NextGen Climate Announces 2017-2018 Youth Registration and Mobilization Campaign: NextGen Rising

Major new campaign to organize young people in eight key states

SAN FRANCISCO—NextGen Climate today announced a new national campaign, NextGen Rising, to register, motivate, persuade, and turn out thousands of young voters in targeted states during the 2018 election. Expanding on efforts from the 2016 election cycle, NextGen Rising will focus on mobilizing young people through two parallel programs in eight key states—Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and California.

NextGen Rising starts with an investment of $7.5 million in 2017, with the budget and footprint set to increase in 2018.

“Young people are the future, and they tend to vote strongly and uncompromisingly progressive,” said NextGen Climate President Tom Steyer. “Our goal is to create momentum with young voters who can decisively swing the vote in favor of candidates committed to taking bold action on climate, promoting prosperity for all Americans, defending our fundamental rights, and resisting the Trump agenda.”

NextGen Rising begins in Fall 2017 on more than 200 campuses across eight states. The 15-month program will focus on building the political power of students at four-year and community college campuses in pivotal congressional and legislative districts.

NextGen Rising’s off-campus organizing program will hire field organizers in cities and towns in key congressional districts to help build the political power of younger voters in these communities. Teams will supplement existing “resistance” organizing efforts by mobilizing voters in their 20s and 30s, building an organization to execute a large voter registration program, and running the turnout operations needed to increase young voter participation in battleground districts. NextGen Rising has already begun organizing young voters in California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

“NextGen Rising will continue to build a multi-issue, youth-driven movement to elect progressive candidates in key states,” said NextGen Rising Director Ben Wessel. “Youth energy and interest in voting is on the rise, and organizations interested in pushing progressive change must be prepared to tap into that energy and organize those voters in time for 2018.”

NextGen Rising will begin in earnest with involvement in the 2017 Virginia statewide and legislative elections, hiring over a dozen full-time field organizers to register, motivate, and turnout voters on more than 20 campuses across the Commonwealth, including community colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and large 4-year institutions. More detailed plans for efforts in other states and races will be announced at a later date.

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In the 2016 election cycle, NextGen Climate conducted the largest independent youth vote program in modern campaign history. Those efforts engaged 12,828 young volunteers and registered over one million voters across the country. Young voters registered by NextGen Climate were over 4% more likely to vote than other new registrants, and registered young voters contacted by NextGen voted at a rate 23% higher than other voters their age not contacted by NextGen.