U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on voting at the Louis Stokes Library at Howard University in Washington, DC on July 8, 2021.
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Vice President Kamala Harris announced a new $ 25 million investment by the Democratic National Committee to expand its program, which will help win the vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
The announcement, which came on Thursday, came as Harris and her team were being scrutinized by allies and some of their own staff. Much of the frustration has been with Harris’ chief of staff Tina Flournoy. It also comes when Republicans draft and pass state laws that critics say restrict access to the ballot box.
Details of the DNC’s updated “I Will Vote” program, announced early on to CNBC, suggest the committee is trying to increase voter engagement for the 2022 midterm and 2024 presidential election. The announcement underscores Harris’ focus on voting rights as Vice President, including meetings with members of Congress and advocates such as Stacey Abrams and Derrick Johnson, CEO of the NAACP.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison speaks on voting at the Louis Stokes Library at Howard University in Washington, DC on July 8, 2021.
Almond Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
DNC chairman Jaime Harrison announced the new resources in a statement. Harrison had previously announced a separate $ 20 million investment by the DNC in the same voting program.
“I’ve said time and time again that the ‘D’ in Democrat stands for Deliver, and today we are providing innovative and historical resources to help protect this fundamental part of our democracy,” said Harrison.
The $ 25 million will be used in part towards a new digital and TV advertising campaign that DNC says will focus in part on how to register for the vote. The DNC says it will partner with social media creators on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to highlight what President Joe Biden and the Democrats have achieved so far.
The new funding will also help fund a technical component of the DNC’s voter registration.
“The Biden Harris team will fund the largest tech team in DNC history,” the announcement said. “The team will use data and other tools to identify and contact voters affected by suppression and voter roll-out efforts to ensure that all eligible voters have the information they need to vote with easy-to-use and actionable reports have voters who have been moved to inactive lists or removed from the electoral roll. “
DNC didn’t say who will be on its upcoming tech team, but Silicon Valley manager Reid Hoffman hosted a virtual fundraiser for the committee with Biden himself.
“You know, anyone who has donated and raised as much money as you would expect to knock on my door because you never asked me for a single thing. You raised a tremendous amount of money and said, “The reason we didn’t get together, Mr. President, is because we didn’t want to distract you. We want you to keep going,” said Biden at the Hoffman-led fundraiser last year Month.
