Does it ever feel like Republican politicians are duking it out to see who can be the most awful on the issues that matter to us? Well now they can! Welcome to Scariest Reps, the March Madness of Republican badness.
Today, we launched an online voter education campaign to highlight some of the worst climate change denying, anti-choice, and overall shady characters currently occupying or running for office in NextGen’s 11 targeted states. From Rep. Steve King in Iowa to Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, NextGen will be highlighting the offensive voting patterns and reprehensible personal conduct and statements from these electeds. Each week, representatives will face a head-to-head single-elimination matchup, until the two most despicable meet in the “championship” matchup. The scariest representative winner will be announced November 3rd, exactly one year out from the 2020 election. The winner will be the target of NextGen's first political ad and on-the-ground voter education campaign of 2020, which will highlight their abysmal record on issues that matter most to young people. To view the bracket visit, http://scariestreps.com/.
The scariest thing young voters will see this Halloween season are the records of the Republican representatives who are up for re-election next year. We’ve selected the worst of the worst climate change deniers, NRA lapdogs, and anti-choice electeds for our Scary Sixteen. Once we have a winner, we look forward to making every day of 2020 as scary as Halloween for them in their home district.
We’ve been busy this fall using the beginning of the school year not only to register new voters ahead of the 2020 presidential and Senate elections but also to mobilize students for important fall elections, such as the Virginia state legislative election. After registering over 15,000 new and returning students during the back-to-school weeks, NextGen America registered voters at over 20 Youth Climate Strikes across the country and registered an additional 2,653 young people on National Voter Registration Day.
In 2018, NextGen America ran the largest youth vote program in American history across 11 battleground states. NextGen registered over 257,000 young people to vote and reached over seven million young people between 18 and 35 years old in person, online, through the mail, and over text. NextGen’s organizing efforts led to young people doubling their turnout, flipping the House of Representatives, and winning key seats for progressives across the country.