Former President Barack Obama speaks during an Organizing for Action Summit in 2015. | Mandel Ngan/Getty Images Obama group announces midterms hit list

Organizing for Action, the group formed out of Barack Obama’s old campaign apparatus, is moving more directly into politics than ever before, deploying in 27 House races around the country this year.

Through an existing partnership with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, OFA will also work in nine states to campaign for ballot initiatives and Democrats running for governor and state legislature positions. The group is pushing for greater Democratic control over redistricting ahead of the 2020 Census.


OFA explicitly stayed away from campaigns in previous cycles. The group used to say that direct politics wasn’t its purpose. Instead, it focused on pressuring officials already in office.

Last year, for example, OFA was a key player in helping organize the town halls around the country that helped amp up opposition to repealing Obamacare.

OFA spokesman Jesse Lehrich said that the effort will be largely handled by volunteers in the districts. OFA staff in the Chicago office will be redirected to advising those volunteers. The target districts were chosen because they’re in areas where OFA already has an established presence, and where they feel that they’ll be able to elevate races that aren’t all in the top tier of swing districts drawing huge national money.

Decisions were made by OFA staff, but with advance notice to Obama’s personal staff in Washington, which was asked to weigh in with any objections.

“OFA has always made issue-focused organizing the centerpiece of our work, fighting to increase access to affordable health care, foster economic fairness, combat climate change, and more. We're expanding our programming to include electoral activity because the current dynamic in Washington threatens to reverse progress on all of those issues — and to do so against the will of the majority of the American people,” Lehrich said, explaining the change.

All of the campaigning will be done through activating and organizing volunteers. There won’t be any OFA-supported campaign ads. And because the amount of resources being put into the new political emphasis is limited, OFA won’t be changing its status from being a 501(c)4, which by law is allowed to commit up to half of its operating expenses to politics.

Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The group in a statement argued it is “prioritizing 27 districts whose representatives have consistently advanced the interests of the wealthy and the well-connected at the expense of hard-working families. OFA volunteer teams will organize in each district to amplify support on the ground for candidates who will actually fight for their constituents.”

The full list of districts includes several where Donald Trump did better than Hillary Clinton. It does not include all the seats held by Republicans in districts where Clinton beat Trump, which Democrats tend to see as their best opportunities for pickups in November.

Here is the full list of districts OFA is targeting:

AZ-02

CA-04

CA-10

CA-21

CA-25

CA-39

CA-45

CA-48

CA-49

CO-06

IA-01

IL-06

KS-03

MN-02

MN-03

MO-02

NC-09

NC-13

NJ-11

NY-11

PA-01

PA-06

PA-07

TX-07

TX-23

TX-32

WI-01