Exclusive: Renters targeted as crucial voting block in new campaign
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
A new campaign is betting that people who rent their homes instead of owning them can swing the election toward Vice President Kamala Harris.
Why it matters: More than 45 million Americans rent their house or apartment, yet renters are significantly less likely to vote than homeowners.
- Housing affordability is a top issue for voters as costs have soared over the past decade.
Driving the news: The Center for Popular Democracy Action on Thursday launched an initiative targeting renters in key swing states.
- The campaign aims to specifically target Latino and Black voters who cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election but haven't voted since.
- It plans to reach voters through direct calls, texts, mail and digital and social media, working with local affiliates in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
What they're saying: For voters — particularly in swing states — "the thing that keeps them up at night the most is housing insecurity, housing and affordability" along with the "precariousness" that comes with being a renter, says Analilia Mejia, co-executive director for the Center for Popular Democracy Action.
- "It is also the thing that they hear the least about" from politicians, Mejia adds.
By the numbers: Nearly 26% of U.S. renters spend more than half their income on housing, according to Census data.
- Latinos and Black Americans are significantly more likely to be renters and to be low-income renters as well, per research.
- That's largely due to disparities in homeownership rates between white Americans and people of color.
Zoom in: Both Harris and former President Trump have zeroed in on housing affordability as key voting issue, though they have offered different approaches to how they would tackle it.
- Trump says he would limit the ability of undocumented immigrants to buy or rent, slash mortgage rates and ease regulations to allow more construction.
- Harris blames a supply shortage and pledges to build more units through tax breaks and incentives for builders and to provide down payment assistance for first-time buyers.
Zoom out: Renters tend to lean left. They favored President Biden in the 2020 election by 36.5 percentage points, according to the National Apartment Association.
- Mejia says that if even a fraction of the millions of renters who are eligible to vote cast a ballot, they can swing the election in Harris' favor.
- "We are trying to correct a problem that is going to motivate people into the polling booth and we're going to continue to engage these people so that we get real policy change," Mejia says.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to show the campaign launched Thursday (not Wednesday).
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