#VOTEPROCHOICE 2019 Report: Prochoice Champion Candidates Win Everywhere (and Anywhere)
Voters are motivated to protect reproductive freedom more than ever. Success in 2020 depends on embracing and amplifying this fact.
By Heidi L. Sieck, co-founder of #VOTEPROCHOICE
This past year, as in every year since our founding in 2016, the #VOTEPROCHOICE Team has again seen undeniable proof that we are a prochoice nation, and that the vast majority of voters value reproductive freedom with increasing electoral priority.
If you turn to mainstream media pundits, national headlines, or even with some progressive, Democratic leaders you might think otherwise. Don’t let them mislead you. Abortion is not polarizing and voters are not grappling with their feelings about reproductive rights. The facts are on our side. Well over 70% of voters support reproductive freedom and do not want Roe v. Wade overturned. We are an even more activated prochoice nation than ever before.
How do we know? Connecting Prochoice Candidates with Prochoice Voters
Prochoice voters across the country increasingly know what’s at stake. They are clamoring to vote their values and reproductive freedom is top of that list. That’s why our #VOTEPROCHOICE 2019 program was nearly the scale of 2018.
Our priority #VOTEPROCHOICE 2019 Voter Guide program expanded to include primary voter guides and all 49,000 races in 34 states in the general election. Our team of researchers provided recommendations in nearly every single race — particularly focused on school boards, judges and prosecutorial races. We again included partner organization endorsements from dozens of progressive organizations like NARAL, Run for Something, Collective PAC, MoveOn, Emerge, EMILY’s List and as many antichoice and NRA endorsements as we could find. Our voter guide exists to support the entire progressive movement and we are delighted to provide the service to our partners.
In 2019, we engaged nearly 500,000 voters in primary races, and more than 4 million general election voters. We’ve now built 10 voter guides and supported over 50 million voters to #VOTEPROCHOICE with beautifully designed, easy-to-use technology tools. We continue to be the largest, most comprehensive voter guide tool ever built.
What’s the Best News of 2019? Prochoice Candidates Win Everywhere
This year, hundreds of prochoice candidates ran — and won — throughout the country by proudly championing reproductive rights. Millions of prochoice voters chose these leaders in large part because of their prochoice commitments, not in spite of them.
#VOTEPROCHOICE endorsed 100 prochoice candidates in 2019 focusing on local elections as we outlined in our acclaimed report — Local Impact: How Down-ballot Seats Affect Reproductive Freedom. Electing prochoice champions in state and local elections reclaims reproductive freedom — protecting abortion clinics, establishing comprehensive sex-ed curriculum, and preventing the prosecution of overreaching abortion restrictions.
Our #VOTEPROCHOICE Candidate Engagement Team highlighted 38 successful campaigns in November with our unique blend of digital communications and compliant in-kind support. We were very proud to be involved in the exciting wins in Virginia and Kentucky — supporting dozens of candidates and engaging thousands of prochoice voters via text in both states. But even more exciting are the hyper-local races of prochoice champions in the red states.
Amelia Parker, Knoxville Tennessee City Council — Amelia Parker made historic breakthroughs in Knoxville, Tennessee where, for the first time in history, more women than men won council seats. Councilmember- elect Parker ran on a platform to protect access to clinics in the face of tactics using zoning codes to disproportionately target facilities providing reproductive healthcare.
Michalyn Easter-Thomas, Memphis, Tennessee City Council — #VOTEPROCHOICE endorsed Michalyn Easter-Thomas, local schoolteacher, community activities and Emerge alum, early in the election cycle. We helped Michalyn place second in a six-person primary and prevail in a run-off election. #VOTEPROCHOICE sent about 3,600 outbound text messages to Memphis voters during the run-off. She won the election by 1,970 votes and is on her way to many future leadership positions.
Ali Brown, Christa Carlino, Ethan Evans, Indianapolis County Council — there’s nothing better than a prochoice sweep in Mike Pence’s backyard. We are particularly excited about our endorsed candidate Ali Brown, a community activist who openly, proudly campaigned on protecting reproductive freedom at a county-level. #VOTEPROCHOICE sent over 6,000 outbound text messages to voters in her district. Ali won her election by 881 votes and she’s now the first openly bi-person to be elected in Indianapolis. Ali will be joining fellow #VOTEPROCHOICE endorsed candidates Christa Carlino and Ethan Evans in victory where they can begin to roll back the horrific restrictions on reproductive rights in Indiana.
Tay Anderson, Denver School Board — We also have to give a huge congratulations to #VOTEPROCHOICE endorsed candidate, Tay Anderson who was elected to the Denver School Board at age 21 by pledging that “every school [will have] a gender-neutral bathroom easily available to students.”
Our 2019 candidates were 77% people who identified as women, 35% of whom identified as women of color, and only 12% percent identified as white cis-gendered men. This is what a prochoice nation should look like!
What’s at stake today?
