Over the next few months, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) plans to spend roughly $25 million on ballot measures across the country. What makes the 2018 midterm elections different for the ACLU, however, is the strategy they will be using.
According to ACLU's national political director Faiz Shakir, the political organization will do their best to emulate the National Rifle Association's (NRA) member voting bloc.
Part of the ALCU's new strategy, known as the "People Power Initiative," focuses on organizing demonstrations against some of President Donald Trump's policies and having more of an influence outside of just the court system.
During an interview on CBS News' "Red and Blue," Shakir explained how the NRA has done a great job mobilizing voters, something his organization hopes to do:
The ACLU is a political organization but it's not a partisan organization. You won't see us endorsing or opposing individual candidates. You won't see us aligning with any particular party, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party.
What you will see us doing is voter education and voter mobilization work. And so, what that looks like is maybe scorecards from the ACLU that let you know how candidates are performing on civil rights and civil liberties issues and then asking you to vote.
I think that is something that you have seen the NRA do quite well, building an affinity with their brand, their own members. They have built the idea of the 'NRA voter.'
I hope that over the next few months that you're going to see the building and the flex of ACLU voters.
...I think the NRA has been very successful as a single-issue advocacy organization for many years and making their members feel affiliation with the brand and making members want to show up with each other in support of the causes that national [organization] suggests to them.
