For Our Future operates in tandem with a “dark money” political nonprofit called For Our Future Action Fund that doesn’t have to disclose donors. Billionaire Tom Seyer funded the super PAC since it started in 2016. | Sean Rayford/Getty Images 2020 elections Democrats roll out $90 million super PAC aimed at swing states

The nation’s largest super PAC devoted to grassroots Democratic turnout is launching its organizing efforts earlier than ever in seven swing states with a new campaign director and its largest budget to date: $80 million to $90 million.

For Our Future announced Friday that it’s hiring former President Barack Obama’s onetime Florida campaign chair, Ashley Walker, to coordinate its swing-state operations with the goal of identifying and turning out Democratic-leaning 2020 voters, namely people of color and so-called “sporadic voters” who don’t frequently cast ballots.


The committee, which was started in 2016 and historically has been funded by labor unions and billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer, plans to build a network of 4,000 paid staff and an army of volunteers in Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, states where it operated in 2018 and 2017.

“Over the cycles, we’ve gotten smarter and better at what we do,” Walker said. “For Our Future builds state-based capacity to effect change at the electoral and community level. And we run our organization with the same standards as a presidential campaign.”

When it started three years ago, with a budget of $50 million, For Our Future hit the ground six months before the presidential election, only to see Donald Trump clean up in most big swing states. In the 2017 Virginia governor’s race and in other swing states during the 2018 cycle, For Our Future organized earlier, spent more and produced far better results.

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This cycle, the group plans to start contacting Democratic primary voters later this year — before the first votes are cast in the party’s 2020 primaries and caucuses.

For Our Future operates in tandem with a “dark money” political nonprofit called For Our Future Action Fund that doesn’t have to disclose donors.

With a mission of having person-to-person interactions with voters, For Our Future differs from most other super PACs, which are devoted to running TV and digital ads to turn out voters. While For Our Future utilizes digital ads and mailers, its mission revolves around on-the-ground staffers and grassroots volunteers meeting voters personally at their homes. The group says it knocked on 10.2 million doors in 2018.

One reason the group was founded was that Republican-aligned groups, specifically those allied to the Koch brothers, were enjoying an asymmetrical advantage in election fundraising and organizing that Democrats were unable to match. As with conservative donors, there was a growing appetite among progressive contributors who wanted more of a say in how their money was spent outside the political party structure.

For large donors, Walker’s bona fides as a member of Obama’s campaign team that twice won Florida made her the perfect choice to be the swing state campaigns director of For Our Future. In the 2016 and 2018 cycles, Walker led the organization‘s Florida efforts.

“Ashley is a battle-tested leader and I’m thrilled she will be at the helm of FOF’s battleground effort,” said Heather Hargreaves, executive director of Steyer’s longtime organization, NextGen. “For Our Future is one of the most effective and important progressive grassroots organizations in the country, and their work will be integral to the 2020 outcome.”

Of the seven swing states For Our Future is targeting, Trump won five — Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But because of Trump’s large win in Ohio, more than 8 percentage points, Democrats have increasingly viewed the Buckeye State as less winnable.

Trump’s second-largest victory among those swing states was far smaller — 1.2 points in Florida, a state that Trump’s 2020 campaign views as critical to his reelection chances. In the other Rust Belt states, Trump won by less than a percentage point.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Barack Obama was the last Democrat to win statewide in Florida. Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried was the last Democrat to won statewide, in 2018.