The Texas Poor People’s Campaign (TPPC) means business when it comes to impacting the upcoming elections in November.
The organization recently announced its major effort to mobilize millions of poor and low-wage voters statewide so that come voting time in the fall this often-ignored and under-voting demographic will be in
position to swing local, state, and national elections.
The Issues
In essence, TPPC is refusing to accept poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in America, and in so doing, the organization is declaring that the votes of those millions of Texans they plan to mobilize will be directed towards fighting for issues important to them.
These issues include access to living wages, protected voting rights and other policies TPPC and a vast majority of Texans believe will not only save lives, but save democracy itself.
During a recent press conference, TPPC organizers pledged to “wake the great, untapped power of the ‘sleeping giant’ of poor and low-wage people.” And to make that happen, TPPC will train hundreds of people locally on how to effectively engage voters and drive them to the polls.
Campaign tri-chairs across the country also participated in simultaneous press conferences, where leaders explained that the reason poor and low-wage voters participate in elections at lower rates is not because they have no interest in politics, but because politics is not interested in them.
Awaking the Sleeping Giant
“The reality is poor and low-wage people have the power to fundamentally shift elections up and down the ballot,” said Alex Monatvo, one of the organization’s tri-chairs. “And we are going to mobilize the sleeping giant of poor and low-wage voters by mobilizing around living wages, voting rights, healthcare for all, environmental justice, and more.”
“We declare today that poor and low-wage voters are coming together with religious leaders and moral advocates to say, ‘our votes are demands.’” added Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, national co-chair of the
Poor People’s Campaign and co-chair of the 2024 mobilization. “We are not voting for personality; our votes are for policy. If a candidate wants our votes, then they must talk to the very voters they have been leaving behind.”
“The Poor People’s Campaign is waking up the sleeping giant of low-wage voters who have been ignored for far too long,” added Barber.
The Plan of Action
Local Poor People’s Campaign leaders joined impacted voters in announcing plans for simultaneous actions on March 2 at state capitols to further the campaign and highlight the policies being promulgated
in state houses across the country that are hurting the poor, or distracting from addressing the real issues facing poor and low-wage people.
In Texas, the 2024 voter mobilization plans include door-knocking, coordinated actions, building a beloved community, and GOTV (get out the vote) efforts.
The voter mobilization and March 2 actions will take place not only in the Lone Star State, but in 30 other states nationwide and the nation’s capital, including Alabama, Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
TPPC organizers view as unacceptable the notion that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. when it is preventable. To this point, organizers laid out data that shows poor and low-wage people have the power to fundamentally shift elections and demand that critical issues like voting rights, living wages, health care for all, women’s rights, environmental justice and more are addressed.
“Organizing low-wage voters holds great – and largely unrecognized – potential to shift electoral outcomes,” said Barber, citingPoor People’s Campaign election data. “Low-income voters accounted for at least 20% of the voting electorate in 45 states— and that share grew to near or above 40% in
battleground states, including in states that flipped in 2020 or that retained very small margins of victory. “This goes squarely against the commonly held belief that poor and low-wage people are either apathetic about politics or marginal to election outcomes.”
Poor, Low-Wage Voters are Election Difference-Makers
Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin were all states with very tight presidential races in 2020. In all but Texas, the margin of victory was near or under 3%, making possible a victory for either of the two contending political parties. In Texas, the margin of victory was just over 5%.
In states where the margins of victory were less than 3%, low-wage voters accounted for at least one-third and, in some cases, over two-fifths of the total voter population. Given the small margins of victory in
these states, it is possible that the broader population of eligible low-wage voters could decide the election in 2024.
In 1965, at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said the greatest fear of the southern aristocracy was for masses of people to come together across races and form a voting bloc that can fundamentally shift the economic architecture of this country. TPPC organizers vowed to be that bloc, and carry out the nation’s unfinished business.
“We refuse to accept poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in America and will register our votes as demands come November,” said Denita Jones, TPPC tri-chair.
