ICYMI: Pennsylvania Democrats Supercharge Local Voter Outreach to Turn Out Voters for Harris-Walz and Down Ballot Democrats

National Democrats and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party aren’t leaving any votes on the board this year; from the White House to the statehouse, Democrats are mobilizing “Vote Local PA,” the “largest and most coordinated campaign” to reach voters in every county and house district in the state. 

The program provides targeted talking points that are updated in real time, and easily accessible information on every single race in the state across sixty-seven counties. This program will not only support targeted voter engagement on behalf of Vice President Harris and Governor Walz in the critical state of Pennsylvania, it will rally Pennsylvanians as they elect Democrats up and down the ticket and fight back against Donald Trump and Republicans’ extreme Project 2025 agenda.

Take a look at some of the coverage below:

New York Times: Democrats Begin Highly Targeted Campaign Up and Down Pennsylvania Ballot 

By Maggie Astor

  • The Pennsylvania Democratic Party began a program Wednesday to give locally tailored messaging to canvassers across the state, for candidates from the Harris-Walz ticket down to school boards.
  • The party said it was the largest and most coordinated campaign it had conducted in Pennsylvania.
  • Canvassers will have highly targeted talking points. In a town where conservatives control the school board, the focus might be on book bans; in a rural county without good internet access, it might be on broadband funding from the infrastructure bill President Biden signed; in Pittsburgh, where a bridge collapsed in 2022, it might be on funding for road repairs.
  • The canvassers will also have campaign literature to give out, tailored to each of the state’s 67 counties and 203 State House districts, or even smaller areas. Each piece of literature — there are 395 in all — will have a QR code leading to a list of every candidate on local ballots and to voting information like polling locations that can be updated daily if details change.
  • The state party is spending at least $500,000 on the effort, called Vote Local PA.
  • The program is an acknowledgment of Pennsylvania’s central role this year. Its 19 electoral votes could tip the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump. The re-election campaign of Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat, could decide control of the Senate. At least four House races are competitive, and both chambers of the divided state legislature could flip.
  • Mitch Kates, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, described Vote Local PA as a rejection of concentrating efforts in Democratic counties and an effort to narrow loss margins elsewhere. Losing a Republican county by 25 points instead of 30 could matter in a statewide race.
  • Judy Hines, the vice chair of the Democratic Party of Mercer County — a rural area between Pittsburgh and Erie — said the increased coordination among campaigns, and between the county and state parties, felt “like in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ when it’s black and white and it goes into color.”

NBC: Pennsylvania Democrats launch program to give voters personalized election information

By Emma Barnett and Shaquille Brewster

  • Pennsylvania Democrats are launching a digital program designed to direct voters to personalized information on candidates who will appear down their ballot in the battleground state this fall.
  • This will be the first presidential election cycle the state party will be using the “Vote Local PA” program, narrowing the focus down to the state House district level with nearly 400 distinct pieces of literature across Pennsylvania. 
  • “The path to the White House runs through Pennsylvania, and Democrats are meeting voters where they are — at the doors, on the phones, and in their communities — to share our party’s commitment to fight for the people, to lower costs, and to protect our freedoms,” the Democratic National Committee’s acting co-executive director, Roger Lau, said in a statement.
  • “The DNC is investing more than ever before in state parties, supporting the largest-ever coordinated campaign on the ground in PA and backing innovative initiatives like Vote Local PA to reach every voter ahead of Election Day,” he continued. “We know this election will be won in the states, and over the next 70 days, Democrats will engage voters in all 67 Pennsylvania counties with a targeted, tailored message on how we’ll deliver for them and their families this November.”