On a fall day in 2014, campaign treasurer, Harry Pascal, set out to canvass a neighborhood with field director, Alex Morgan, and his team, during an Illinois congressional race. That day sparked an idea about voter outreach and a discussion about the value of face-to-face conversations in politics. They knew more could be done to reach inconsistent Democratic voters. Field organizing was habitually unconsidered and inadequately supported, even neglected until the final weeks of a campaign. Consulting firms and expensive TV ads drained campaign budgets. Alex and Harry not only realized more could be done, but if anyone was going to accept the challenge it was going to be them.

What started as the simple goal of raising $50,000 to support a field operation quickly grew into the largest voter outreach program in the country.

Since 2015, Progressive Turnout Project has supported 2,227 Democrats in competitive campaigns, raised more than $368 million from more than 2.4 million unique donors, and deployed 38,962 paid team members. These organizers helped make more than 190 million voter contact attempts through our innovative field programs. Needless to say, Progressive Turnout Project has continuously risen to the challenge, but our work is far from over.