Can Rhode Island Voters Make a Difference in Swing States?

A national campaign is targeting Democrats to help fund voting efforts in key battleground states

Rick Brooks, a volunteer for the Movement Voter Project, speaks during a recent event at the Blue Room in Cranston.
Rick Brooks, a volunteer for the Movement Voter Project, speaks during a recent event at the Blue Room in Cranston.
Ian Donnis/The Public’s Radio
Share
Rick Brooks, a volunteer for the Movement Voter Project, speaks during a recent event at the Blue Room in Cranston.
Rick Brooks, a volunteer for the Movement Voter Project, speaks during a recent event at the Blue Room in Cranston.
Ian Donnis/The Public’s Radio
Can Rhode Island Voters Make a Difference in Swing States?
Copy

A recent get-together of more than 50 people at the Blue Room, a bar and music venue in the Pawtuxet Village section of Cranston, was part of a national campaign called the Movement Voter Project. The idea is to raise money from supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in predictably blue and red states — and funnel it to grassroots groups to mobilize voters in the swing states that will decide the November election.

“The approach in MVP is completely different,” said Rick Brooks, one of the dozen or so volunteers organizing the Movement Voter Project in Rhode Island.

Brooks said the project is a far more targeted approach than old standbys like mailing postcards to out-of-state voters or opening a campaign office in a strip plaza for a few months before an election.

“They’re investing in organizations that have been in existence, that have credibility, have a track record and are going to be there a day after the election, win or lose,” Brooks said.

The groups getting money through the Movement Voter Project focus on issues popular among Democrats like abortion rights, immigrants’ rights and voting rights.

This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.

After questioning RIDOT Director Peter Alviti, Rep. June Speakman says she’s troubled by what she sees as little internal accountability or in-house expertise guiding the state’s major infrastructure projects
Customs and Border Protection officers detained the woman, who holds a valid green card, because of an outstanding warrant for shoplifting more than a dozen years old
State lawmakers pressed Director Peter Alviti for answers Thursday, marking the most intense public scrutiny of the Washington Bridge collapse since the release of a critical audit this fall
The latest production at The Gamm Theatre is ‘Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune,’ a two-hander about a one-night stand
Browse tiny artwork at the Providence Art Club, learn about the people who made Lippitt House work, and see artwork at the Narrows Center for the Arts inspired by Fall River’s history as the second largest cotton manufacturer in the world