Civic Engagement

CPD has an extensive record of winning strategic victories at the local, state, and federal levels by building power locally. Our primary civic engagement goal is to develop the infrastructure, capacities, and resources of our network to conduct unprecedented voter engagement and turnout in 2020, with a focus on several key states. 

Recent Campaign Victories
In 2018, the CPD Network increased civic engagement efforts in the midterm elections by 40 percent (from 2016) through the following actions:

• Registering 400,000 voters 

• Conducting sustained follow-up organizing and engagement with more than 500,000 voters 

• Participating in Get Out the Vote (GOTV) programs that reached more than two million households 

• Helping to pass six state-wide ballot initiatives on democracy reform and economic justice

• Knocking on 5,000,000 doors with our sister organization, CPD Action.

Strategy and Goals for 2019–2020

State-Based Outreach
CPD will collaborate closely with our local and state-based affiliates to run high-impact, data-driven, integrated civic engagement programs that lead with the issues. Our efforts will focus on key states, in which the CPD Network will concentrate its electoral work on increasing turnout among Black, brown, and low-income voters.

Civic Engagement Capacity and Training
To strengthen and scale up our network’s civic engagement work in 2020, CPD is investing in a number of innovative field-building projects. We will help our affiliates expand geographically; help them hire and train Civic Engagement Directors; and provide resources and training for effective data management, strategic targeting, legal compliance, best models and practices for Get out the Vote (GOTV) and voter engagement field programs, and more. 

Expanding the Electorate
CPD recognizes that one of the most important first steps ahead of general elections is to expand the electorate. Currently there are as many as two million eligible Black people not registered to vote in critical swing states and up to three million Latinx people who will come of age to vote in 2020. In 2019 and 2020, the CPD Network will create significant voter registration drives in our focus states and other strategic regions with the goal of registering over 500,000 new voters.