Several progressive organizations announced million-dollar investments to organize Michigan voters ahead of the 2020 election while GOP groups flood the airwaves with new year-end political advertisements.

National organizations place Michigan on the shortlist of states President Donald Trump needs to win to secure reelection next year. Partisans are also trying to sway Michigan voters who will determine the outcome of several contested U.S. House races and a competitive U.S. Senate race.

In addition to the presidential election, most groups are also focused on Michigan’s 3rd, 6th, 8th and 11th House districts and the Senate race.

Incumbent U.S. Reps. Justin Amash, I-Cascade Township; Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph; Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly; and Haley Stevens, D-Rochester Hills, are all facing challengers next year.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, will likely be challenged by lone GOP Senate candidate John James, who earned Vice President Mike Pence’s endorsement.

Progressive voter turnout projects

NextGen America, a progressive advocacy nonprofit, is spending $4.5 million on a statewide effort to mobilize young voters across 30 college campuses. The organization plans to hire 80 paid organizers to educate young people about new election laws that will make it easier than ever to cast a ballot.

NextGen Michigan Organizing Director Jay Williamson said the goal is to register 20,000 new young voters and reach 619,000 people under the age of 35, building on its work in the 2018 midterm elections.

Young voter turnout tripled in last year’s elections, Williamson said, which helped Democrats win all statewide offices, flip two U.S. House seats and protect their U.S. Senate seat.

“Donald Trump only won Michigan by 10,700 votes in 2016, and we registered almost four times that many people to vote in 2018,” Williamson said. “Even though it’s going to be a very difficult race nationally, with the new rights we’ve been granted in Michigan and the energy of young voters we have every reason to believe we’ll turn this state blue.”

Williamson expects youth voters to have more influence due to the new election laws. Same-day registration and no-reason absentee voting will bring out more young people to the polls than ever, and that’s good for Democrats, Williamson said.

Williamson said NextGen is working with local clerks to open a satellite office at Michigan State University to register voters for the upcoming March 10 presidential primary. The idea could be replicated at other college campuses if successful, she said.

NextGen’s work with young voters in Michigan is part of a $45 million national program focusing on 11 battleground states, including Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The organization was founded by Democratic presidential Tom Steyer, who stepped down as president of NextGen after announcing his presidential bid this year.

The Progressive Turnout Project, a Chicago-based political action committee, announced a $45 million organizing program to turn out voters who did not cast a ballot in 2016 in Michigan and 15 other battleground states.

“Progressive Turnout Project’s work in Michigan is the cornerstone of our efforts to rebuild the Blue Wall, brick by brick,” Executive Director Alex Morgan said in a release.

The Michigan field program will operate from offices opening next spring in Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. PTP plans to send an army of 100 canvassers to knock on 1.2 million doors across the state.

Field representatives are slated to hit the ground between May and November, following up with infrequent Democratic voters until they commit to vote.

“We don’t waste money on TV ads, direct mail, or anything else that’s just white noise to most voters,” Morgan said. “We focus our efforts on what works best — multiple in-depth conversations with voters who are disillusioned with politics as usual. Democrats haven’t been doing a good job of speaking to them on an intrinsic level beyond broad party platitudes, and Progressive Turnout Project is aiming to change that.”

PTP is focused on voters who supported former President Barack Obama voters but sat out 2016. The organization said 41% of its targeted voters identify as people of color, 45% are under the age of 35, and 56% are women.

PTP is also aiming to secure Democratic victories for U.S. Sen. Gary Peters and House races in Michigan’s 3rd, 6th, 8th and 11th districts.

Republicans target Michigan Democrats

Conservative-aligned organizations announced a flurry of attack ads launch this month.

A GOP nonprofit founded by former Trump campaign aides announced it will include two Michigan House Democrats in a $2 million ad blitz. America First Policies is targeting Slotkin, Stevens and 25 other members of Congress who are expected to swing a vote on articles of impeachment later this month.

The national campaign includes a $400,000 digital advertisement buy, $276,750 for newspaper ads and $1.6 million on cable and broadcast television ads.

Television ads began running this week, the group announced in a press release. The organization already spent $1 million on attack ads in October.

American Action Network also expanded its advertising campaign targeting Slotkin on the same day the Democrats unveiled articles of impeachment. The conservative nonprofit announced a $1.5 million advertising blitz targeting Democrats in 10 congressional districts.

AAN plans to spend $75,000 on new television ads targeting Slotkin’s support for an impeachment inquiry, the organization said in a release, raising the total spent to oppose Slotkin to nearly $500,000.

AAN also purchased $50,000 in negative ads criticizing Stevens for supporting the impeachment inquiry in November.

Better Future Michigan, a conservative advocacy group, is spending $300,000 on television ads attacking Peters. Spokesperson Ted Goodman said the ads will run on statewide television markets and digital platforms on Dec. 12.

The ads criticize Peters for supporting aspects of “Medicare for All” and “The Green New Deal.”

The Peters campaign directed MLive to several recent interviews where Peters expressed support for expanding Medicare coverage to people at age 50. Peters told WSMH he supports a public option and doesn’t want to eliminate the private insurance market, as some Democratic presidential candidates proposed.

Peters’ campaign previously said he “never” supported the Green New Deal in response to attacks by a Republican PAC earlier this year. The Green New Deal is a nonbinding resolution that seeks to commit the U.S. to transition from reducing fossil fuels and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Peters supports taking steps to hit carbon emission targets set by the resolution but did not vote in favor of it earlier this year.

A Republican group that has pressed GOP lawmakers to support the impeachment inquiry facing Trump is expanding its campaign to pressure Michigan Congressmen.

Republicans for the Rule of Law announced it purchased new digital billboards in the congressional districts of Upton and U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Dryden. asking why the White House is blocking the testimony of key witnesses in the impeachment inquiry. Each digital billboard will run for the next 12 days, the group said in a release.

Republicans for the Rule of Law will also continue to air daily advertisements on “Fox & Friends” in both House districts for the rest of the week.

Read more on MLive:

Michigan Democrats enter Trump’s rural strongholds ahead of 2020 election

Pence asks West Michigan to help Trump win reelection in 2020

Trump campaign expects impeachment fight to boost turnout in Michigan battlegrounds