66 Things You Can Do to Help Win the Midterms

43 days. 66 things a normal person can do.

Turns out Canva doesn’t have a lot of options for a “door knocking” image

Happy Monday, everyone! It’s midterms season and the question on everyone’s mind is: “ok but what do I actually DO?”

I recently talked to Swing Left’s Yasmin Radjy about how people can get involved this cycle. After 2024, Swing Left was one of the only groups that did an in-depth analysis of what went wrong and then pivoted to create new programs that incorporated those learnings. They found that Democrats were talking to people too late in the cycle, with clunky scripts, and skipped roughly 40 percent of persuadable people entirely. Their fix is Ground Truth, which puts volunteers on doors more than a year out and asks open-ended questions instead of reciting talking points. It’s one of the volunteer ideas listed below!

If you have a local election that is contested (whether that is Congress or the library board), the single most important thing you can do is volunteer to help that race! Talking to people and convincing them to vote for Dems is the boring and critical work of this cycle.

As we get closer to the election, I will send out my talking points list - which was my most viral post during the 2024 cycle! But for now, here are 66 ways to get involved!

—> Comments are open to all FREE & PAID subscribers, so if you have additional volunteer opportunities, post them there!

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. That’s 43 days away! ack!

Tl;dr

1. Give through Oath instead of to the annoying fundraising text. Oath ranks races by where a dollar has the highest marginal impact and doesn’t give your contact info to people who will sell it - so giving this way doesn’t sign you up for the fundraising-spam firehose! I’ve told Brian we need to make a special Emily in Your Phone slate, but until then you can search for lots of great curated lists!!

2. Sign up with Swing Left and get matched to a battleground. Swing Left’s Ground Truth is running listening-first canvasses and phonebanks in toss-up House and Senate races, and they regularly run buses from places like DC to important districts! Start with the virtual orientation, find your local group, or look at the full House target list.

First things first, check your voter reg!

3. Check your registration right now, especially if you moved, changed your name, or skipped an election or two. The federal push for state voter data makes this a real risk this cycle, though Trump has CONSISTENTLY LOST in the courts!

• Use vote.org (they will want to collect your contact info)

• or the official vote.gov.

• Vote Save America’s Be a Voter tool also has a section to check your voter registration. (Again, they ask for your email but…)

• VOTE411 has clear info on the deadlines!

-> I’ve personally tested all of these websites and they all worked; there are many more options out there too!

4. Find out when early voting starts where you live. In-person early voting is already open in Virginia and Minnesota, and 17 states plus DC are mailing ballots this month. The full state-by-state list is here from the Center for Election Innovation & Research (Scroll down to the section headlined “How can I find out more about early in-person and mail voting in my state?”) VOTE411 has clear info on the deadlines!

5. Request your mail ballot early so you find out if it doesn’t show up. In vote-by-mail states, requesting early surfaces delivery problems while there’s still time to fix them. Then deliver it in person or to a drop box rather than trusting the USPS.

6. Know your state’s ID rule before you’re standing in line. VoteRiders has the rules for every state and free help getting an ID. If you, your mom, or your college kid might have an ID problem, contact their voter-help line now rather than discovering it at the polls. (You can also volunteer with them!)

7. Review your whole ballot, not just the top of it. None of mine has been populated yet, but VOTE411 eventually shows every race and measure on your specific ballot. Ballotpedia has a sample ballot lookup tool.

8. If you know anyone abroad, send them votefromabroad.org. Military, students, expats. Overseas ballots have to be requested every single year. Vote From Abroad is nonpartisan; Democrats Abroad is the party version.

If you want to spend money

9. Close the gap. Give via Oath to 5 candidates currently being outraised by their opponents.

10. Fund Swing Left’s top 30 House fund instead of one viral candidate. It pools your money across the tightest flip and must-hold districts. Give here.

11. Give to the grassroots groups doing the door-knocking, not just the candidates. Movement Voter Project routes money to local organizers.

12. Fund state legislatures. The 2030 redistricting fight is decided in 2026. Win the House, lose the decade. The States Project, States Win (formerly Sister District, same org, new name), and Swing Left’s state slates in North Carolina and Iowa. Start a States Project giving circle with your group chat.

13. Bankroll the pipeline. Contest Every Race recruits Democrats for uncontested local offices in 30 states. Run for Something recruits and trains first-time candidates. Arena trains staff and candidates and Emerge trains women to run.

14. Go rural. Rural Democracy Initiative funds organizing in exactly the counties where the Iowa, Ohio and Kansas Senate math gets decided.

15. Give to the South. Black Voters Matter, Fair Fight, and Donuts + Democracy’s Freedom Summer, which is registering young voters with “Donut Wagons” on campuses.

16. Fund voter ID help and poll-worker recruitment. VoteRiders and Power the Polls are nonpartisan groups!

If you want to talk to voters

17. Do a Swing Left “listening” phonebank. Open-ended conversations with drifting voters in the toss-ups with after work hours. Mondays 6 to 8pm ET, Wednesdays 6 to 9pm ET, Sundays 2 to 5pm ET, and Thursdays at 6pm ET. Start with the orientation.

