Field Team 6
Field Team 6 works to increase the number of registered Democratic voters, especially in battleground states and legislative districts. A 527 nonprofit with an explicitly partisan mission, Field Team 6 uses diverse data sources to identify likely Democratic voters who are unregistered and then seeks to register them through outreach by email, text and in-person contacts. It relies heavily on volunteers to accomplish its work.
Why This Work is Important
Large numbers of likely Democrats aren’t registered. Demographic groups that lean heavily Democratic are among the least likely Americans to be registered. These include recently naturalized citizens, young people, renters who move often, and low-income people of color. Increasing registration and voting rates among these groups can change the composition of the electorate in key states and districts, shifting power to Democrats.
High levels of registration make voter mobilization easier. When people are already registered to vote, it is far easier to get them to participate in elections. Organizers can focus on ensuring they cast a ballot, without also having to get them registered.
Close electoral margins increase the importance of registration efforts. With election outcomes often decided by razor-thin margins — even hundreds of votes in some state-level races — registering voters can make the difference in high-stakes elections.
Why Donors Should Consider Field Team 6
Field Team 6 has built a record of success. Since its founding in 2018, Field Team 6 says that it has helped register nearly 3 million likely Democratic voters, mostly in battleground states and swing congressional districts. In 2022 alone, Democrats flipped or held 22 House districts in which Field Team 6 says it registered a combined 401,000 voters.
Field Team 6 is effective at identifying and contacting unregistered voters. A core part of Field Team 6’s work is acquiring and compiling data, relying on private vendors, to identify likely Democratic voters who are unregistered. The group says it has built a database of 11 million such voters that it can segment by state and legislative district and which it also makes available to partner groups. It mainly contacts these potential new voters by email and text, but also mounts in-person canvassing. Field Team 6 says it made 10.5 million contacts in 2022 to 5.7 million unregistered likely Democrats.
Field Team 6 is a lean organization that stretches donor dollars. While Field Team 6 has several paid employees, most of its core staff are volunteers, many of whom work full time. In addition, the organization heavily relies on a much larger pool of thousands of volunteers to drive its registration efforts; they do digital and in-person work, as well as organize numerous events. It provides tools and training to empower these volunteers to do their own outreach campaigns.
Field Team 6’s focus on partisan voter registration is unusual and valuable. Many voter engagement groups do not work on registration at all, focusing instead on mobilizing already registered voters. Those groups that do engage in voter registration are mostly nonpartisan nonprofits that cannot make explicit partisan appeals or coordinate with Democratic campaigns or committees. Field Team 6 can engage in such activities as a 527 organization. Its volunteers are allowed to direct voters they’re registering to support Democratic candidates, increasing the impact of their work.
Conclusion
Increasing voter registration rates among demographic groups that lean heavily Democratic is crucial for changing the composition of the electorate. Field Team 6 is among the leading national groups that is exclusively focused on this mission and the only one that centers partisan registration. This makes the organization an important part of the progressive electoral infrastructure. By giving to scale up its work, donors will help Democrats win more elections in battleground states and competitive congressional districts.