Progressive group to spend $50M boosting Sun Belt turnout

Progressive organization Way to Win plans to invest $50 million to help the Democratic Party in the Sun Belt, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

An advance copy of the group’s blueprint obtained by AP details a strategy to help Democrats in Georgia, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina, where the party hopes to make inroads with people of color, women and young people.

{mosads}“It’s preparing to win not just in 2020, but to build power in the long term,” Tory Gavito, president of Way to Win, which was founded after President Donald Trump’s 2016 win, told AP.

Way to Win previously spent $22 million during the 2018 midterm season.

The group told AP that President Trump’s 2020 strategy, which focuses on his base, offers opportunities for Democrats to make inroads in the states they have often lost.

“It’s a threat,” Gavito said. “2020 is a race to drive up the most new voters possible. Our job is driving forward the new electorate in the South and Southwest.”

Progressives also say that shifting population compositions in Sun Belt states means some Republican-dominated states may be in play.