2023 Kentucky Gubernatorial Election
Increasing Impact by Improving Follow Through
173,577 Relational Conversations in 47 Days
80,000 People Contacted
1,050 Community Mobilizers
In fall 2023, Empower Project partnered with the Organizing Empowerment Fund to launch the Bluegrass Democracy Project—a statewide, nonpartisan paid relational organizing program in Kentucky. The goal was straightforward: generate 150,000 relational conversations ahead of the November 7 gubernatorial election.
We also set out to test a key hypothesis: if we improved organizer follow-up with Community Mobilizers, would the overall program become more efficient and effective? With the support of Kentucky Black, Rock the Vote, and the Kentucky Civic Engagement Table, we confirmed that stronger follow-up translated directly into stronger results.
By early October, the program had grown so quickly that—due to budget constraints—we had to stop recruiting new Mobilizers. Even with that cap, 85% of Mobilizers matched in VAN, and the data confirmed they were:
High-opportunity voters: 74% had an unknown voter propensity score or scored below 70.
Diverse across race, age, sex, and geography.
This program demonstrated not only the power of scaling relational organizing in Kentucky, but also that adding creative follow-up touchpoints—and investing in organizer support—can increase both efficiency and impact.
Expanding Beyond Kentucky: Broader 2023 Learnings
In fall 2023, Empower engaged in paid relational organizing programs in both Kentucky and Pennsylvania. The overall net increase from the field-only program was 0.3pp, but the more interesting story is what happened when we looked at turnout by ideology score.
Across both states, results showed a turnout differential of up to 2pp—with higher positive impact among modeled progressives and a demobilizing effect among modeled conservatives. We believe this pattern reflects a hidden persuasive effect of homophily.
