The Democratic National Committee launched a new program Thursday that will expand the party’s outreach in traditionally red states where Hillary Clinton is attempting to court disaffected Republican voters.
The program, called the “Victory Leaders Council,” will make its debut in Utah, Georgia and Arizona before launching in other reliably Republican states this fall.
In each state, a council of high-profile Democrats and elected officials will team up with grassroots activists to bolster the party’s ground operation and drive get-out-the-vote efforts through the continued recruitment of volunteers.
“Councils will exist in red and blue states that have not been contested in recent presidential elections,” DNC officials explained in a press release. “The goal of the councils is to help elect Hillary Clinton and win down-ballot elections this cycle and beyond.”
While working with Clinton’s presidential campaign, each individual council will simultaneously focus on helping down-ballot Democrats in various races this cycle and in upcoming midterm elections. Republicans have gained significant control of state legislatures since President Obama took office and swept the midterm elections in 2010 and 2014.
“In states from Georgia to Arizona, demographics and politics are changing quickly — and Democrats are making the investments to make gains now so that we can take majorities later,” interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile said in a statement on Thursday. “We are mobilizing voters across the country to elect more Democrats and to deliver on the policies being driven by the Clinton-Kaine ticket and Democrats at every level of the ballot.
“The Victory Leaders Councils are one more way that Democrats are investing in all 50 states,” she added.
The DNC’s push for votes in states that have long been favorable to the GOP comes as Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee double down on their own effort to target minority voters and in key battleground states.
Trump himself has said he hopes to put states that have gone blue in the last several election cycles — like Washington, Michigan and Connecticut — into play in November.
