Students Demand Action Elections HQ
Young voters are the most powerful voting block in 2024. Your action matters.
Young voters have become an electoral powerhouse over the past few election cycles, and the 2024 election won’t be any different. When guns are the leading cause of death for our generation, nothing more urgent to us than electing Gun Sense Candidates up and down the ballot. The contrast couldn’t be more clear here: Gun Sense Candidates are fighting to end gun violence while the other side is fighting to protect the gun industry.
Making sure we have gun sense majorities can literally mean the difference between life and death – and that goes for every level of government. That’s why Students are all in to elect Gun Sense Candidates up and down the ballot. Use this webpage to learn about how Students Demand Action is engaging in the 2024 election and how you and your peers can take action to elect Gun Sense Candidates.
Skill Up: Elections Style
The Students Demand Action National Training Team has developed a learning pathway for students to become experts on election work, covering everything from “What is a Gun Sense Candidate?,” to voter registration, voter contact tactics, and more!
While the workshops are labeled in “steps,” they can be taken out of order. The following roadmap is recommended guidance for you to follow that matches the cycle of electoral activations and a buildup of election action skills.
Here’s the Roadmap:
- Introduction to Supporting Gun Sense Candidates
- Messaging and Your Elections Gun Sense Candidate Elevator Pitch
- How to use Everytown tools to find Gun Sense Candidates and Record your work
- Activating New Voters
- Check your Voter Registration and Register to Vote
- How to Host a Voter Registration Drive
- Voter Contact Tactics
- Phone Banking
- Text Banking
- Canvassing
- Relational Organizing
- Student Visibility at Candidate Events
- Bird Dogging
- Visibility at Gun Sense Candidate Events
- Level Up Your Work
- Building a Team: Recruiting Your Friends and Classmates to do Electoral Work
- How to Bring These Skills to Your Group (Train the Trainer)
Young voters have the power to be a driving force this election cycle – GenZ eligible voters alone make up nearly one fifth of the American electorate. While this group has the potential to alter the political calculus, they need to receive support from candidates, political parties, and most importantly, their communities, to feel driven to take action.1https://circle.tufts.edu/2024-election-youth-poll#information-and-support,-key-to-youth-engagement,-are-often-still-lacking That’s where you come in. Take the Level Up Your Work training to equip yourself with the tools and confidence to spearhead education and civic engagement in your community, school, and amongst your peers. Whether you’re bringing two friends along with you to a voter contact training session, or you’re leading a voter registration drive workshop for 20 classmates – you’re contributing to motivating the most powerful segment of the voter population to take action.
Organizing around elections is not only critical in the gun violence prevention movement because guns are the leading cause of death for our generation, but also the skills and tactics utilized during election cycles are the baseline for every other grassroots movement in America. Honing in on simple organizing skills right now, like phone banking, registering voters, developing an elevator pitch, and recruiting others to join in the work will serve our generation for decades to come as we build our power.
Track and Celebrate Your Skills
We’ve created a checklist for you to keep track of which workshops you’ve completed. Keep others updated with your progress by:
Posting your checklist on social media and urging your peers to join you in this work.
Posting your checklist on Linkedin to demonstrate your commitment to organizing and the skills you’ve gained.
Comparing your checklist with others in your Students Demand Action group or with whom you organize.
Training Schedule
The Students Demand Action National Training Team will host live workshops beginning in May through Election Day! In addition to live virtual workshops, many sessions will be recorded. (Download the calendar here)
A key component of leveling up your organizing is actually facilitating workshops yourself for your Students Demand Action group, civically engaged club at school, or even for your friends who want to take action this election cycle! Here’s how to step up as an elections leader in your community:
- Register for and attend workshops for Steps 1-4 of the training roadmap to learn about how Students Demand Action is engaging in electoral work.
- Sign up for a Step 5: Level Up Your Work training to gain skills and confidence around building a team, recruiting peers to do electoral work, and training your peers yourself using Students Demand Action’s training materials!
- Every time you plan to host a workshop for classmates or friends, register your event with the Students Demand Action Host an Event form! From there, a Students Demand Action team member will connect with you via email to share the training materials and check if you have any questions or need additional support.
- When you register to host your own training event, Students Demand Action will send you a trainer merch pack filled with Students Demand Action merch. If you run out of any materials, email students@everytown.org and we can refill your merch pack as you continue to host trainings.
