What 2024 Campaigners Can Learn from How Digital Advocacy Was Successfully Deployed in 2020 Electoral Campaigns

In recent years, many campaigners have moved toward integrating digital advocacy and organizing tactics. This method, sometimes referred to as Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE), combines issue advocacy with voter mobilization efforts to create measurable impact on both policy change and electoral results. 

Emgage, a civic organization focusing on the Muslim-American community, has long deployed an IVE approach, and it has seen a 17.2% increase in voter participation among its base. 

When it comes to electoral work, studies suggest that engaging supporters in advocacy actions during a campaign can increase their propensity to vote by up to 50%.

Giving supporters meaningful multi-channel actions—such as targeting email advocacy, making calls to representatives, or getting letters published in local papers—keeps our constituencies engaged, motivated, and ready to take further action.

How Digital Advocacy Supports Electoral Campaigns

1. Building a Strong Voter Base Through Advocacy Campaigns

Before mobilizing voters, campaigns need to identify and connect with potential supporters. One way to do this is through digital advocacy campaigns, which engage individuals on issues they care about and connect them with decision-makers.

Whether you're advocating for accessible voting, climate action, or economic reform, these tools enable campaigns to create meaningful touchpoints with voters.

A great example of this comes from UBI Works in Canada, which used a letter-to-the-editor campaign to shape public opinion ahead of an election, ensuring that the conversation included universal basic income.

Similarly, the SPLC Action Fund  ran a campaign in Mississippi, asking candidates to answer hard-hitting questions about social justice issues.

The key advantage of advocacy campaigns is allowing supporters to actively participate in their community while helping campaigns identify likely voters. 

2. Getting Voters to the Polls: Digital Tools for GOTV

Once a campaign has identified potential voters, the next step is ensuring they appear at the polls. Research has shown that personal contact with voters—through calls, texts, or emails—has a much higher success rate than generic outreach.

By using contact information collected from advocacy campaigns, campaigns can segment their audience and target voters based on geographic location or issue interest.

For example, Sunrise Movement can follow up with those who take action on their new campaign, and ask those supporters to vote or volunteer as a next step. 

This level of targeted communication increases the likelihood that voters will turn out on Election Day. 

Case Studies: Successful Use of Advocacy in the 2020 Election

Several groups successfully combined digital advocacy with voter mobilization during the 2020 election and here's a few examples we can learn from. 

Warren Democrats ran a 50-state campaign encouraging over 12,000 people to send letters to editors and contact state officials about voting access. This effort helped keep the issue of safe, accessible voting in the public eye while mobilizing voters across the country.

(Psst, learn more about why Letters to Editors effectively influence public opinion and sway legislators on your issue.)

Check out Elizebeth Warrent demonstrating the power of this tactic herself. 

I'll say it again: No one should have to choose between voting and staying safe. But it's not enough to talk about it—we have to do something about it.

That's why we made this simple tool for you to demand your elected officials make voting safe and easy: https://t.co/lUevfQadyf pic.twitter.com/my0kcNqgU7

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 21, 2020

*Common Cause is using the Letter to the Editor engagement tactic this cycle here. 

Protect Our Election launched a targeted campaign that encouraged supporters to email or call local election officials to ensure smooth and secure voting processes. This multi-channel approach reached thousands of voters, offering them meaningful ways to support election integrity.

Our Revolution, an organization born out of Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, launched a campaign in Pennsylvania urging voters to speak out against a panel investigating “voting irregularities.” This campaign, which leveraged New/Mode’s action pages, was designed to be easily deployable in response to evolving election challenges.

MN350 used a letter-to-the-editor campaign to drive home the importance of climate issues in the election. Supporters could easily send letters to multiple publications, encouraging Minnesotans to become climate voters.

Digital advocacy tactics engage supporters and help shape public discourse, making them invaluable tools in electoral campaigns.

Let’s also not forget the impediment of so-called lame-duck sessions of government and the potential for contested elections in November.

Building power via a growing constituency recently engaged is an essential asset for whatever happens after the November election. 

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