Can Rhode Island Voters Make a Difference in Swing States?

A national campaign is targeting Democrats to help fund voting efforts in key battleground states

Rick Brooks, a volunteer for the Movement Voter Project, speaks during a recent event at the Blue Room in Cranston.
Rick Brooks, a volunteer for the Movement Voter Project, speaks during a recent event at the Blue Room in Cranston.
Ian Donnis/The Public’s Radio
Share
Rick Brooks, a volunteer for the Movement Voter Project, speaks during a recent event at the Blue Room in Cranston.
Rick Brooks, a volunteer for the Movement Voter Project, speaks during a recent event at the Blue Room in Cranston.
Ian Donnis/The Public’s Radio
Can Rhode Island Voters Make a Difference in Swing States?
Copy

A recent get-together of more than 50 people at the Blue Room, a bar and music venue in the Pawtuxet Village section of Cranston, was part of a national campaign called the Movement Voter Project. The idea is to raise money from supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in predictably blue and red states — and funnel it to grassroots groups to mobilize voters in the swing states that will decide the November election.

“The approach in MVP is completely different,” said Rick Brooks, one of the dozen or so volunteers organizing the Movement Voter Project in Rhode Island.

Brooks said the project is a far more targeted approach than old standbys like mailing postcards to out-of-state voters or opening a campaign office in a strip plaza for a few months before an election.

“They’re investing in organizations that have been in existence, that have credibility, have a track record and are going to be there a day after the election, win or lose,” Brooks said.

The groups getting money through the Movement Voter Project focus on issues popular among Democrats like abortion rights, immigrants’ rights and voting rights.

This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.

Plaintiffs hope for a speedy injunction to free the money ahead of the rapidly approaching school year
Choking claims the lives of more than 4,100 Americans who are 65 or older every year
The Fall River Fire Department first responded to the Gabriel House of Fall River assisted living facility after 9 p.m. Sunday
More than a million kids nationwide — including hundreds in Rhode Island — rely on free after-school and summer programs. Now many are at risk as the Trump administration withholds $6 billion in education grants
Commercials calling on the General Assembly to oppose legislation preserving the federal 340B program filled local airwaves in June. Here’s where the trail of money led