The first of several planned voter registration drives meant to flip the House of Representatives in November occurred at the 2017 New York City LGBT Pride Parade.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Democratic Committee are launching a series of voter registration drives across the state this summer in response to proposed changes to the nation’s health care laws.
Democrats across the nation, and in New York, have deemed the Better Care Reconciliation Act as “disastrous.”
There are 700,000 unregistered voters living in the districts of Congressional Republicans across New York, and the goal of the voter registration drive is to mobilize new voters in preparation for the midterm elections coming up in 2018.
Last week, the first drive of the series kicked off at the New York City Pride March as volunteers made efforts to register parade-goers.
The drives are part of the New York Fight Back campaign, a movement launched by New York State Democrats to take back the U.S. House of Representatives, and create more resistance against Republicans in Congress as retaliation for their support of health care bills that would repeal Obamacare.
The New York Fight Back voter registration drives aim to register and mobilize enough new voters to flip the six New York congressional seats of the 24 congressional seats nationwide that the Democrats view as vulnerable because of narrow margins of victory in the 2016 election.
The six seats being targeted by the New York Fight back effort include New York’s First District held by Lee Zeldin; NY-19 held by John Faso; NY-21 held by Elise Stefanik; NY-22 held by Claudia Tenney; NY-23 held by Tom Reed; and NY-27 held by Chris Collins.
The campaign’s website, NYFightBack.org, states that “the Republican agenda has failed us”, before listing what’s at stake if the healthcare bill is passed, and urging New Yorkers to take action well before Election Day rolls around.
“Voting is how you make your voice heard,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is helping to spearhead the Fight Back campaign. “Facing the devastating effect that the Republicans’ health care bill will have on families across this state, it’s more important than ever that we speak up and fight back.
“That’s why we are kickstarting a statewide voter registration drive this summer to ensure that every eligible New Yorker can have their voice counted where it matters most — at the ballot box. These Republicans who voted to strip three million New Yorkers of their health coverage must be held accountable, and the way to do that is by getting involved and getting registered to vote.”
After last week’s start in New York City, the Fight Back campaign will continue to take their voter education, registration, and mobilization efforts directly into the districts of Congressional Republicans who voted to pass the American Health Care Act.
These drives will take the form of organized events, volunteer drives, grassroots canvassing, and field operations with the same mission to engage unregistered voters, bring more awareness to the political process, and bring more voters to the polls on Election Day.
