Planned Parenthood Votes 
Launches Largest 
Midterm Ground Game
 in Organization History
As Kavanaugh Hearings 
Commence 

Washington, DC – Today, Planned Parenthood Votes and Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations are announcing the launch of their largest midterm ground game ever to mobilize millions of voters ahead of November. This Saturday,  more than 400 hundred volunteers, supporters, and staff in target states across the country –– including in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin –– will hold over 30 canvass kickoff events and knock on thousands of doors in critical midterm races. By November, their 2018 midterm program will knock on more doors and invest more money than any previous midterm effort.

This effort is part of Planned Parenthood Votes’ and Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations’ largest investment ever in a midterm cycle–– $20 million in March.Vote.Win., in addition to Planned Parenthood Votes partnership with Color of Change PAC, Center for Community Change Action, and SEIU in a joint effort called Win Justice. Through March.Vote.Win., the partnership with the Win Justice coalition, and local Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations, the 2018 electoral program will reach 4.5 million voters and make nearly 3 million door knocks.

This announcement comes at a pivotal time: as the Senate is holding hearings on Trump’s anti-abortion Supreme Court nominee, as a federal district court in Texas will hear oral arguments on a case challenging protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and as the Trump administration’s domestic gag rule is being finalized. The Trump administration has undermined reproductive health and rights since day one. They attempted to take health care coverage away from 20 million people, tried time and time again to block patients from coming to Planned Parenthood health centers for care, attacked immigrant communities’ access to health care, ended protections for survivors of sexual assault on campus, and allowed providers to deny health care to LGBTQ people. 

As a result of these attacks, there has been an unprecedented increase in activism and energy across the country to fight back. A new poll shows that women’s rights are the number one issuedriving people to take political action. Planned Parenthood gained over 2 million new supporters in the past year alone, and now has over 12 million supporters nationwide. Women of color led the way to big electoral victories in Alabama and Virginia. Planned Parenthood Votes, Planned Parenthoodadvocacy and political organizations, and our coalition partners in Win Justice are positioned to channel this grassroots energy into electoral victories in 2018.

Statement from Deirdre Schifeling, Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Votes:

From Kavanaugh’s nomination hearings, to stripping protections for people with pre-existing conditions, to the domestic gag rule, this week has reaffirmed what millions of Americans have been feeling. Our health care and rights are under attack by politicians who want to impose their beliefs on all people. This isn’t some abstract future; this is right now. This is real.

The only way to stop the attacks against our basic health and rights is to change who represents us. Our ground game brings that fight to the ballot box. We’re going to put representatives into office who actually serve their constituents. So to any politician who’s made a career of undermining our freedom and rights, let this be a warning: your days in power are numbered. We’re voting you out in 2018.

Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations’ volunteers and staff will be out in full forcethis Saturday and through election day in November, educating voters at the doors about what’s at stake for their health care and rights. On this inaugural weekend in Pennsylvania, nearly 80 volunteers and staff will knock on thousands of doors in 10 counties. In Ohio, volunteers will take to the streets in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Toledo to knock on thousands more.

Planned Parenthood Votes and other Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations are investing $20 million in Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as part of the March.Vote.Win. program. This program will be focused on direct voter contact methods like door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, and relational organizing –– and will also feature TV and digital ads. Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations will also run programs for several U.S. House, attorneys general, and state legislature races.

In addition to March.Vote.WIn, Planned Parenthood Votes is partnering with Color of Change PAC, Center for Community Change Action, and SEIU in the Win Justice coalition. This program is focused on mobilizing infrequent voters in three states –– Florida, Michigan, and Nevada –– where they seek to engage and turn out people of color, women, and young people. Through peer-to-peer texting, digital organizing, and resourcing and training community leaders to knock on doors and mobilize voters in their communities, Win Justice partner organizations will engage 2.5 million infrequent voters in 2018.

Background: Reproductive Health is a Deciding Issue in Elections 

The Trump-Pence administration has been attempting to strip peoples’ access to reproductive health care since day one. The American people are overwhelmingly opposed to these attacks, and to the politicians who support them.

Trump’s anti-abortion Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, is underwater with voters, and a majority of voters support access to safe, legal abortion

• A recent CNN poll showed that more voters oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation than support it: 
   
  • Only 37% of Americans support Kavanaugh’s confirmation-- the lowest approval rating of a Supreme Court nomination in more than thirty years.
     
  • Only 28% of women want Kavanaugh to be confirmed.
     
• A recent Wall Street Journal - NBC poll showed support for Roe v. Wade at its highest point on record, with 71 percent of voters supporting Roe v. Wade. That includes a majority of Republican voters (52 percent). 
   
• A recent PerryUndem poll showed that a majority of Trump voters (52 percent) and 82 percent of millennial voters (between 18 and 29) support Roe v. Wade.
  • That same poll found that independents are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports access to abortion: Forty-six percent of independents said they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports access to safe, legal abortion, while only 15 percent of independents said they are more likely to vote for someone who opposes access to safe, legal abortion.

Voters overwhelmingly oppose blocking access to care at Planned Parenthood.

• Twenty national polls all show overwhelming support for Planned Parenthood. 
   
• An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that Planned Parenthood is the most popular “political” institution in the country.
   
• A Quinnipiac poll shows that 80 percent of American voters are opposed to “defunding” Planned Parenthood and blocking patients who rely on Medicaid from accessing preventive and essential health care. 
   
• A PerryUndem poll that shows that 57 percent of Trump voters oppose actions that would prohibit women from accessing birth control, well-woman care, and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood. 
   
• In swing states, an overwhelming majority of voters oppose attempts to block people from receiving birth control and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood, and are less like to support candidates who vote to “defund” Planned Parenthood.
   
  • In a series of focus groups in swing states across the country, Donald Trump’s own voters made clear they would be “disappointed” with “defunding” Planned Parenthood.
     
  • 59 percent of voters in 13 swing districts say they oppose “defunding” Planned Parenthood and 54 percent said if their member of Congress supported “defunding” Planned Parenthood, they would be less likely to vote for them. [Public Policy Polling, 4/27/17]
     
  • In Iowa, 71 percent of voters, including 74 percent of independents, and 50 percent of Republicans, believe Planned Parenthood should receive reimbursement for non-abortion related health services. [Des Moines Register,2/9/18] 

In Virginia in 2017, reproductive health care and rights played a key role in Governor Northam’s victory.

• In the days before the election, Planned Parenthood Virginia PAC talked to undecided voters about reproductive health care and moved voters towards Ralph Northam.
   
• In polling, reproductive health care and rights messaging created significant movement among key parts of the Virginia electorate:
   
  • Black voters moved toward Ralph Northam by 19 points
     
  • Voters over the age of 65 moved towards Ralph Northam by 8 points
     
  • Lean Democrats voters moved towards Ralph Northam by 4 points
     
  • Lean Republicans voters moved towards Ralph Northam by 2 points

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Planned Parenthood Votes is an independent expenditure political committee registered with the Federal Election Commission.