PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Both partisan and nonpartisan “get out the vote” efforts have unfurled in earnest in the swing state of Pennsylvania. One national organization has set out to mobilize the commonwealth’s evangelicals and conservative Catholics to get to the polls.
This effort is the largest voter turnout operation led by the nonprofit Faith and Freedom Coalition (FFC). “This is the most ambitious, the most far-reaching and the most sophisticated ground game operation that has occurred on the center right outside the Republican Party itself,” said founder and chairman Ralph Reed.
In the tight presidential race, the coalition’s Pennsylvania initiative is an attempt to engage low-propensity voters of faith and help them develop a plan to vote, with a push to vote early by mail.
FFC volunteers have knocked on almost 500,000 doors throughout the commonwealth. According to its website, the coalition is right-leaning on issues including abortion, border restrictions, taxes and transgender rights. It also calls for criminal justice reforms, such as rehabilitation programs and reducing incarceration for non-serious offenders.
Chris Merola, executive director of the FFC’s Pennsylvania chapter, says some voters on the ground they encounter say they feel squeezed by the current administration.
“They believe that they have been forgotten,” he said. “Their values … have been trampled upon.”
According to Reed, former President Donald Trump received approximately 24 million evangelical votes in 2016, while in 2020, that number increased to 34 million.
Recent Pew research data found Trump leading his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, among Roman Catholics, 52% to 47%. However, a survey of 800 registered Pennsylvania voters, commissioned by the Commonwealth Foundation, showed Harris leading Trump, 50% to 46%.
“We think conservatively, we're going to see another increase. And we think on the low side, it's going to be a gross number of 5 million, and we think it could go as high as 7 million,” said Reed.