Kamala Harris' campaign rejected an offer in late summer to mobilize undecided Black voters in key swing states, according to a post-election report.
The Congressional Black Caucus pitched the $10 million plan in September to persuade and turn out Black voters, a demographic that Donald Trump made significant improvements with on the way to winning a second term as president, and two sources familiar with the matter told Politico the proposal was rejected.
The caucus approached the vice president's campaign with the project, called the “Freedom + Opportunity Bus Tour," which called for $1.5 million for a bus tour that would take Black lawmakers to those key states and $8.3 million for social action groups that would focus on battleground House districts where Black voters made up 8 percent of the population.
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The tour would have visited Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania – all states that Trump ultimately won – and stopped in Nebraska’s second congressional district, which Harris did win.
The proposal also suggested working with Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander organizations that are “accustomed to building mulitracial coalitions to win elections,” according to a memo reviewed by Politico.
Some Democrats say that could have made a difference and cost relatively little for a campaign that raised more than $1 billion, although the Harris campaign did implement some of the proposals, such as enlisting social media influencers for voter engagement and rallying with established civil and labor organizations.