We Vote AND

“We don’t just vote. We vote AND we get involved in our communities. We’ve got a vision of a better world.”

During the 2020 election cycle, all eyes were on Michigan. We The People–Michigan built a robust, statewide, anti-racist deep canvassing program in 14 key counties, led by locally-rooted organizers. 

We The People–Michigan’s strategy centered on telling people’s stories and engaging with people beyond just the ballot box. 

Liz Manne Strategy collaborated with We The People–Michigan and The People Votes to produce, test, optimize, and distribute a series of videos to complement the ground strategy. The #WeVoteAND videos and social media posts highlighted the stories and personal stakes of some of the organizers fighting for all Michiganders — Native, Black, brown, working class and immigrant — and helped cut through the plethora of election-related content telling people to “vote” for nebulous reasons. Working in tandem, the organizing strategy and the media campaign helped empower Michiganders to make the connection between why we don’t just vote — we vote AND we get involved in our communities. 

The videos also proved useful in a way that hadn’t necessarily been anticipated: they helped encourage people to stay engaged past an election that dragged out for weeks as We The People–Michigan fought for every vote to be counted and election results to be certified.

Project Directors: Mara Gerstein, Liz Manne, Hoai An Pham

Partners: The People Votes, We The People–Michigan, The Creative Resistance, Ish Entertainment, Clarify Agency

Testing and Analytics: Milan de Vries

Funders: Compton Foundation, Perspective Fund