With just six weeks left until the congressional midterm elections, one major political advocacy organization plans to spend in excess of $40 million to remind evangelicals, Catholics, and other conservatives how important it is for them to vote.
The move by the Faith & Freedom Coalition comes as Democrat and Republican candidates battle for control of Congress for the next two years. During this midterm election year, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested.
Timothy Head serves as executive director of the coalition that was founded by Christian activist Ralph Reed in 2009. Reed serves as chairman of the organization.
Head told CBN News in a recent interview this is the organization’s 13th year of reminding voters of faith to make their voices heard at the ballot box.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition’s national initiative grassroots get-out-the-vote campaign is known as the “2022 Project.” According to Head, after identifying 43 million faith voters made up of evangelicals, Catholics, and other religious conservatives, his organization plans to reach each of these voters seven to nine times in the closing weeks of the midterm campaigns. They will use direct mail, email, digital mass media, church voter guides, and going door-to-door, spending more than $40 million across 24 states.
During the last three weeks before the midterms, text messages will also be sent, reminding people to vote with a link to their local polling place.
The coalition has also developed voter guides for each race. It does not endorse any candidate but gives a side-by-side comparison of the different issues and candidate positions.
“We don’t endorse candidates,” Head said. “The voter guides don’t say ‘This candidate good. That candidate is bad.’ We have found each of those candidates’ positions and we just document them.”
Over the years, the initiative has seen a positive response.
“The bottom line is we actually see between a 7 to 9 percent uptick in voter performance –People who actually vote than those who we don’t include in the program,” he told CBN News. “In a lot of these states where 1.5% vote margin really does make or break a race, we’re seeing basically an 8% uptick.”
The “2022 Project” targets races for governor, the Senate, and the U.S. House. The rollout began at the end of August and will proceed until Election Day.
The organization will spend $10 to $11 million on the door-to-door campaign alone during this election season.
Last week, the coalition announced its canvassers had already surpassed 2.5 million homes visited. Head told CBN News his organization expects its volunteers to visit more than 8.2 million to 8.3 million homes before Election Day on Nov. 8.
“This is actually a huge number,” he said. “More than the national parties will be doing this year.”
In addition, the coalition reached more than 35,000 churches during the 2020 election cycle. This year, the organization expects to have voter guides in more than 45,000 churches. The guides will be placed in church bulletins or featured at a location inside the church building.
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