Gun Sense Candidates
The Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate distinction lets voters know which candidates will stand up for gun safety if elected into office. Moms Demand Action volunteers across the country have been distributing questionnaires to candidates to ensure that those with the Gun Sense Candidate distinction will advocate for safer communities. These candidates have proven their commitment to life saving gun laws.
Take Action!
Download the Demand Action App!
In addition to going to Gun Sense Voter, the best way to get information about upcoming elections workshops and voter contact events is to download the Demand Action App!
You can take action in the following ways:
Recruit Your Peers
For each of the following voter contact activations, recruit friends, classmates and peers to join you! This can be done via word of mouth or relational organizing (more on that later), but also on social media or by flyering. You can utilize this template to create recruitment graphics with all of the information about your event!
Text Banking
Text banking is a really easy way to meet voters where they’re at – on their phones! Taking action is simple, flexible and accessible. All you need is your phone or a computer and anywhere from five minutes to an hour depending on your availability!
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Join the Students Demand Action Text Team
The Students Demand Action Text Team will play a key role in Everytown’s election work this cycle, contacting voters across the country to confirm their voter registration and make sure they have a plan to vote. Texting with the SDA Text Team is super flexible and a low commitment way to make a big impact among voters!
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Text Bank in Support of a Gun Sense Candidate
The Gun Sense Voter event page is filled with activations and events for Gun Sense Candidates across the country! To find a text banking event, click the state you wish to take action in*, and scroll through the available events. Event titles should include: the state abbreviation, the candidate the event is supporting, and the tactic being used. Once you find an event, RSVP by clicking on the event box and then complete the required fields to officially sign up. Typically, you will receive more information about the event, including the address or zoom link and text banking link, a few days to a few hours before the event. Stay tuned to your email so you don’t miss important information about taking action! *If you can’t find a Gun Sense Candidate event in your state in which you’re interested, check out other states where candidates that excite you are running for office! The flexibility of virtual text banks and phone banks really allows you to make an impact in the races that you care most about.
Phone Banking
Phone banking is a key election tactic across the country and up and down the ballot. In 2024, Students Demand Action phone banks will focus on both confirming voter registration among young voters and calling voters to encourage them to vote for our priority Gun Sense Candidates across the country. Phone banking is one of the best ways to engage in some of the most critical races and do it at a time that works best for you or your Students Demand Action group!
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Join the Students Demand Action Calling Team
Join the Students Demand Action Calling Team to make calls on a weekly basis during a two hour shift. This team helps to contact voters in key districts and encourage them to use their voice or vote to take action. Oftentimes, we speak with voters about the need for common-sense gun safety laws at both the federal and state level – but as we gear up for the election beginning over the summer, we will work to mobilize gun sense voters and get out the vote.
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Host your own phone banking event
Register a phone bank with the Host an Event Form for a time that works for your Students Demand Action group (or friends)! When you indicate in this form that you’re hosting a phone bank, Students Demand Acton will provide you with a phone bank link, instructions, and an information packet about why we’ve determined that we need all hands on deck to contact this set of voters. This is a great group activity to do during lunch time, after school, or even on a Sunday evening with friends while hanging out! Think creatively about how to use this tactic to grow your group and engage people in your school or community in electing Gun Sense Candidates. For example, consider:- Hosting weekly open phone bank shifts during lunch
- Partnering with different school clubs to host a phone bank together
- Organizing a phone bank party for your friends over the weekend
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Join a One-Off Phone Banking Shift
You can make a difference, even if you only have an hour to give.
Pick the virtual phone bank window that works best for you and we’ll send you all information to make calls from home. New to phone banking? No problem! Each of our call windows will start with a short kickoff call and minitraining. All you need is a phone, a computer or tablet with internet access to take action!
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Phone bank in Support of a Gun Sense Candidate
The Gun Sense Voter event website is filled with activations and events for Gun Sense Candidates across the country! To find a phone banking event, click the state you wish to take action in*, and scroll through the available events. Event titles should include: the state abbreviation, the candidate the event is supporting, and the tactic being used. Once you find an event, RSVP by clicking on the event box and then complete the required fields to officially sign up. Typically, you will receive more information about the event, including the address or zoom link and phone banking link, a few days to a few hours before the event. Stay tuned to your email so you don’t miss important information about taking action! *If you can’t find a Gun Sense Candidate event in your state in which you’re interested, check out other states where candidates that excite you are running for office! The flexibility of virtual text banks and phone banks really allows you to make an impact in the races that you care most about.
