Mar 23, 2019

Grassroots Spotlight - Michelle and Anna, Red2Blue

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Grassroots Leader Spotlights highlight the work of activist leaders across the country who are doing meaningful and innovative work to strengthen their communities. To read more about other leaders, scroll to the bottom of this article to browse profiles from around the country.

Meet Anna and Michelle of Red2Blue (March 2019)

Can you tell us a bit about your group? What is Red2Blue’s mission?
Red2Blue works around the country and deploys volunteers from across the country to work to flip seats: congressional, state, and local. Volunteers have expertise in peer-to-peer texting; designing websites; managing candidate social media accounts; and organizing canvass trips, phone banks, and post carding.

What are your roles at Red2Blue?
Michelle: Founding member and one of co-leaders who helps organize overall.
Anna: Founding member and lead organizer for texting.

Any recent successes you’d like to share?
Yes! In 2018 we ran texting for 147 Democratic campaigns in 18 states. Over 1,600 engaged volunteers reached 3.9 million voters and helped candidates such as Zellnor Myrie (NY), Katie Muth (PA), Elissa Slotkin (MI), and Lauren Underwood (IL) win.

Since we’ve started, we’ve worked for 199 Democratic campaigns. Not to mention we helped Laurie Pohutsky flip a Michigan State House seat, texting 28,000 voters in her district and identifying over 800 supporters who pledged to vote for her. On election day she won by 221 votes.

That’s fantastic! Upcoming events? Ways people can get involved with Red2Blue?
Right now we’re in the organizing phase. But texting will ramp up in August. We will be supporting candidates in the state of Virginia for sure. We’ll be having house parties and more, but the qualifying deadline is later this month, so it's still a bit early to bring on new volunteers. That said, come May, we’re going to start house parties to raise money and get people engaged. Stand by for how to get involved in that work and in our work in New Jersey.

Anyone you’re looking to connect with?
Definitely. Racial justice is fundamentally important to us. We are always looking to support candidates of color and support work in communities of color or more broadly that advance racial justice.

How about what you’re grateful for? You’ve been doing this work for a while now. Any moments come to mind that you want to share?
Michelle: How grateful I've been for having the opportunity to have done the work and met the other people doing the work. There's an interesting way in which with things so massive happening on a national and international scale, sometimes you feel helpless. And the only antidote to that is the hard work and partnership that comes from getting busy. I would want anyone who's thinking about getting more involved and wondering whether they have the time, to consider how powerful an experience this is.

Anna: Same. It's been incredibly inspiring to meet people from across the country who are willing to put their lives on hold to help candidates win back seats -- no matter where those candidates are from. It makes you feel hopeful at a time when the news is anything but.

How can folks get in touch with you?
General volunteer sign up form: https://red2blue.org/volunteer
Texting volunteer sign-up form: https://red2bluetexting.org/for-volunteers
Email: info@red2blue.org or contact@red2bluetexting.org