2020 has been a year of ups, downs, and curveballs, but one thing has remained constant: committed activists engaging to advocate for conservative policy solutions and defend our country against attacks against our American values and institutions.
Thank you for your hard work; what we have accomplished together is truly remarkable. The numbers are impressive, and the stories are too numerous to include them all.
Take a look back at this timeline of what we’ve accomplished together in 2020:
Project 2020 - Swing Voter Outreach
In January, we began planning an ambitious grassroots campaign called Project 2020, a months-long door knocking and voter registration campaign designed to engage with swing voters in the battleground states of Iowa, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. We talked with voters about the issues that matter most and registered anyone who wasn’t already on the voter rolls with the goal of driving enthusiasm and turnout going into the November election.
In March, amidst Coronavirus lockdowns and health protocols, canvassers picked up their phones and began calling swing voters in our targeted states. To date, we’ve called over 2 million households!
In July, we kicked off our door-knocking operation, with canvassers talking to voters about the economy, immigration, and coronavirus recovery. As the need to “Back the Blue” and support an originalist Supreme Court nominee presented themselves along the way, we adjusted our message, and began to get voters excited about supporting the rule of law and confirming Amy Coney Barrett.
We’ve knocked on 400,000+ doors this year! And in the final days before the election, our activists are following up with over 1 million GOTV texts to make sure these voters cast their ballots.
This work is hugely important for November 3rd, and so are the new recruits we have added to our grassroots network because of this outreach. Please welcome320,000 new grassroots activists who are joining Heritage Action because they too care about the direction of this country and recognize that America is worth fighting for.
Open America
The Heritage Foundation launched the National Coronavirus Recovery Commission to lead the country and policy makers out of pointless lockdowns and into targeted, temporary relief measures. In April, the Commission released a five-phase plan to safely reopen the country, and we at Heritage Action led a grassroots petition urging governors to “Open America.”
Activists spread the word, and after receiving100,000 signatures in only a couple of weeks, our Grassroots Director Janae Stracke delivered the petition to Governor Larry Hogan, the head of the National Governors Association. Watch the video here!
Throughout the pandemic and everything else that happened this year, we never took our eyes off the ball and stood against bad legislation. We successfully opposed state bailouts, fought against perverse federal unemployment payments that incentivized individuals to remain unemployed, and have staved off wasteful spending.
#ProudAmerican
In the lead up to Independence Day, we encouraged people to share why they are a #ProudAmerican to counter the rampant anti-American sentiment coming from the left. The heartwarming posts on the hashtag reached over 60 million Americans on social media. Senators, Representatives, and even the original Proud American Lee Greenwood joined in our push!
Heritage Action Sentinels held sign waves, wrote letters to the editor in their local papers, and shared videos with us that we compiled into this awesomeProud American video!
Fight For America
In August, Heritage Action and The Heritage Foundation announced Fight For America, a campaign to stand up for our American values and institutions in the face of the Left’s extremism.
We launched the campaign at a town hall event with Vice President Mike Pence, where he took a stand and affirmed to law enforcement officers and business owners in attendance that the Trump Administration will always back the blue.
To Fight for America is to:
- Preserve American History
- Support law enforcement
- Call for accountability in our education system
- VOTE for American values on election day
Police Pledge
To encourage elected officials to Fight for America and back the police, we launched our Police Pledge to oppose any bill, resolution, or movement to “Defund the Police.”
To date, the police pledge has garnered over 225,000 signatures including 530 elected officials and candidates. We wanted to take the Pledge an extra step, and launched a digital campaign to thank 17 vulnerable House Members for their support for law enforcement. The media took notice and covered the story again and again. We received over 200 media hits including:
- Washington Examiner: The Left’s War on Police has Lost Middle America
- The Epoch Times: 90 GOP Members of Congress Sign Pledge to Oppose Defunding Police
- Townhall: Zero Congressional Democrats Have Signed Onto Pledge Opposing Defunding the Police
Pro-Police Billboards
In September, we continued to call for the support of law enforcement by placing seven pro-police billboards in New York City’s Times Square, Atlanta, and Dallas – cities where the “Defund the Police” movement was beginning to take hold.
