Building Winning Coalitions
What the right learned about organizing from Obama - and we mostly forgot
The Problem. Democrats are skilled at mobilizing, filling the streets, raising money, generating energy. They have underinvested in organizing relative to mobilizing. Mobilizing gets people to do a thing once. Organizing builds the kind of people who show up repeatedly, without being told, because they belong to something.
Analysis. In 2024, the Harris campaign spent $2.9 billion and made 300 million phone calls. Three percent of these efforts reached a voter. In contrast, Republicans spent $1.8 billion and won, in large part through relationships built in churches, community groups, and local chapters that operated year-round. The right’s infrastructure is not built on rallies. It is built on belonging.
The Approach. A small number of Democratic-aligned organizations such as Down Home North Carolina, ISAIAH in Minnesota, Hoosier Action in Indiana have built durable, winning coalitions using methods that are documented and replicable. The six blueprints below reflect those methods, each with a track record of results.
Note: our approach is largely based on the article written by Charles Duhigg in the New Yorker. February 2, 2026.