NextGen Climate is expanding its Get Out the Vote program to include new key operatives: puppies
SAN FRANCISCO (October 27, 2016) –Today, NextGen Climate announced a new Get Out the Vote (GOTV) program as Election Day draws near: puppies at the polls. During the final two weeks until Election Day, NextGen Climate will hold GOTV events featuring puppies to encourage millennial voters to make their voices heard at the ballot box. NextGen Climate has appointed a National Puppy Coordinator to plan and organize events in key battleground states and will launch a digital campaign on social media this week to recruit puppy volunteers and spread the word.
“We want every young voter to make it to the polls by Election Day, so we’ve enlisted our most loyal companions to help during this historic election,” said NextGen Climate National Puppy Coordinator Nick Ellis. “We are excited about this new approach to voter outreach, and are confident that our canine counterparts will help us to turn out young voters across the nation for climate champions like Maggie Hassan, Katie McGinty and Catherine Cortez Masto.”
NextGen Climate has been using innovative and creative tactics—like Pokemon Go meet ups, digital ads on Hulu and Tinder, interactive Buzzfeed content—and now puppies at the polls is just the latest tool to reach millennial voters. This strategy is based on the group’s past experience—results show that puppies have routinely attracted more young voters and led to longer, higher-quality conversations. While the puppies help fetch votes, NextGen Climate will treat their new volunteers to constant affection.
The group has also been on the ground having face-to-face, peer-to-peer conversations to educate, register and turnout young voters to elect climate champions to the White House and U.S. Senate. NextGen Climate is running the largest campus outreach program in the country, engaging millennials on over 300 campuses in 13 battleground states. With less than two weeks until Election Day, the group will continue to educate and turnout millennials to vote for candidates who will support bold climate action and the transition to a clean energy economy.
