After new legislative districts were drawn following the 2020 Census, the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee (PAHDCC) used Mobilize to power volunteer recruitment and mobilization efforts to help flip their state legislative chamber blue for the first time in over a decade.
Summary
After new district maps were finalized, the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee (PAHDCC) began working immediately on plans to flip their chamber blue. As a part of their organizing efforts, the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee invested in Mobilize to empower candidates to recruit volunteers and take action across the state. With a strong, caucus-centered GOTV effort built through Mobilize, the PAHDCC flipped the Pennsylvania House of Representatives blue by winning 102 seats in the 2022 general election.
OVERALL IMPACT BY THE NUMBERS
40
campaigns were provided Mobilize by the PAHDCC
2,000
volunteers were recruited through Mobilize
The PAHDCC won
50%
of seats in the state House
The history of party control in Pennsylvania
A competitive, but previously gerrymandered state
As a battleground state, Pennsylvania continues to have competitive races at the statewide level. However, due to Republican gerrymandering, it was difficult to make gains in the state legislature. Despite Pennsylvania’s governorship remaining in Democratic control since 2015, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives has not been under Democratic control since 2010.
Redistricting offered new opportunities
But, after redistricting occurred following the 2020 Census, new districts offered new opportunities for candidates across the state, and the PAHDCC immediately began to organize to make gains in the legislature. As a part of their organizing efforts, the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee invested in Mobilize again after using it in 2020.
Organizing early to invest in a long-term strategy
Unlike many other state legislative campaign committees, the Pennsylvania House Campaign Committee launched a deep canvassing program in the summer of 2021 to have non-electoral conversations about raising the minimum wage and prescription drug costs with voters across the state. After conducting this deep canvassing program, the Caucus began organizing with information gained from those conversations with those voters heading into the 2022 cycle.
Unfortunately between election cycles, campaigns notoriously lose information as people keep information stored in different places in different systems. As a caucus, the PAHDCC understood the value of having a centralized platform to retain all the valuable volunteer information collected throughout the campaign cycle.
Mobilize easily collects, stores, and acts on volunteer information to power future volunteer efforts. Additionally, Mobilize’s VAN integration was a huge time-saving feature that automatically collected and stored volunteer information in VAN from anyone who signed up through Mobilize, ensuring that each campaign could work within My Campaign in VAN to reengage volunteers.
Every single volunteer is a vital part of each campaign, and every volunteer lost is to the detriment of campaigns. Mobilize is a great way to get folks to sign up in an easy way and continue tracking their involvement throughout the cycle.
Sawyer Neale
Field Director, Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee
The PAHDCC used Mobilize in 2020 and knew that they wanted to use it again during this cycle. The caucus invested in Mobilize as a platform in February and then scaled up their investment by providing it to 40 of their campaigns. Campaigns jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of this powerful organizing platform, and soon after providing it to them, campaigns were hosting events all across the state. As a user-friendly platform, Mobilize allowed campaigns to quickly post events and actions to drive more sign-ups through its built-in automations. Promotions and attribution features also helped understand what campaigns and organizations were generating significant results and where additional support may be needed.
Through Mobilize, the PAHDCC recruited around 2,000 volunteers to take action across the state. And, by signing up through Mobilize, these volunteers were then plugged into additional opportunities from the PAHDCC and their campaigns throughout the cycle. As out-of-state and other grassroots groups began to take action in Pennsylvania, it was incredibly easy to plug them into opportunities with Mobilize’s user-friendly functionality. It also allowed the PAHDCC to build a strong, caucus-centered GOTV effort to gain a majority in the state legislative chamber for the first time in over a decade.
NGP VAN helps power winning campaigns
The PAHDCC understood the value that Mobilize would provide their campaigns. By investing in Mobilize, they empowered their candidates to easily build and scale volunteer operations, directly record volunteer information into VAN, and save their campaigns and staff hours of time.
There was widespread adoption of Mobilize in organizing efforts in PAHDCC campaigns because they realized that it was a valuable tool to integrate into their operations. In addition to being an easy-to-use platform for supporters, staff also valued the built-in automations and functionality to remind volunteers about their scheduled shifts and upcoming events.
We’re proud to partner with the PAHDCC and other caucuses to empower state legislative campaigns to scale their volunteer efforts with our suite of campaign tools including Mobilize, NGP, VAN, and so much more.