Over the last 30 years, and still today, the media and progressive, democratic political infrastructure continues to massively under-invest in down-ballot races.
This year, we found that voters didn’t seem to know there were thousands of elections in 2019. Voters still don’t realize that reproductive freedom has been unraveling at the state and local level for decades, in part because of the political press, strategists, and organizers who are inordinately distracted by our federal government catastrophe.
In state and local governments, there is a massive accelerated effort to pass abortion bans, reduced birth control access, abstinence-only sex-ed, criminal prosecution of miscarriages, insurance restrictions, fake abortion clinic support, Title X funding distribution, etc. This has been happening for the past 30 years, but now with an antichoice federal government and Supreme Court, it’s getting much worse — and we barely hear about any of it.
Here’s the scariest: the Supreme Court decided to hear a case in March that could further restrict reproductive health care access, if not overturn Roe v Wade altogether. Over 20 cases are circling the federal court system to end Roe forever. We could lose Roe by this summer. This is a fact.
What we now know for certain is that reproductive freedom is on the ballot in every race, everywhere. The antichoice cases that our federal courts and Supreme Courts are hearing started in state legislatures and city governments. These are antichoice, regressive, harmful policies and practices put into place by local and state elected officials.
That is why we must elect prochoice champion candidates who will pass policies to protect access. Last year was the first in nearly two decades when state legislatures enacted more policies to support reproductive health than the antichoice policies. We need more of this:
We must stay focused. There is no excuse for anyone to avoid, marginalize or suppress their views on this foundational issue. Our nation’s prochoice majority will support candidates who stand up for these critical freedoms everywhere.
Reproductive Freedom on the Ballot in 2020
#VOTEPROCHOICE is ready to act in 2020 with strategic focus and resolve, as always. While most attention and resources are placed in federal races and presidential swing states, we look at everything — especially state and local races — through the status of reproductive freedom.
#VOTEPROCHOICE Priority States
First, we ask: How hostile is the state to abortion access? Is there a post-Roe trigger ban or abortion ban in place? How horrible is the maternal mortality rate for pregnant people, especially black people, in the community? How far do people have to travel to an abortion clinic? How many legislative restrictions are on the books preventing access to care?
Our targets for 2020 include: Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Ohio. New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas
Priority states guide our endorsement process and where we spend the most time cultivating partners. Reach out to partner with us on our work!
2020 #VOTEPROCHOICE Voter Guide
Our 2020 #VOTEPROCHOICE Voter Guide will cover every election on the ballot in the General Election November 3, 2020, and primary voter guides in Texas and Georgia. We want every single prochoice voter voting all the way down the ballot in the most critical election in our lifetime — and that’s the truth. We will include even more partner organization endorsements as well as antichoice endorsements and NRA endorsements so people know exactly who to avoid on their ballots. Help us make this the biggest voter guide ever:
Sign up for the 2020 #VOTEPROCHOICE Voter Guide
#VOTEPROCHOICE Endorsed Candidate Program
We’ve endorsed and elevated over 300+ prochoice champions and recommended nearly 100,000 candidates in the last four years. We support first-time candidates, long-shot candidates, and up-and-coming leaders as long as they are prochoice champions.
Our 2020 program will include 100+ endorsements in priority states.
If you are a prochoice champion candidate running in 2020, particularly in the priority states of Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Ohio. New Mexico, South Dakota and Texas APPLY FOR AN ENDORSEMENT.
How can we work together?
We are proud of the work we’ve done over the last four years — over 51 million voter guides distributed, working alongside 150 partner organizations, and 300+ candidates supported.
Let’s work together to protect reproductive freedom:
2020 candidates: apply for an endorsement.
Partner organizations: email julieyn@voteprochoice.us
Join our Team: email go@voteprochoice.us
Sign up and pledge to #VOTEPROCHOICE in every election, everywhere.
Let’s make 2020 the year we protect reproductive freedom for everyone.
In solidarity,
Heidi L. Sieck
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ABOUT US: #VOTEPROCHOICE emerged on the political scene in March 2016 as an innovative, online voter guide to engage our nation’s prochoice majority to vote their values all the way down the ballot. Over the last four years, we’ve proven again and again that we, in fact, are a prochoice nation and that candidates can, and should, support reproductive freedom anywhere and win.
#VOTEPROCHOICE is a project of Democrats.com LLC, a progressive media platform and digital agency founded in 2000. We focus on building digital infrastructure and engagement services for the prochoice majority. We never, ever, ask for money. We work in partnership with all organizations and entities that include reproductive freedom in their platform. We never say pro-life. We address stigma directly. We try things that fail and make a lot of mistakes. Anti-choice Democrats make us very angry and we will support prochoice champions running against them. Our work won’t be done until abortion is fully protected by federal law and codified in a stronger Supreme Court decision than Roe v. Wade. Never forget, we are a prochoice nation. Let’s vote like one.
