Democrats launch new program to turn out infrequent voters

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) launched a new initiative on Wednesday that aims to turn out likely Democratic voters in toss-up states and congressional districts who voted in 2020 but sat out the last presidential election. 

The initiative, called Local Listeners, trains volunteers to engage infrequent voters, aiming to reach more than a million of them ahead of the midterms.  

A quarter of that engagement will come from phone calls with the likely Democratic voters in key battleground districts. But the program is also looking to register thousands of new voters and hold several dozen in-person local events, too. 

“All volunteers will participate in a seven-week training program on how to better connect with voters, with sessions focused on ‘active listening’ and ‘having difficult conversations about politics,’” according to a press release from the DNC, which noted they have over 2,000 volunteers so far.

“Volunteers will also be trained on how to capture qualitative information from their conversations with voters, which will allow the DNC to identify key themes and share those insights with the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] to inform their messaging on the ground in target congressional districts,” the press release adds.  

It was not immediately clear how much the DNC was investing in the new effort.  

The program is launching a month out from the first congressional primaries of the year. Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas will hold the first contests on March 3. 

The DNC’s investment follows a separate one the party announced last month, which aims to register young people without a college education in several battleground states. 

Democrats backslid with key voting blocs, including Black and Hispanic voters and younger voters, in 2024, though recent elections have shown the party starting to make up some of those losses. 

“This program modernizes the way we are talking to and hearing from the voters that we need to win elections now and for years to come,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement on the new voter engagement initiative.

“The Democratic Party is done with waiting until the last minute to engage voters — these conversations need to happen early and often,” he continued. “And the win-win with this program is that we’re also training thousands of volunteers to be voices for our Party on the frontlines of their communities.”