have found a strategy for breaking through the politics of racial resentment that have dominated the deep-red rural state for generations.
Jailed for a crime she didn’t commit, Dreama Caldwell is now taking on the system
After facing a $40k bail for a crime she didn’t commit, Dreama Caldwell is organizing at the grassroots to build working-class power in rural North Carolina.
How organizers in rural North Carolina are bridging racial and class divides
While Democratic party strategists have all but given up on connecting with voters in deep-red rural counties, these organizers in North Carolina are showing how it can be done.
Georgia
How Georgia’s Latinx community is working to ‘out-organize’ voter suppression
We talk to community organizers about how they are fighting Georgia’s harsh new voter suppression laws by empowering the state’s rapidly growing Latinx population.
Nevada
How Native organizers won voting access and reached record turnout in 2020
Native Americans continue to face a multitude of obstacles to voting, including lack of polling sites on reservations. We speak to Native organizers in Nevada who fought for and secured voting access on tribal lands.
Stay tuned for upcoming on-the-ground reports.
This series was made possible with the support of the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems.
More 2022 Midterm Elections News
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
