SALT LAKE CITY – With just a week remaining before the general election, the Utah Democratic Party (UDP) has announced that its outreach efforts have made contact with a record number of Beehive State voters.

“For too long, Republican politicians have taken our state for granted, as they gave themselves legislative districts that made it easy for them to stay in power,” said Elliot Kauffman, the director of “Organize Utah,” a coordinated statewide campaign to elect Democrats in highly competitive districts.

“Despite GOP gerrymandering,” he added, “we are working harder than ever before to ensure Utahns’ voices are heard.”

The Democrats’ coordinated efforts have reached out to more than a quarter-million Utah voters since May of 2024, according to a statement released by Mason Hughes, the communication director of the UDP.

Hughes explained that the UDP and “Organize Utah” provided free resources to Democratic candidates for state and local offices. That support has included campaign coaching; strategy consultation; data administration; and content design for logos, websites and fliers.

The state party has also given its candidates access to a predictive dialing service, making it far easier for Democratic campaign workers to reach large numbers of voters over the phone.

A predictive dialing service is a type of automated dialer that is designed to increase the efficiency of campaign volunteers by calling as many voters as possible, then quickly moving on to the next voter’s number after an unanswered call.

Calls that are answered, on the other hand, are quickly routed to the next available volunteer. This guarantees more productive talk time, ensuring improved productivity for the candidate and his or her campaign volunteers.

Democratic phone banks have logged more than 60,000 conversations with voters since May of this year, Hughes reported. The UPD has also facilitated the use of texting and good, old-fashioned door knocking to get out the messages of Democratic candidates.

“We’ve reached out to more than twice as many voters than the Utah Democratic Party did in 2020 or 2022,” Kauffman boasted.

The question, of course, is whether the outreach efforts of “Organize Utah” will be sufficient to overcome Republicans’ numerical advantage in even the most competitive election districts.

Republicans make up more than half of Utah’s more than 1.7 million active voters.

As of Oct. 21, the office of Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson reported that registered Democrats in Utah numbered 245,000, compared to more than 928,000 GOP active voters.

That leaves nearly 500,000 unaffiliated voters in Utah, plus slightly more than 100,000 voters who claim to be members of the Constitution, Independent American, Libertarian, United Utah or other parties.

But Hughes said that support from the state UDP’s “Organize Utah” campaign has saved Democratic candidates statewide thousands of dollars, ensuring that they can focus on talking to voters about the issues that matter most to them.

“The Utah Democratic Party is leading the charge to elect Democrats in highly competitive districts,” he added.



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