In an office in Phoenix, dozens of young conservatives are enacting a strategy they say they learned from ‘defectors from the left.’
PHOENIX, Ariz—Matthew Martinez bounded from map to map, a broad smile on his face.
He pointed out important areas of Arizona and Wisconsin—“super chase” jurisdictions scattered throughout the two battleground states.
Behind him, a few other Turning Point Action staffers were working at a bank of computers.
In the organization’s Phoenix headquarters, the workforce skewed young, in keeping with Turning Point’s focus on organizing and activating young conservatives. Mr. Martinez, a leader of the “Chase the Vote” initiative, is just 23.
He was okay with a journalist photographing his meticulously subdivided maps.
“I’m proud of this operation,” he told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Martinez was showing off the fruits of years of planning by his conservative organization, now ready for the 2024 cycle.
Using a relatively simple equation, Turning Point Action is going after crucial wards and precincts in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan. To pull it off, they’re hiring hundreds for a full-time “ballot-chasing army.”
Their goal: turn out Republicans who sat out the last two presidential elections. That includes more positive messaging around early voting and absentee voting.
Turning Point Action’s chief operating officer, Tyler Bowyer, told The Epoch Times his organization was “handed the playbook” they’re using by “defectors from the Left.” He declined to provide any names.
According to Mr. Bowyer, the strategy is downstream of the successful “Colorado model” that Democrats and liberal activists used to flip Colorado from red to blue.
“This is no secret. The Democrats have done this,” Mr. Martinez said.
A Little Counterintuitive
Many of the areas the group is targeting are in deep red territory—for example, Rep. Eli Crane’s (R-Ariz.) district, rated solidly Republican by the Cook Political Report, or Waukesha County, Wisconsin, where President Donald Trump claimed 60 percent of the vote in 2020.
But others are well within Blue America, like chunks of Dane County, home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. President Joe Biden claimed more than 75 percent of the vote there in the last presidential election.