18. People’s Action “Hear America” deep-listening calls. Thursdays 6 to 8pm ET. This is a persuasion model that has moved Trump-curious voters. peoplesaction.org.

19. Pick one race off the Path to Winning post and phonebank for it. Every Senate battleground has a coordinated-campaign phonebank on Mobilize. New Hampshire is at Organize New Hampshire, Ohio at Ohio Wins, and Texas textbanks for Talarico run through Powered by People. Search everything else at mobilize.us.

20. Environmental Voter Project turnout calls. Calls to registered environmentalists who don’t vote in midterms. Get involved.

21. Spanish speakers, there is a dedicated lane for you. Grassroots Dems HQ runs national Spanish-language phonebanks Mondays 6 to 8pm ET, Pennsylvania on Thursdays, California on Wednesdays, and Arizona is staffing a Spanish-language voter-assistance hotline (orientation here).

22. Reclaim Our Vote phonebanking and texting. The Center for Common Ground runs nonpartisan voter-information calls and texts to voters of color in voter-suppression states. centerforcommonground.org.

23. Indivisible Phone Banking. The folks at Indivisible are probably the best organized when it comes to national volunteer opportunities!

If you want to text

24. Field Team 6 text banks, any time, self-paced. Texting unregistered likely-Democrats in swing states to get them registered before the deadlines. Sign up.

25. VoteRiders one-hour voter-ID text banks. Texting voters the ID rules for their state. RSVP.

If you want to write

26. Postcards to Voters. The OG. You have to apply to become an approved writer first. postcardstovoters.org.

27. Postcards to Swing States. Progressive Turnout Project’s twelve-state program, mailed in October. turnoutpac.org/postcards.

28. MomsRising’s one million Mom-to-Mom postcards. Host a postcard party and they ship you the cards. Sign up.

29. Activate America postcards for the Senate flips. Current campaigns include Roy Cooper in North Carolina and James Talarico in Texas. activateamerica.vote/postcards.

30. Reclaim Our Vote postcards to Black voters. The Center for Common Ground targets voters of color in voter-suppression states, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and more. Get cards.

31. Blue Wave Postcards. Getting Arizonans onto the permanent early-voting list, which is the single highest-leverage postcard in the country right now. shop.bluewavepostcards.org.

32. Down-ballot postcards. Markers for Democracy for local races.

33. Letters with Vote Forward. The innovators of this sector of activism are running a smaller, more targeted set of campaigns this cycle: votefwd.org/campaigns.

34. Women Forward’s “Writing Wednesdays.” Weekly 4pm ET Zoom letter-writing with a Write to Win toolkit in English and Spanish. RSVP.

If you have time to show up in person

35. Canvass with Ground Truth in your nearest battleground. Swing Left is running doors in Arizona, California, Colorado, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and the Senate states. Find a canvass. Door knocking is the center of gravity from here to November, and per Yasmin, “introverts and extroverts make equally great canvassers.”

36. Run a voter registration table before your state’s deadline. Most 30-day states close registration around October 5, so you have two weekends. National Voter Registration Day has a partner toolkit that works any day of the year, Field Team 6’s “Voter Drive in a Box” has state-specific guides, and Fair Elections Center has the legal rules per state. A nonpartisan option is your local League of Women Voters.

37. Register students where they live now. Donuts + Democracy is deploying “Donut Wagons” at campuses and concerts to reach 25 million unregistered young voters (here’s how to join), and Alliance for Youth Action runs campus programs in 18 states.

38. Host or attend a No Kings: Vote Early event on Saturday, October 17. The next No Kings is thousands of neighborhood block parties, walks to the polls and canvasses on the first big early-voting weekend. Host one, find one, or read more at nokings.org.

39. Sit in the front two rows at a candidate forum. Local newspapers, Leagues and other groups are running candidate forums all fall. (Also state fairs!) Show up, ask a question, post about it. (Boots on the Ground Midwest literally instructs its members: “Sit in the FRONT TWO ROWS!!!”) Find your local League.

40. Drive people to the polls. Rideshare2Vote coordinates poll rides in 20 states with more than 4,000 volunteers. They also need dispatchers to coordinate rides and phone bankers to do the outreach, all from your laptop. Sign up to train.

41. Do a lit drop instead of a canvass if doors scare you. Literature drops (no knocking) are the on-ramp groups like FlipNC and local Indivisibles use, and many pair them with a happy hour.

If you want to protect the count

42. Become a poll worker. Paid, nonpartisan, and the single most-recommended action on IG the last couple weeks due to a sexy influencer campaign! Power the Polls will route you, or go straight to your county clerk via Bolts’ local election-office locator.

43. Get a temporary job at your county election office. Look beyond poll working. Counties hire for early voting, signature verification, ballot-curing clerks, tabulation, hotline reps and ballot couriers. Maricopa County, Arizona is hiring now for all of those at $15.15 an hour and up. Search “[your county] elections temporary positions.”

44. Sign up for the DNC voter-protection volunteer list. The voter protection survey routes you to your state party’s poll-observer and hotline programs.

