September 21, 2023
DPI Organizing Lab
Ohio Organizers Experiment with ‘Relational’ Contacts
Description
This study aims to capture a 360-degree picture of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative’s innovative, scaled, 2022 relational voter organizing program with both quantitative and qualitative data.
Authors
Harvard Kennedy School
source
Harvard Kennedy School

Research from 2016 and 2018 has shown that relational voter contact (talking with individuals in the community that you already know) significantly increases voter turnout, more than any other single tactic. This study aims to capture a 360-degree picture of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative’s innovative, scaled, 2022 relational voter organizing program with both quantitative and qualitative data. The OOC’s relational program focused almost entirely on young Black voters with a new approach that lowered tech barriers to participation and that was supplemented with a digital local influencers program. This research captures lessons around recruitment, base building, voter turnout, and political landscape impact and highlights how all of these are integrated into the OOC’s long term powerbuilding strategy. It also reveals similarities and differences in values, political identity, and behavior among four distinct tiers of engagement: OOC staff, “democracy builders” who participated in the program, their networks of friends and family, and similar communities of voters in Ohio. 

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