DNC’s Local Listeners initiative will target one million ‘infrequent’ voters in battleground districts
Democrats are launching an aggressive campaign to win back voters they lost, not to Donald Trump, but to the proverbial “couch,” as they look to regain support ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
On Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) rolled out a new initiative called Local Listeners with the goal of targeting over one million “infrequent” voters in key battleground districts. Seeking to build on the party’s string of off-year election victories, which extended into 2026 with an upset in Texas last weekend, the DNC is betting that early, localized outreach will be crucial in winning back these voters’ trust – and their ballots – this time around.
“If we want to keep earning back the trust and support of voters, we have to listen to them,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement, shared in advance with the Guardian. “This program modernizes the way we are talking to and hearing from the voters that we need to win elections now and for years to come. The Democratic Party is done with waiting until the last minute to engage voters – these conversations need to happen early and often.”
Hmm. Opening new offices and hiring people seems more like a way to keep the cycle of donor money moving, rather than a strategy to win…absent any actual messaging or policy changes from Democratic leadership.
When I read the article I expected the regional initiatives to have some sort of mechanism to change messaging and policy. It doesn’t seem to me that “listening” is what’s needed…we know exactly what these potential voters want.