ACLU Launches Largest Ever Midterm Electoral Program

Summary

Editor’s Note: This story discusses work conducted by three separate entities: 1) the ACLU Foundation, a 501(c)(3), which engages in litigation, public education, messaging research, and administrative advocacy programming; 2) the ACLU, a 501 (c)(4), which engages in lobbying, ballot work, and voter mobilization programming, and 3) the ACLU Voter Education Fund (the fund), a 527 nonpartisan, independent-expenditure-only political action committee, which conducts voter education on candidates in select races. The future of American civil liberties isn't housed in the halls of Congress and White House, we are building it in our own backyards. As federal legislation has stalled, the real power to define the future of civil rights and civil liberties, including voting access and reproductive freedom, lives in local statehouses, secretary of state offices, and lower profile judicial races. That’s why the ACLU is executing a bold, multi-entity and multi-state electoral strategy to drive progress where it matters most. We launched our largest-ever investment — $25.5M for our voter education electoral program. In the year and half since President Donald Trump returned to office, we worked with governors, state legislatures, and attorneys generals to pass over 135 pieces of legislation and executive orders to protect rights. It also included laws to increase accountability for federal officials who violate peoples’ rights as well as several statewide 287(g) bans that prevent local law enforcement from coordinating with ICE (immigration enforcement agency). This work fills a critical information vacuum in lower profile, down-ballot races that have important consequences for daily life, despite a lack of information about candidates’ policy positions. In Wisconsin, the ACLU, ACLU Voter Education Fund, and ACLU of Wisconsin spent more than $3.2 million in state Supreme Court races over the last three years. We stay in the community long after the polls close, ensuring that the people’s will at the ballot box is translated into tangible policy outcomes.