Deception & Misdirection

The Origins of “Zuck Bucks”: New Organizing Institute


The Origins of “Zuck Bucks” (full series)
Getting Out the (Democratic) Vote | New Organizing Institute
Reaching the Emerging Majority | Center for Tech and Civic Life


New Organizing Institute

Much of Corridor Partners’ data originated with NOI’s voter registration research, which advised allies on how to “narrow the [turnout] gap” by targeting the “emerging majority”: African Americans, Latinos, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and unmarried women. Other leftist groups call this demographic the “New American Majority” or “Rising Majority.”

In 2010, NOI executive director Ethan Roeder co-authored a report advising Democrats on how “to capitalize on the growing political influence of Hispanics” to build “future majorities” in Arizona, Virginia, Texas, Florida, and other key states. Revealingly, Roeder now works for Forward Majority (confusingly, not the same as the leftist turnout group Majority Forward), which “has an aggressive strategy to secure critical footholds of power for Democrats” by registering new voters in Republican districts it hopes to flip.

“Though Texas will likely not vote Democratic in a presidential election for a generation, Latino investment would swing the state’s vote totals by a full 7 percentage points in 2024,” NOI writes. “Such a swing could make the election of a Democratic governor or Senator a much more attainable goal.”

NOI added:

Our projections predict that eleven Congressional districts (as currently drawn) will, in a generic scenario, change hands to Democrats because of Hispanic voter growth, though in many more districts Hispanic voter growth will put formerly safe Republican seats within striking distance for Democrats.

While the report focused on GOTV efforts, it also emphasized registration—even drawing up a formula for determining the number of Democratic votes that registration drives could achieve:

Population * Registration Rate * Turnout Rate * Democratic Voting Rate

 

 

In 2011, NOI published “Engaging the Emerging Majority: The Case for Voter Registration in 2012 and Beyond,” authored by Heather Booth, a socialist specializing in training new organizers through Midwest Academy; NOI organizing director Joy Cushman, now campaign director for the liberal Christian turnout group Faith In Action; and NOI civic engagement director Pilar Weiss, who now runs the National Bail Fund Network, a Tides Foundation front that offers bail to those accused of (often violent) crimes.

In the report, NOI predicts that this group of groups—united solely by a propensity to vote for Democrats—would become America’s “new majority” by 2018, implying they would create a permanent Democratic majority:

If the Emerging Majority are registered to vote and motivated to civic engagement they have the potential to dramatically shift the American social, economic, and political landscape—allowing us to begin rectifying our country’s historical inequalities. [emphasis added]

According to NOI, “donors invested more than $50 million” registering 4.1 million new “emerging majority” voters in 2008, yet it wasn’t enough. Permanently closing that gap “will require successfully registering 9.8 million new Emerging Majority voters” and significant year-after-year financing:

Starting in 2012, both capacity and investment will need to expand consistently year to year if we are to keep up with the growth of the Emerging Majority, close the registration equality gap, and move toward full registration. . . .

[A]cross constituencies, for every single Emerging Majority registered voter who did not vote in 2008, there were four more citizens just like them who could have voted if only they had been registered. . . .

In 2012 it will be critical that independent registration efforts have the opportunity to return to and improve on the advances made in 2008. Erasing the registration equality gap is only the first benchmark for increasing representation of the Emerging Majority in our democracy. . . . That will only be possible with expanded organizational capacity to register voters and greater investment in voter registration. [emphasis added]


In the next installment, NOI calculates how activists can register new voters.

Hayden Ludwig

Hayden Ludwig is the Director of Policy Research at Restoration of America. He was formerly Senior Investigative Researcher at Capital Research Center. Ludwig is a native of Orange County, California,…
+ More by Hayden Ludwig