Challenge:
Author, radio and TV personality, and comedian Al Franken was locked in a fierce three-way contest against an incumbent Republican and a strong Independent candidate. Franken, a controversial candidate, was having significant difficulty in both locking down the traditional Democratic base and in attracting Obama voters, both of which were critical in this three-way contest.
Solution:
grassroots solutions worked closely with campaign leaders and the state DFL party to strategically reorient the field and political efforts of the campaign to focus more closely on persuading base voters to “come back” to Franken. Using updated polling data, daily results from the volunteer phone and canvass program, and Franken specific microtargeting data, grassroots solutions helped re-target the voter contact program (mail, phone and canvass), as well as the candidate’s schedule, to focus on a new soft-base persuasion universe. These field efforts were complemented by a dramatic expansion of the campaign’s political program, including increased outreach to students and communities of color, along with more aggressive organizing and a formal validators program in the environmental, veterans’ and women’s communities to more closely connect the campaign to base voters. Finally, grassroots solutions helped launch a statewide surrogate program to drive message delivery throughout the state on a daily basis.
Results:
- Al Franken came from behind to re-claim the late Paul Wellstone’s U.S. Senate seat, pending the statewide recount.
- The 312 vote difference was one of the closest margins in U.S. Senate history and the closest U.S. Senate race in Minnesota ever, validating the strategy to re-claim and lock down the Democratic base in the final months of the campaign.
- The campaign’s support amongst Democrats increased in the wake of aggressive organizing efforts.