The message was simple: “No Police, No Peace.” In the four weeks the billboards were up, they were viewed directly over 15 million times and received more than double that through online and TV coverage.
Check out a few of the media hits about the Pledge below
- Jessica Anderson announces the billboard launch on Fox & Friends
- The Hill: Conservative think tank Heritage launches pro-police billboards in three cities
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ‘No police, no peace’ billboards go up in downtown Atlanta, Buckhead
Activists Take Action
We saw pro-police rallies pop up all over the country in the wake of this movement, and Heritage Action Sentinels came out in numbers to “Back the Blue” in meaningful ways like donating meals to their local precincts, raising scholarship money for children of law enforcement officers, decorating their vehicles, and lighting up their homes in blue!
Activists put up over 15,340 “Back the Blue” yard signs in 31 states. The signs found their way to yards, business windows, event stages, parades, and into the hands of police officers themselves. This spread the pro-police message even more widely and helped officers feel that support in a tangible way.
Defending American Values
While door knocking and talking with their neighbors, Sentinels distributed 118,300 door hangers that spotlighted the stark contrast between the Marxist founding and values of Black Lives Matter, Inc. and American values. For those who were undecided going into the election, the door hangers drive home the choice before all voters.
Voting for America
To Fight for America is to Vote for America. The Left pushed hard this year for universal vote by mail. Sentinels like Jane Lee Hamman in Montana led the charge in their states drawing the distinction between universal vote by mail and absentee voting, working to protect the legitimacy of the election results and ensure every vote counts.
Heritage Action activists rose to the occasion and 349 were trained as poll workers and are working at polling stations across the country to ensure Americans are able to vote in person and that election laws are properly implemented.
Confirm Amy
When a Supreme Court vacancy opened, Heritage Action immediately went to work helping connect Americans to their Senators encouraging them to swiftly confirm a conservative nominee before the election. Together, we drove 55,000+ calls to Senate offices in support of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Heritage Action mailed over 1 million “Confirm Amy” mailers to swing voters in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Wisconsin and expanded our Project 2020 swing voter outreach to include support and mobilization for Judge Barrett in the battleground states of NC, PA, IA and WI.
In Washington, Heritage Action organized a rally bringing together hundreds of activists to support Judge Barrett on her first day of confirmation hearings, and held two press conferences featuring Senators Blackburn, Cruz, Hawley and Lee and leaders of top conservative groups, which showed the media that Americans wanted Amy Coney Barrett confirmed.
Outside the beltway, Sentinels attended at least 23 rallies around the country with the same message: “Confirm Amy!”
As we drew nearer to Barrett’s confirmation vote, Heritage Action mounted a targeted advocacy campaign in Alaska in order to win Senator Lisa Murkowski’s support. We organized two coalition letters – one from 237 Alaskan grassroots activists and another from 20 Alaska state legislators. Our efforts paid off as Murkowski voted yes on final confirmation!
Executive Director Jessica Anderson joined Fox & Friends to share why Justice Barrett’s confirmation is a beacon for a “new kind of feminism” and writes that the “ascension of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is evidence that women do not have to decide between a career and a family.”
Get Out The Vote!
In the final week before Election Day, we will run through the tape and send over 1 million GOTV text messages to voters and pairing it up with 2 Million GOTV emails. We’re providing voters with a link to their polling place and encouraging them to bring 5 friends and family members with them to the polls.
Looking Past the Election
Overall, 2 million people took action with us this year. Among them are 10,000 Americans who took the additional step and joined the ranks of the Sentinel activist program – the “Tip of the Spear” in the fight to achieve conservative victories in Washington by leading in local communities. It’s not too late, you too can join Sentinel!
That’s important because our work doesn’t end when the votes are cast! It’s the time in between elections when policy is made, and Heritage Action exists to be effective everyday for conservative values.
Regardless of the outcome on November 3rd, Heritage Action is a powerful movement because of each of you. You, as grassroots leaders are the backbone of this organization and we will continue to stand with you to fight for conservative policy here in Washington and throughout the country. The Heritage Foundation founder Dr. Ed Feulner said it best, “In Washington, there are no permanent victories or permanent defeats, just permanent battles.”
Thank you for your commitment, hard work, trust, and support.
On to the next battle,
Jessica Anderson and the Heritage Action team