Powerful Community Coalition Helps Reclaim the House of Reps and Beat Back Realtors
(Los Angeles) — The Million Voters Project (MVP), an unprecedented collaboration of 7 statewide and regional community networks with 93 affiliates that span across California are celebrating their contribution to the scores of state and local victories in California last night. In the four weeks leading up to the November 6 elections, MVP contacted nearly 400,000 new and infrequent voters in 28 counties of the state in order to increase turnout while helping to expand the electorate as they build toward 2020.
MVP’s sophisticated field program micro-targeted and contacted over 150,000 voters of color low-income and young voters in Congressional Districts 21, 25, 39, 48 and 49. For over a year, hundreds of home grown volunteers knocked on their neighbors’ doors and contributed to the margin of victory in many of these closely contested Congressional District races.
“California voters punished Congressional Republicans for cutting healthcare for the most vulnerable while simultaneously slashing taxes for corporations and the wealthy," said California Calls Action Fund Field Director Karla Zombro.
MVP also educated voters on statewide ballot measures, most notably Prop 5 and Prop 10. The coalition helped to hand Prop 5, an effort by the realtor’s lobby which sought to divert $1 billion from schools, healthcare and local services to benefit a select few, a crushing defeat. Looking long-term, defeating Prop 5 is an important first step in structural tax reform to fund schools and communities and reverse decades of disinvestment in California.
The Prop 10 campaign showed that corporations will spend millions to confuse voters and distort the truth to protect their ability to raise rental costs as much as they want. “Despite the outcome of Prop 10, rent control has become a front-of-mind issue for voters and legislators moving forward,” said ACCE Action Executive Director Christina Livingston. “This fight is just beginning.”
“Yesterday’s election results illustrate a yearning for a politics rooted in belongingness and inclusion versus scapegoating and extraction. We took important steps towards creating a California economy that serves everyday people, and the continued expansion of the electorate will be key to our success in 2020,” said PICO California’s Co-Director Joseph Tomás Mckellar. “Over the next two years, the Million Voters Project plans to expand the pool of voters and deliver the margin of victory for Schools and Communities First — a historic 2020 initiative that will reclaim $11 billion for California schools and communities by making a fraction of the largest and wealthiest landlords pay their fair share in property taxes.”
