Report

ROC-Michigan and Working America joined together on a project to protect the recently passed One Fair Wage legislation in Michigan during the lame duck session. The heart of the project was canvass-informed digital engagement. Working America worked with ROC on messaging, targeting and tactics. Starting in September 2018, Working America served our members saturation-level content, knocked on tens of thousands of doors and collected contact information from voters to communicate with them via digital channels. During the lame duck legislative session, Working America ran statewide and targeted outreach to our membership to educate and activate them to take action for One Fair Wage.   

2018 Canvass and Digital Report
Working America ran a voter outreach canvass in Macomb County, holding tens of thousands of conversations with Michiganders from September to November 2018.

Canvass Metric
Macomb County: Knocks: 72,615; 30,574 conversations

We collected 1,734 emails and phone numbers from voters we spoke with for use in issue-based digital targeting.

Digital Work
We used contact information collected at the doors as part of our digital work during the lame duck legislative session to encourage members to contact Gov. Rick Snyder.   

Lame Duck Session
In conjunction with ROC-MI and the Michigan AFL-CIO State Fed, Working America ran a digital campaign to protect the recently passed One Fair Wage legislation. With over 120,000 members in Michigan, Working America actively reached out to our members via social media, email and text message. The tactic of the campaign was to create constituent pressure on targeted legislators, as provided by ROC-MI.

Top Tier Targets:
HD-17: Rep. Joseph Bellino (3,646 Working America members)
HD-56: Rep. Jason Sheppard (2,335 Working America members)
Gov. Snyder (Statewide)

Strategy:
We used these communication platforms to connect the dots between the real concerns of voters and the choices their legislators are making.

Directly targeting legislators on social media:

Through Working America’s social media accounts, we tweeted at legislators to let them know we were communicating with our members in their districts about what is going on in the lame duck session and how their elected officials were voting.

Education:
Working America emailed 10,876 members to educate them about One Fair Wage, what was happening during the lame duck session and how they could take action. 

Social media: 

We reached over 100,000 Working America members via social media platforms, including 16,615 views of our video to state legislators and to Gov. Snyder.

Calls and text messages: Through our digital outreach, we mobilized over 100 Working America members to make calls to Snyder, Bellino and Sheppard. Overall, we sent 5,461 text messages to members about One Fair Wage. Bellino voted not to roll back the One Fair Wage laws.