Canvassing
Canvassing for candidates, otherwise known as door-knocking, is a great opportunity to connect with voters in your community, find commonalities in the issues you care about, and share why you’re planning on voting for Gun Sense Candidates. Canvassing is a super effective tactic for elections campaigns as it provides potential voters with a credible messenger from their community to discuss candidates and issues and it is also proven to increase voter turnout rates.
For student organizers, learning to canvas can help build confidence in your ability to communicate your personal viewpoints and connect them to why it’s so important to elect Gun Sense Candidates up and down the ballot. Canvassing is also an incredible tactic to connect in-person with other people in your area who care about similar issues. At canvassing events, be sure to talk to other volunteers and learn about the issues they care about and what kind of work they do to support those issues in addition to volunteering for candidates.
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Canvass in Support of a Gun Sense Candidate
Relational Organizing
Relational organizing is the most simple voter contact action you can take! Think about it… who do you trust the most to provide you with important information and reminders? Your friends and family, or strangers and mass communication. All forms of voter contact play a role in sharing information, but when a friend or family member says something, it might spark some extra motivation in a voter’s mind.
Relational Organizing is a proven tactic for individuals and groups to utilize their personal networks and relationships to build power and create change. Anytime you see someone say “and now send this reminder to three friends,” that’s relational organizing!
You can incorporate relational organizing into every single piece of electoral organizing that you do!
Here are some examples:
- Next time you phone bank, bring two friends with you!
- Ask your parents or siblings to join you for a neighborhood canvass for a Gun Sense Candidate! Before the next canvass, tell them to bring one of their friends too!
- Text three friends or family members the Gun Sense Voter candidate look-up tool, and ask if they’ve checked out which Gun Sense Candidates will be on their ballot in November!
- Host a training for your group and ask that each member of the group bring a friend to the training.
Let’s practice together right now – send this webpage to three friends with the following message:
“Hey! Guns are the number one killer of our generation, and that’s why I’m working this election cycle to elect candidates who are committed to taking action with gun safety in mind. I know you also care about keeping our communities safe from gun violence, so check out Students Demand Action’s elections webpage to find an action you can take right now! https://bit.ly/sda-elections“
Key Dates
Weekends of Action
Each election cycle, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action host several Weekends of Action. While volunteers are working to elect gun sense candidates every single day of the week for months leading up to election day, these three weekends are opportunities for everyone to work together and demonstrate the electoral power of our grassroots movement.
Weekends of Action action will kick off on Friday afternoons/evenings with a virtual phone bank event – to help mobilize gun sense voters – that everyone across the country can join. Throughout the weekend, Students, Moms and Survivor volunteers will meet together for voter contact actions in support of a Gun Sense Candidate in their state or local area. Weekend of Action tactics include canvassing, phone banking, and text banking.
Candidate events are updated on Gun Sense Voter daily and can be posted any time from one day in advance to six weeks in advance. Save the dates in your calendar now for the Weekends of Action and continue checking Gun Sense Voter to RSVP for events near you.
- Weekend of Action: September 13th-15th, 2024
- Weekend of Action: October 18th-20th, 2024
- GOTV Weekend of Action: November 1st-3rd, 2024
National Voter Registration Day
National Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan civic holiday celebrating our democracy! This year National Voter Registration Day will be observed on Tuesday, September 17th. Students Demand Action volunteers in conjunction with hundreds of community organizations and individual volunteers will host voter registration drives on this day.
Be a part of the national movement to increase civic engagement and register your voter registration drive for September 17th now using the Host an Event form!
Continue reading on for more information about voter registration efforts.
Activating New Voters
Young voters have become an electoral powerhouse over the past few election cycles, and this year won’t be any different, so we’re doing our part to register young voters across the country!
For more training on voter registration, take the Step 2: Activating New Voters workshop!
Social Graphics
Personal stories help voters make connections to real life issues and that can push them to vote and to vote for candidates who are committed to addressing those issues.
We’ve created template graphics for you to share your story on social media. Respond to the following prompts and don’t forget to tag us in social media posts @studentsdemand!
