Here at Blue Tent, we spend a lot of time telling readers what not to do with their money. We’ve covered wasteful electoral groups and doomed campaigns, often recommending that readers interested in making a difference instead invest in state and local politics, especially grassroots organizing.
To a lot of people, this probably sounds like being told to eat your vegetables. Progressive voters have been made to believe that change from organizing is both boring and time-consuming, dependent on sacrifices today for some abstract progress at an unspecified future date. In reality, that vision for change has it all backward, and the Fairness Project–the subject of Blue Tent’s latest research brief–is proving that the path to progressive victories can come through, well, victory.
Founded in 2014 with the help of labor powerhouse SEIU United Healthcare Workers, the Fairness Project has helped to launch and support two dozen state and municipal level ballot measure campaigns across the country. The aim of these referenda has ranged from Medicaid expansion to raising the minimum wage to local police reform, often bringing popular progressive policy ideas directly to voters in deep-red states. Moreover, because of its small budget, FP has had to invest shrewdly, and it shows: of the 24 campaigns FP has supported, it’s won 23, bringing healthcare access, higher wages, paid leave, and protection from predatory lending to millions of Americans.
As our brief explains, these victories aren’t just one-off wins, but the basis for even greater change and progress down the road. Achieving change directly at the ballot box–often in a period of less than a year–empowers local groups and helps them to win the trust of new voters, building the basis for even bigger, systemic changes in the future. The policies they enact are also extremely difficult for recalcitrant lawmakers to repeal, as they often provide popular, direct benefits to huge numbers of people, and any legislature working against such gains would be seen as directly overturning the will of the people.
But even though FP has such a strong demonstrated record of success, the organization’s budget remains minuscule. Democratic and progressive attention to ballot measures as a whole lags behind as well, especially as a number of conservative legislatures and governors have begun pursuing policies to limit popular referenda in their states. While FP expects to see an uptick in funding this year, its total budget will likely only reach around $8 million. (For reference, in September of 2021, the Intercept reported that Sara Gideon, the failed 2020 Democratic Senate candidate in Maine, was sitting on close to $10 million in leftover campaign cash.)
Asked by Blue Tent what FP would do with more money, executive director Kelly Hall said the answer was easy: “The more money we raise, the more campaigns we can run and support.”
Ballot measures are one of the few winning strategies for progressives at the moment. More well-run ballot measure campaigns mean more people supporting and experiencing progressive policies removed from partisan political labels. This is part of a promising path to building the kind of grassroots power the left desperately needs, the kind of power that can overwhelm corporate money and anti-democratic forces on the right.
Those who want to learn more can read our brief on FP, but here’s the short version: everyone left of center should give to the Fairness Project, and they should do it right now.