GOTV PAC
Taking on the establishment candidate — and winning.
GOTV PAC was proud to support Chris Rabb in PA-03. GOTV PAC's tactics and targeting helped Rep. Rabb beat Sharif Street by more than 22,000 votes. Street had more money, more staff, and more institutional support. But GOTV PAC ran a state-of-the-art program that focused on low propensity voters and blew the establishment candidate out of the water.
Approaching PA-03
Pennsylvania's 3rd Congressional District opened its first real contested primary in a generation when Dwight Evans announced his retirement. Three serious and capable candidates ran.
Sharif Street had the consolidation from the Philadelphia party establishment, national surrogate support, a sizable cash advantage with an average donation of $912, and a $1.3 million field operation.
Ala Stanford also had serious institutional support from EMILY's List, 314 PAC, and a slate of PA Congressional endorsements.
Both campaigns competed for the same reliable, high-propensity voters who were going to cast a ballot regardless.
Chris Rabb offered something different. An unapologetically progressive economic platform built on domestic investment and real accountability aimed squarely at voters who had been waiting for a candidate who could offer more than the status quo.
Six weeks before the primary, GOTV PAC entered the race with one local field organizer, a distributed voter contact program, and a strategic bet that a disciplined and locally driven low-propensity voter program, paired with the right candidate and the right message, could decide the outcome.
They were right.
The Set Up
GOTV PAC partnered with the Working Families PArty, One PA, Make the Road PA, and APIPA to launch their program. Their operation ran a layered program informed by local knowledge.
Voter Contact: Phones and Texts
We targeted White Democrats, Black Moderates, and Black Progressives with a specific focus on low-propensity voters. Every undecided voter was moved through a structured persuasion conversation built around hyper-local economic themes that resonated with Philadelphia voters: school closures, cost of living, disinvestment – and also tied them directly to the choice between acquiescing to an oligarchy and funding illegal wars – and funding Philadelphia.
GOTV PAC ran over half the canvasses launched across the coalition!
Field Organizing
Our program relied on a layered approach and local connections to mobilize voters. We sent an organizer into a few key precincts where our outreach had already warmed up voters and their feedback helped adjust our message. In Strawberry Mansion (Ward 32), where we targeted our work, Rabb outperformed nearby wards by 16 and 17 points.
Rabb won with 65,294 votes and a margin of 22,552 over Street and 30,124 over Stanford despite Street’s over $1.3 million investment in field.
High-propensity, reliable voters – the ones traditional Democratic campaigns invest the most funds in chasing – tend to vote by mail, while low-propensity voters are significantly more likely to turn out on Election Day, or not at all.
Street and Stanford both competed for the same reliable, mail-in universe. Stanford's voters cast 40.71% of their ballots by mail, while Street's operation – despite a 7-figure field budget – looked nearly identical.
On Election Day alone, Rabb outpaced Street by 18,889 votes, while “reliable” voters split almost evenly between Street and Stanford. The “low-propensity” voters that went overlooked by Street and Stanford decided this race.
Our program made 85,313 contact attempts across three voter segments, and talked to 28,007 people, at a 32.8% contact rate. Of the undecided voters GOTV PAC reached and moved through a persuasion conversation, 11.3% committed to Rabb after a single call, and more than 1,050 voters moved with one phone call.
Takeaways
The campaign that turns out more low-propensity voters wins elections. PA-03 proved that. Most campaigns, PACs, and turnout organizations fight over the high-propensity universe that shows up no matter what. The most expensive voting bloc that, while a valued part of our Democratic base, has proven not enough to get Democrats over the finish line – especially in General Elections.
GOTV PAC goes after low-propensity voters, and gives them a reason to share their voice.
Rabb won by reaching an electorate his opponents weren't even talking to. Pairing Rabb's bold platform with our low-propensity voter turnout model was a recipe for success that can be utilized beyond primaries and play a significant role in general elections, where Democrats have conceded ground to Republicans and written off these voters as too difficult to turn out or MAGA-leaning.
The model is ready to scale.
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