NAACP spending more on midterms than any other election in its history

The NAACP will be spending more on midterms than any other election in its history following the Supreme Court’s April ruling that effectively limited the Voting Rights Act’s power against racial vote dilution.

In response to the high court’s decision to strike down Louisiana’s second Black majority district, the nonpartisan civil rights organization will invest $20 million in its get-out-the-vote campaign, according to NBC News.

Black voters accounted for 12.1 percent of the 131 million voters in the 2008 presidential election, according to Pew Research Center. About 2 in 3 eligible Black Americans voted in the 2012 presidential election, per the U.S. Census Bureau. The NAACP’s voter engagement effort will target infrequent voters and aim to increase turnout significantly from those years.

“By turning out the vote, we can all help put an end to Donald Trump’s assaults on our communities and the rights we’ve secured through immense struggle and begin to build a future that actually serves our needs — from having accessible healthcare, affordable housing, and getting a good education,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement to NBC News.

Johnson will help helm the midterm campaign initiative that will include 20,000 volunteers across 14 states and 33 congressional districts, per the outlet.

The objective is to reach 6.5 million Black voters through radio ads and other spots. The NAACP has been a proponent for legal challenges to redistricting efforts it deems racially discriminatory with Kristen Clarke, the former assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice in the Biden administration, serving as general counsel.

The organization challenged Tennessee’s recent redistricting map that split a majority-Black Memphis district into three different districts.

A Tennessee state court dismissed the NAACP’s lawsuit challenging the state’s redrawn congressional map, ruling that the group lacked legal standing.

NAACP spending more on midterms than any other election in its history

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