REPORT: Sunrise 2024 General election Impact

This spring, young people were breaking for Trump in record numbers. Several polls even showed Trump beating Biden among young voters. Early in the year, Sunrise raised the alarm about these trends and employed a four-part strategy to turn these numbers around.

One of the largest youth voter programs nationwide
Use direct action and social media to spotlight the GOPs deeply unpopular climate policies
Pressure Democrats to back and emphasize policies that would motivate young voters
Make the case to young progressives and disillusioned voters to vote for Harris

Ultimately, young voters have swung dramatically to support Kamala Harris. Young voters are blowing past expectations in swing states with early voting. Here’s what Sunrise did to contribute to that:

#1 Four Million Youth Voter Contacts

In just three months, the Sunrise Movement made 4,214,169 million voter contacts — a bigger reach than our 2020 program and one of the largest youth voter operations in the country. In total, Sunrise volunteers completed 3712 voter contact shifts.

Sunrise’s program focused on Presidential swing states where young, climate-minded voters were poised to decide the election: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Georgia. Our voter contact universe was made up of people under the age of 35 who were very likely to be concerned about climate change.

Sunrisers canvassed college campuses and partnered with other progressive groups to knock doors in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.

Total Voter Contact Attempts	Doors Knocked	Peer to Peer Texts Sent	Phone Calls Made	Unique Voters in Text/Call Universe	Digital Advertising Reach
4,214,169	23,428	1,996,249	758,858	762,858	1,665,345

In addition, we ran digital ads on Instagram that reached over a million young swing state voters. One video, “Trump Doesn’t Care About You,” features footage of Hurricane Helene alongside a clip of Trump claiming that climate change would be a good thing and create more seafront property.

#2 Highlighting the GOP’s deeply unpopular climate policies

Polls showed that climate change is THE issue this election where voters trust Harris the most over Trump. Throughout the year, Sunrise made sure this contrast was in the spotlight.

In January volunteers disrupted dozens of Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Haley events in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Videos of the interactions reached nearly 10 million people and scored dozens of local and national media hits. In the spring, videos of Sunrisers confronting GOP Members of Congress about their fossil fuel donors went viral.
In the wake of climate disasters, Sunrise held over a dozen protests of Trump and other GOP politicians across the country, making the case to young people that we cannot afford the GOPs climate inaction.
After Hurricane Helene, Sunrise ran a campaign demanding CBS include a question about Helene and climate change in the Vice Presidential debate, in order to highlight JD Vance and Trump’s lack of a climate plan. CBS asked what Sunrise called a “historic” question.
Sunrise’s digital ad, “Trump Doesn’t Care About You,” reached over a million young voters with footage of Hurricane Helene alongside a clip of Trump claiming that climate change would be “a good thing” and “create more seafront property.”

#3 Pressure Democrats to back and emphasize policies that would motivate young voters

We urged the Biden-Harris administration to embrace and highlight policies that could energize young voters, such as the American Climate Corps, capping rent increases, and July’s OSHA regulations classifying extreme heat as a major disaster.

After June’s debate, we urged President Biden to step aside and pass the torch to a new nominee with a better chance to defeat Trump.

Through public campaigning and direct coordination with the campaign, Sunrise pushed the Harris campaign to campaign on climate action and holding Big Oil accountable.

#4 Make the case to young progressives and disillusioned voters to vote for Harris

From the war in Gaza to the economy, frustration and disillusionment among young people is at historic levels. This has led many young voters to consider voting for third parties or sitting out altogether.

We held “Beyond the Ballot” trainings to dig into our 4-year plan to win bold climate action if Harris wins. In those sessions we dug into how much harder these plans would be under a Trump presidency.
Through phone and text conversations, Sunrise directly persuaded thousands of voters in this position to vote for Harris.
Sunrise also put out social media and press content making this case. These posts reached over 1.5 million people on Instagram alone.