A left-wing organization dispatched volunteers to reach out to young voters on dating apps ahead of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election on Tuesday, NPR reported.
Around 20 volunteer daters with NextGen America, a leftist Super PAC funded by billionaire Tom Steyer, “swiped their way right across the badger state” using Hinge, a dating app that allows users to change their locations for free. The volunteers set their locations to different places in Wisconsin, but mainly in Democrat-heavy cities such as Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Madison, according to local media reports.
Kristi Johnston, national press secretary for NextGen America detailed how Hinge “has a setup where you’re given a certain amount of likes per day” and “also on the other end, other matches are also swiping right or left.”
“So you’ll also get an inbox of people that like you to have you both swipe right then you match and from there, you can take the conversation how you like,” Johnston told WUWM.
She reportedly curated her profile to “entice Wisconsin matches,” including photos of her in a Cheesehead hat and a Green Bay Packers fleece, NPR reported.
“I’ve been talking to a lot of people about my stress, personally, as an organizer around the election, on overall turnout, and what the outcome could be,” she added. “So you know, really bringing them into those conversations, and making them feel like they have a stake in the game, and that they’re a part of the organizing with us, has been really critical for me.”
According to NPR, the online dating tactic is a better way of approaching young voters than sending campaign texts or cold calling, efforts which can be easily ignored. On dating apps, “it’s normal to talk to strangers and forge genuine connections.”
The left-wing group started the online dating program during the 2020 election in Arizona and revived it nationally during the 2022 midterms, WUWM reported. The group said it plans to use dating apps for outreach in key battleground states ahead of the 2024 presidential election, including in Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
“We identified those states as the states where young people can make the biggest impact and where their votes are going to have the most weight,” Johnston said.
Ahead of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, the group also planned to send more than 1.1 million texts and make calls to young voters ages 18 to 35.
Democrat Janet Protasiewicz ended up securing a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court over Republican Daniel Kelly, giving liberals control over the state’s high court for the first time in 15 years and shattering the court’s current fragile 4-3 conservative majority. The previous makeup of the court came within one vote of overturning President Biden’s win in the state in 2020.
Protasiewicz notably leaned into her left-wing worldview while campaigning, decrying the state’s election maps as “rigged” and accusing the U.S. Supreme Court of “incorrectly” deciding the Dobbs decision. Her victory means she will likely get to weigh in on a challenge to the state’s 1849 abortion ban, which went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The results of the election could also impact how lawmakers redraw the state’s legislative districts ahead of the 2024 presidential election, as well as parents’ rights, Second Amendment rights, and religious liberty.
The race ended up being the most the most expensive state judicial race in American history, topping at least $42 million — nearly triple the previous national record for a court race, according to the Associated Press.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.