PRESS RELEASE: Building Back Together Announces Voting Rights Initiative
Building Back Together Announces Voting Rights Initiative
Voting rights initiative to be led by Bob Bauer, senior advisor to President Biden’s campaign and architect of historic voter protection program
Efforts will focus on Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin
Washington, D.C. — Building Back Together, a new 501(c)(4) not-for-profit focused on advancing progressive policies in the Build Back Better agenda, is launching a voting rights initiative.
The initiative will be focused on advancing voting access and strengthening American democracy through landmark federal legislation, S1, HR1 and HR4. The organization will also work to advance pro-voter policies, and protect against efforts to suppress participation, in states and localities by improving access and defending against efforts to curtail voting rights throughout the country. Initial priority states for the effort include Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
The initiative will be led by Bob Bauer, senior advisor to President Biden’s campaign and architect of the campaign’s historic voter protection program. Bauer, alongside incoming Voting Rights Director Rubén Lebrón, will support pro-voter advocacy groups in analyzing and developing strategic responses to state election laws and practices. The team will work to counter proposed changes to those laws that impede access, particularly for voters of color and historically disadvantaged and densely populated communities. The team will also coordinate with national and state advocacy organizations that support a pro-voter agenda, providing critical data on voter behavior in the 2020 election, guidance on data-driven messaging to maximize public support, and best practices to ensure voting rights efforts and sound, non-partisan election administration.
“Protection of the right to vote is fundamental,” said Building Back Together Voting Rights Advisor Bob Bauer. “A broad-based coalition is required to expose the serious and continuing disinformation about the 2020 election, and to defend against the use of that disinformation to advance wholly unjustified and all too often flatly illegal restrictions on access to the polls. We also need to stand behind the election administrators of both parties now under attack for their dedicated non-partisan service to voters. After we saw, for the first time in modern American history, a President and his allies attempting to overturn the results of a national election, it is urgent that we ensure this attack on the democratic process is the last of its kind.”
“Under the seasoned and passionate leadership of Bob Bauer, our Voting Rights Initiative will be informed by a primary architect of voter and election protection work for the past two decades,” said Building Back Together Executive Director Danielle Melfi. “Bob spearheaded the record-setting voter protection program the Biden campaign executed this cycle, successfully expanding Americans’ opportunities to vote, fighting the challenge against election results in key battleground states, and electing a President who cares deeply about the integrity of our democracy and the sacred rights of voters. But this work must continue so that voters in local, state and federal elections across the country —particularly in communities whose rights have been historically suppressed — know that their democracy works and their votes will be fairly counted.”
About Building Back Together:
With leadership in the White House and Congress that shares our values, we have a critical opportunity to advance a progressive agenda. But we know that it will take smart advocacy to build the case for these policies. Building Back Together — a 501(c)(4) not-for-profit focused on advancing progressive policies in the Build Back Better agenda — was formed to get the job done, by creating winning campaign coalitions to achieve our goals and growing public support for our agenda.
Our name is intentional: we can’t do this work alone. We’ll partner with organizations to achieve policy successes and work together to communicate with the American people about how the Build Back Better agenda is changing lives in communities across the country.
The team at Building Back Together will:
- Convene progressive organizations to partner on coordinated campaigns at the local, state and national level
- Create usable resources like message research, guidance and tools
- Invest in innovative digital strategies and partnerships
- Develop effective advertising campaigns
Learn more: buildingbacktogether.org
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