Let’s Wake the Sleeping Giant

Why Partisan Voter Registration Matters

There’s a quiet, unsexy piece of party work that decides close elections long before the ads flood our screens or the debates make reporters go crazy:

Voter registration.

For too long, Democrats have treated it like someone else’s job.

A brief history

Way back in the 20th Century, voter registration was a core party function. National and state parties raised large sums (including so-called “soft money”) for party-building: year-round organizers, county chairs, clipboards at county fairs, card tables at churches and union halls, and stacks of registration forms on campus quads. We paired registration with persuasion. Volunteers could say plainly and legally: “Here’s why our party is fighting for you—let me get you signed up.”

The 1993 National Voter Registration Act (“Motor Voter”) also changed the landscape by adding sign ups at government touchpoints such as DMVs and public assistance offices. But the most effective persuasion registration—the kind that forges a relationship between a new voter and a political home—still lived inside parties and their coordinated campaigns. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was ours.

In 2002, Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, better known as McCain-Feingold. Its purpose was to clean up the Wild West of campaign finance. It limited soft money at the national level and narrowed how parties could fund certain activities, especially near elections.

In response, Democrats made a strategic choice: push registration into the nonprofit ecosystem—501(c)(3)s, (c)(4)s, and later 527s. These organizations could raise and spend money more flexibly, without the constraints of federal campaign finance law.

Republicans made a different strategic choice. They adapted to the new compliance environment—using hard dollars, state party accounts, and year-round volunteer networks—to keep partisan registration as a party responsibility. They invested directly, building systems that not only signed people up but connected those voters immediately to Republican candidates, messages, and values.

While we outsourced, they owned. That’s a critical difference.

The Consequences of Outsourcing

For two decades, Democrats largely relied on outside allies to register voters. Many of these groups did extraordinary work and deserve credit for expanding access to the ballot. But there were two major drawbacks:

1. No connection to the party
   By law, those groups couldn’t say “Register as a Democrat.” They couldn’t connect new registrants to our candidates, our values, or even our party infrastructure. They signed people up, but the relationship ended there.

2. No accountability or data
   The DNC often had no clear idea who was being registered, whether they were Democrats, Republicans, or independents, and whether those new registrants turned out to vote. In some states, we didn’t even know if our side was gaining ground or falling behind until Election Day came and went.

Meanwhile, the GOP stayed in the game. That’s why we see lopsided numbers in places like Florida, where Republicans enjoy a 1.4 million voter registration advantage. That didn’t happen overnight. It happened because they kept doing the work while we sat on the sidelines.

Fast forward to 2021. Alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, I announced a $5 million DNC investment to register voters in battleground states ahead of the 2022 midterms. This was the DNC’s largest ever commitment to voter registration in a midterm cycle, and it focused on communities of color.

Why It Took So Long to Return

So why has it taken us this long to bring partisan voter registration back inside the Democratic Party?

Part of the answer is money. Party budgets are always under strain, and when you’re forced to choose between helping a presidential campaign, defending Senate seats, or investing in long-term infrastructure, the urgent often wins out over the important.

Another piece of the story is how money itself was valued. After McCain-Feingold, federal hard dollars—direct contributions to candidates and party committees—became the most prized currency in politics. They were scarce, capped, and could be used for almost any campaign purpose. By comparison, soft money, which had restrictions and less direct utility, was seen as less valuable. That mindset shaped strategy: every hard dollar raised was hoarded for ads, staff, and short-term campaign needs rather than long-term investments like voter registration. The result was predictable: Democrats treated registration as expendable, even though it should have been foundational.

Why bringing registration back inside the party matters

Outside groups remain vital partners, especially for nonpartisan access and voter protection. As DNC Chair, I intentionally resourced such groups against the wishes of party insiders who preferred otherwise. But a party has unique responsibilities—and unique advantages:

• Integration. When a state party registers someone, that person isn’t just a line in a spreadsheet. They’re a contact for precinct meetings, volunteer shifts, campus chapters, text banks, and—crucially—follow-up conversations. This relational organizing provides a service to a new voter and shows we care about them. This is often not fully appreciated.

• Accountability. If we own the work, we can set targets, measure conversion from “registered” to “voted,” and fix what isn’t working. Ownership makes under-performance visible—and fixable. Also outside groups often don’t have longevity and form around a charismatic or forceful leader. When that leader transitions away sometimes the organization declines or disappears. State parties are constant and allow us to safeguard institutional memory.

• Compounding effects. Registration that is linked to party identity, community, and issues produces more durable turnout. You don’t have to “re-find” the same person every two years.

Our job isn’t just to win the next race. It’s to build the long, boring, beautiful scaffolding that lets future candidates stand on our shoulders instead of starting from zero.

Looking forward

As I discussed with DNC Chair Ken Martin on this week’s episode of At Our Table, Democrats have to wake the giant by making partisan voter registration a core responsibility of the party again. That commitment is what gives me hope that the next phase of this work will be stronger and more permanent.

This shift isn’t abstract. It affects whether Democrats can compete and win in places like Florida, Texas, and my home state of South Carolina. It’s what’s necessary to compete in red states so that candidates can focus on persuading voters instead of scrambling to build infrastructure that should have been there already.

Most of all, it affects whether our party is truly rooted in communities, year after year, election after election. Because if we only show up three months before an election, people notice. They don’t trust us. And they shouldn’t. We need to earn that trust back.

When we talk about partisan voter registration, we’re not talking about paperwork. We’re talking about power. For too long, we gave that power away. Now, we’re taking it back. The DNC and all our state parties must reassert themselves back into the partisan voter registration effort

Because registering voters isn’t just about winning elections. It’s about building a democracy where every voice is heard, every community is valued, and every family has a fair shot at the American Dream.