Democrats don’t have the votes to stop Republicans from gutting Obamacare. So as they watch their signature domestic policy accomplishment about to be dismantled, they’re looking to the ground game that helped pass it seven years ago.

Brandishing a new slogan, "Make America Sick Again" adapted from President-elect Donald Trump's campaign, they're holding rallies in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, featuring the stories of thousands of the red-state Americans who have benefited from the law. Those rallies will culminate in several nationwide events beginning Jan. 15 where they will warn of the chaos likely to ensue if the health law is repealed without a replacement plan.


They’re also urging followers to bombard lawmakers’ district offices and phone lines with calls against repeal.

And they’re targeting moderate Republicans in Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Nevada and Tennessee who are up for reelection in 2018 — or who could be influential in the repeal vote — with a seven-figure television and print ad campaign. The message of the groups mounting the campaign, which include SEIU, Families USA, National Partnership for Women and Families and the Center for Medicare Advocacy, is that repealing the health law without a replacement is a reckless move that could put millions of Americans in harm’s way — the print ad shows someone standing at the edge of an unfinished bridge over open water.

The goal is to make a very big noise that might, possibly, sway a handful of GOP votes in the Senate — and if not, to delay the process for as long as possible and inflict as much political pain on the GOP as they can.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to go to Capitol Hill Wednesday to huddle with Democrats about their options to preserve the law. His message will be that Obamacare is a winnable fight and he'll urge Democrats to emphasize the dangerous situation in which Republicans are putting their constituents if they repeal the law without a replacement, according to a White House aide.

Still, the numbers in the Senate favor Republicans.

“We know in the end that … they have the votes. They have 52 votes,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). “So they will decide whether or not they basically rip the health care system apart. If they decide to do that, we will hold them accountable.”

The still-developing Democratic strategy inside the Beltway is to compel Republicans to take politically toxic votes — for instance, by forcing them to go on record as opposing Obamacare’s popular provisions, such as the preexisting condition protections. They also hope to use Senate rules to poke holes on which pieces of the law can be repealed.

Short of blocking the repeal bill, which Democrats admit is all but impossible, Democrats’ aim is to ensure that voters hold the GOP responsible for what they predict will be chaos in the health insurance market as soon as the bill passes.

Advocacy groups that support the ACA, meanwhile, will focus on reminding voters of the human impact of repealing a law that has provided a lifeline to millions of Americans. They’re convinced that once the public sees the consequences of repeal, they will blame the GOP for chaos. The Urban Institute estimates that repealing the law could result in 30 million people losing coverage.

Affordable Care Act supporters say that just like Republicans blamed Obamacare for every problem in the health care system for the last seven years, they will blame Republican repeal efforts for the chaos that is expected after repeal.

“For many Trump voters, there was disbelief that Republicans would truly seek to take away needed care from huge numbers of people,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA which backs the health law. “Initiating the repeal and delay legislation will end this illusion.”

Pollack’s group is one of several coordinating to try to force Republicans to offer a replacement plan simultaneously with their repeal legislation. To date, their strategy has consisted of public rallies, phone calls to lawmakers, and a smattering of TV and social media ads. Others involved in the campaign include the Center for American Progress, SEIU and Doctors for America.

Anthony Wright of Health Access California, an advocacy group which held a rally in Bakersfield, Calif. just before Christmas in front of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s district office, acknowledges that repeal may be impossible to stop. He is focused on forcing the GOP to offer a replacement plan. “There is a less bad and more bad scenario,” Wright said.

Supporters are relying on two approaches to advance their message — individual stories about how the law has helped people when they get sick, and nationwide data from think tanks estimating that tens of millions would be harmed under Republican plans.

Democrats also plan to take advantage of a special procedure called reconciliation which Republicans are using to repeal the law, which means the Senate will have to vote on an unlimited number of amendments. Democrats intend to use that process to delay repeal and force Republicans to take tough votes.

“They’re going to try to rush this through so fast that the American publican can’t see what they did,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “It’s in our interest to make this process go long enough so that people can see what a debacle this is.”

Easy targets would be amendments that preserve preexisting condition requirements “for each individual major illness in this country,” Murphy said.

The unlimited vote process “presents a very good opportunity to delay and extend the debate, and put a really big national focus on the debate highlighting stories of real people who would be affected,” said Topher Spiro, vice president for health policy at the liberal Center for American Progress.

Democrats are also reviewing whether the repeal bill violates any Senate rules. If it does, Democrats can force votes that could delay or muddle the legislation.

Democrats’ message will focus significantly on what they call the recklessness of repealing without a replacement. They argue that most Democrats won’t support a replacement plan — if the GOP puts one together — and it won’t be easy to maintain insurance coverage for the millions of Americans who have benefited from Obamacare.

“It is not acceptable to repeal the law, throw our health care system into chaos and then leave the hard work for another day,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in his first speech Tuesday as the chamber’s top Democrat. “Mr. president-elect, what is your plan to make sure all Americans can get affordable health care?”