- I’m voting for Gun Sense Candidates because…
- Template for Grid (1080x1350px)
- Template for Story (1080x1920px)
- I’m a [BLANK] and I’m a first time Gun Sense Voter!
- Template for Grid (1080x1350px)
- Template for Story (1080x1920px)
Host a Voter Registration Drive
Hosting a Voter Registration Drive with Students Demand Action is easy – all you need to do is have people text FUTURE to 644-33.* Then they’ll get a text with the link where they can register to vote, update their registration, or request an absentee ballot.
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Please include in messages advertising this short code the following language: “By texting, you agree to receive communications to your phone number from Everytown organizations. Msg freq varies. STOP to quit. Msg & data rates may apply.” everytown.org/terms
When you enter your voter registration drive to the Students Demand Action Host an Event Form, we’ll send you a voter registration merch pack that includes t-shirts, stickers, posters and more! Check out our Guide to Hosting a Voter Registration Drive for more information about registering voters!
Be creative when thinking about when and where to host your voter registration drive, and remember that a key component of increasing voter registration and turnout is talking about voter registration early and often. Here are some examples of places to host voter registration drives:
- Before or after school, during lunch periods.
- School events like games, plays, and club fairs.
- College first year orientation/move-in week. (Lots of new students will need to update their voter registration or request mail-in ballots!)
- Local events in your community such as farmers markets, barbeques, parades, and concerts.
- Popular summer gathering locations like parks, beaches, and malls
Remember that National Voter Registration Day will take place on Tuesday, September 17th this year. This is a great time to plan ahead to host a voter registration drive at your school, but consider other options to take multiple actions in the months before National Voter Registration Day.
Register to Vote or Confirm your Voter Registration
Registering to vote and confirming your voter registration status can be easily done with just a few clicks on Gun Sense Voter. Don’t forget, once you register or confirm your voter status, take the next step and commit to voting by filling out the pledge to vote form!
Take this action even further and increase your impact! Send Gun Sense Voter to three friends or family members and ask them to register to vote or confirm their voter registration status!
BIPOC Student Resources
Each election is crucial. For students of color, they’re even more important.
We know that BIPOC communities are the hardest hit by this gun violence crisis across the country. By getting involved in the electoral process and by electing leaders that acknowledge this problem, we can push for policies that make our schools and neighborhoods safer.
Each community—whether Latinx, Black, Arab-American, or AANHPI—have unique experiences and needs in this election.
That’s why BIPOC Students Demand Action leaders have designed toolkits intended for students from disproportionately impacted communities. Use these toolkits to guide your electoral work as you make your voice heard and ensure your community’s concerns are front and center.
Our toolkits are designed to be presented to your campus and community in a way that resonates with other students. Here’s how you can make the most of them:
- Lead Your Own Workshops: Organize events where you can walk your classmates through the toolkit, discussing each section and why it matters.
- Peer Training: Attend our election trainings and become a peer trainer, helping others understand the importance of voting and how to effectively engage in the election process.
- Partner with Student Organizations: Collaborate with existing student groups to co-host workshops and discussions, leveraging their networks to reach more students.
- Host Community Events: Take the toolkit beyond campus by hosting events in your local community centers, churches, or online platforms to reach a broader audience.
- Use Social Media: Share key points from the toolkit on your social media accounts to spread the word and encourage others to get involved.
By actively presenting these toolkits on your campus and in your community, you’re helping to create an informed and motivated voter network that can drive the change we need.
Ready to Get Started?
Dive into your toolkit, gather your friends, and let’s make this election count. Together, we can drive the change we want to see and advocate for a safer, more inclusive future for all of us.
Check out your affinity toolkit:
- Black Students Affinity Group
- Latinx Students Affinity Group
- Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Affinity Group
- Middle Eastern & North African (MENA) Affinity Group
Attend An Affinity Group Workshop
Interested in learning how this election will impact your communities and eager to connect with other students? Join us for our Affinity Group Calls, where we will be hosting workshops on all our election activations from “What is a Gun Sense Candidate,” to voter registration, voter contact tactics, and more!
Students Demand Action Affinity Groups provide spaces for students from across the country to come together, create community and share their experiences, advance their interests and access resources for the group’s benefit and empowerment.