Can This Catholic Ballot Chasing Operation Make The Difference For Republicans This Fall?
With Election Day right around the corner, some conservatives are sounding the alarm about a reported lack of enthusiasm among Christians to vote this election season.
The fears stem from a study published Monday by Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center, which found “that as many as 104 million people of faith are unlikely to vote in this upcoming election — and among those, 32 million self-identified Christians who regularly attend church won’t cast their ballots.” Among the reasons behind these Christians’ lack of civic participation this November are a lack of interest in “politics and elections” and dissatisfaction with “all of the major candidates.”
If those estimates are remotely close to true, the analysis summarized, “the impact bodes more poorly for President Trump’s prospects for reelection than for Mrs. Harris’ effort to succeed Joe Biden.”
With so much at stake this November, Christian organizations are working to galvanize faith-oriented voters to cast ballots this November. One group in particular, however, is setting its sights on chasing the ballots of one denomination that could be crucial in determining which party wins the White House.
Catholics for Catholics (CforC) is a 501(c)(4) organization focused on Catholic voter turnout in seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. As noted in the ACU study, there are an estimated 19 million adults who “attend a Catholic church” and are unlikely to vote this year.
It’s those types of low-propensity Catholic voters whose ballots the group is chasing ahead of Election Day, CforC President John Yep told The Federalist.
“It’s two groups of people that are going to really help swing this election, [with] number one [being] Catholic voters in swing states,” Yep said.
The Gameplan
While CforC’s ballot chasing operation officially launched in June, early development for the program started in January.
According to Yep, the group was approached by Turning Point Action (TPA) — which launched its ballot chase endeavor earlier this year — to spearhead efforts to target and turn out low-propensity Catholic voters during the 2024 election season. Under their working relationship, the two conservative organizations have a data-sharing agreement in place that allows CforC to utilize the voter information amassed by Turning Point.
As The Federalist previously reported, TPA’s “Chase the Vote” employs “the most recent voter roll data acquired from local and state governments.” The group’s data team subsequently used this information to develop custom wards and precincts “containing hundreds of … prospective electors” in these areas.
“The general trend of other conservative activist organizations in the 2024 cycle has been to switch strategies a bit and focus more on localized voter outreach,” Yep said. “To that end, strategies were developed by different organizations with more of the same goal … [of going] after low-propensity Republican voters.”
The CforC president estimates there are approximately 2.2 million low-propensity Catholic voters across the aforementioned swing states. The group has roughly 1,000 volunteers working to register and turn out at least 12,000 such electors in Arizona; 4,000 in Georgia; 30,000 in Michigan; 9,000 in Nevada; 15,000 in North Carolina; 23,000 in Pennsylvania; and 15,000 in Wisconsin.
How It Works
Similar to TPA’s strategy, CforC’s operation places a heavy emphasis on ballot chasers forming personal relationships with prospective voters in their local neighborhoods.
After Catholics for Catholics ballot chasers sign up online and undergo proper vetting, they are given access to an online portal and assigned a list of 20 low-propensity Catholic voters within their community, according to Yep. The online system provides chasers “information tools” such as scripts to use when calling, texting, or visiting these voters at their homes, and a resource page where CforC volunteers can stay connected with one another.
The CforC president said that each low-propensity voter profile within the online portal comes with a list of five action items each chaser must complete ahead of Election Day. The ultimate goal, he said, is to ensure these individuals are registered and cast their ballot in the election.
“Take Arizona, for instance. If you register in Arizona and you ask for a mail-in the ballot, that’s public information. Once you [request it], receive it, and return it, Maricopa County updates it for public record, so we’re able to work with that and know which ballots” are still out there, Yep said. The system is “synced that once their ballots have been turned in, that’s when [CforC chasers] know that [they’ve] completed the mission.”
Chasers can ask for an additional 20 low-propensity Catholic voters to chase once they’ve completed their original list, he added.
One advantage Democrats have over Republicans when it comes to ballot chasing is the fact that many Democrat voters are concentrated in densely-populated urban areas, whereas Republican ones are more likely to be found in exurbs and rural areas, where voters are more spread out. When pressed on how Catholics for Catholics’ operation compensates for this disadvantage, Yep pointed to the group’s reliance on the “parish base” and strategy of assigning chasers to prospective voters in their communities.
“We always ask people, ‘What parish are you at?’ and assign them 20 voters near” their location, he said. “In that sense, it’s not like they’re way out there because that person’s going to go after [that voter] in their neighborhood.”
Yep declined to say how much money CforC is expending on its ballot chasing operation, but noted it’s a “relatively low budget.”
The Road Ahead
CforC’s efforts have not come without its challenges, however. Yep said the group’s biggest hurdle thus far has been a lack of understanding among the electorate “of what’s at stake in 2024.”
It’s been a challenge “overcoming [the sentiment] that both sides have issues, they’re OK, and therefore, we don’t need to get out there and vote or take action,” Yep said.
The CforC president expressed optimism the organization is equipped to handle such issues, pointing to voters’ concerns about the assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.
“I think when people see two assassination attempts on the president, [they know] something is not right,” he added.
[READ NEXT: Is Christian Nonprofit Voter Outreach The Answer To Beating Democrats’ Election Machine?]
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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