Progressive activists focused on opposition to President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE are turning their attention to another target: state-level politics.

"States play a major role in national elections," Catherine Vaughan, the co-founder and CEO of Flippable, a political action committee that focuses exclusively on state governments, said during an interview broadcast on Monday's "Rising."

Vaughan noted that it is state legislatures that draw the district lines that set congressional seats, and that have protected a number of GOP lawmakers.

"The state policies on who gets to vote, how votes are counted, how district lines are drawn — which makes Congress so much more gerrymandered, and so much harder for Democrats to flip than it was before," she said.

Flippable is one of several new organizations on the political left that are cropping up in response to earlier successes by conservative groups like the American Legislative Exchange Counsel (ALEC) and the State Policy Network at using state politics as a means to implement their electoral and policy goals.

The GOP also made significant gains from a Republican State Leadership Committee initiative called the Redistricting Majority Project (REDMAP) which focused significant Republican donor funds on flipping state legislative seats in swing states.

Vaughan also argued that state-level politics matter because that's where many federal politicians begin their public service careers.

"State governments build the bench for federal government," she said. "Almost 50 percent of members of Congress started at the state legislative level. Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaThe Memo: Trump's strengths complicate election picture Obama shares phone number to find out how Americans are planning to vote Democrats' troubling adventure in a 'Wonderland' without 'rule of law' MORE was a state senator in my home-state of Illinois."

—Matthew Sheffield