45. Volunteer with the Election Protection hotline. Nonpartisan poll monitors and hotline staff for 866-OUR-VOTE, and lawyers especially needed. protectthevote.net. Lawyers can also join Women Lawyers on Guard and VoPro Pros. (see more for lawyers below)

46. Save and share the four Election Protection hotlines. The lowest-effort election-defense action there is. 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) in English, 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682) in Spanish, 888-API-VOTE (888-274-8683) for Asian languages, and 844-YALLA-US (844-925-5287) in Arabic. Source and details at 866ourvote.org.

47. Volunteer to cure ballots. Ballot “curing” means contacting voters whose mail ballots were flagged for a signature or ID problem so they can fix them before the deadline. In a close House race it is literally the margin. The DCCC is recruiting volunteers via a volunteer form, VoPro Pros runs virtual cure and hotline shifts, and the Wisconsin Dems ballot cure team is recruiting now.

48. Join Indivisible’s Election Defense Corps if you’re in Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina or Ohio. Sign up here. These are the states Indivisible has flagged for the highest risk of federal interference, from ICE or the Guard at polls to ballot-box seizures and voter-roll demands.

49. Help recruit poll monitors by phone. Iowa runs shifts Mondays and Wednesdays, Virginia has its own bank, and Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina all run recruitment phonebanks you can find on Mobilize.

50. Rapid-response on election interference. Lawyers for Good Government has training materials. Voting Rights Lab has a 2026 Election Risk Heat Map, which rates the risk of local election interference county by county The Federal Election Interference Risk Map is also full of information.

51. Meet your local election officials before there’s a crisis. Indivisible’s Hands Off Our Vote toolkit walks a group through meeting the county clerk or election board, asking about rule changes, and building a rapid-response tree. The program page is here.

52. Talk to your sheriff. The Workers Circle has a script for getting sheriffs on record committing to defend free and fair elections and to not cooperate with polling-place intimidation.

53. Volunteer for post-election canvass and certification monitoring. ACLU is training 10,000 volunteers to monitor polling sites and certification in all 50 states. Volunteering runs through state affiliates. Common Cause is recruiting volunteers here protectthevote.net.

54. Read the threat-scenario guide so you’re not surprised. If you are research-inclined… Freedom Trainers’ scenarios cover mail disruption, polling-place intimidation and refusal to certify. Protect Democracy and Over Zero have Community Resilience in the 2026 Elections and are running a train-the-trainer workshop tomorrow, Tuesday, September 22, 11:30am to 1pm ET, on how to prepare your community for federal interference and voter intimidation. Register here.

55. If you are a lawyer. We the Action has a 2026 guide to election protection opportunities for lawyers. Lawyers’ Committee has opportunities. Election Official Legal Defense Network pairs pro bono attorneys with election officials facing harassment or threats. ACS lists it on its voter protection page alongside a Power the Polls lawyer sign-up. The ACLU of Wisconsin is recruiting Minnesota lawyers to monitor Wisconsin polls. And many bar associations run their own: the NYC Bar’s election protection page is a good example!

If you have a group chat

56. This is especially helpful if you have an important race in your town! Adopt ONE race and become its unofficial press office. Follow the candidate, share their stuff, explain to your people why it matters. Personal recommendations move low-information voters more than any ad.

57. Text the last five people you texted. Open your texts, take the five most recent threads, and ask each person if you can help - and then check to make sure they’re registered!

58. Take Red Wine & Blue’s friend-to-friend organizing training. You may recall I tried to start an org to do relational organizing online but then got sick(it’s still a great idea, though!). RWB does relational-organizing trainings. Register.

59. Load your contacts into Neighbor2Neighbor. Indivisible’s relational tool matches your phone contacts against the voter file so you know exactly which friends are unregistered or low-propensity.

60. Host a Dinner for Democracy. Democracy Forward’s toolkit turns a dinner or coffee into a recruitment conversation.

61. Write a letter to the editor about what’s on your ballot. Local papers still run them and local candidates still read them.

If you want to invest in a local and long game (the stuff that outlasts November 3)

62. Go to one local Democratic Party or Indivisible meeting this month. Politics is a group project. Find an Indivisible group, a Swing Left group, or your state party.

63. Become a precinct committee person. Google “[your county] precinct committee person filing form.”

64. Young people: get paid to organize. The DNC’s When We Count fellowship pays young people to register voters in battlegrounds, Next Wave places campaign staff, and Arena’s free toolbox trains them.

65. Vote, and organize, on the ballot measures, not just the candidates. Virginia’s reproductive-freedom amendment has Yes on 1 phonebanks. Missouri’s Amendment 3 is an abortion ban, so vote NO (stopthebanmo.com), and its anti-gerrymandering amendments are on the same ballot. Florida has Medicaid expansion and Colorado has anti-trans initiatives to defeat. Bolts tracks all of them.

66. Feeling hopeless? I hear you!!! Buy a copy of my book Democracy in Retrograde to figure out how to get your hope back, and forward this post to the friend who most needs a to-do list instead of a mood.

[Amazon / Bookshop]

—> If all you have the bandwidth to do is vote, and make sure everyone in your life who can also votes – THAT’S INCREDIBLE. That’s the work of democracy!

The antidote to despair is action.

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