Red, Wine & Blue Launched Relational Voter Outreach

The group aims to contact 400,000 voters in Ohio by leveraging personal networks for the 2026 election cycle.

Updated on Sept. 20, 2026 in Civic Engagement

Isometric editorial illustration showing stylized mailbox and telephone icons over a state map, depicting an organized voter communication network. — Red, Wine & Blue is training 20,000 women to perform relational voter outreach across Ohio, aiming to reach 400,000 voters before the 2026 election. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Live Poll

Do you feel more encouraged to vote by personal texts from friends or traditional campaign advertising?

Red, Wine & Blue has launched an initiative to influence the 2026 election through relational organizing, training 20,000 women to contact friends and neighbors. This approach seeks to boost voter turnout in 62 targeted Ohio races.

Why it matters

Traditional campaign tactics like mailers often face low engagement, leading the group to prioritize personal outreach to improve turnout without the high costs of traditional canvassing.

The group is targeting 350 races nationally, including 62 in Ohio, with a goal of reaching 400,000 voters. Nationally, contacted voters showed a 2.5 to 4 percentage point higher turnout, while suburban women saw a 5.5 to 6 point increase.

The players

Red, Wine & Blue

This political organization operates more than 800 local groups across 50 states to engage suburban women.

Katie Paris

She is the founder of the organization who began her work in the Cleveland area.

Americans for Prosperity-Ohio

This advocacy group is pursuing a large-scale door-to-door canvassing operation for the 2026 campaign.

Center for Campaign Innovation

This research institution tracks the effectiveness of various campaign strategies and voter engagement tactics.

The details

Members are instructed to send personal texts to coworkers, relatives, and neighbors using a specialized library of training resources. While Red, Wine & Blue focuses on this network-based strategy, groups like Americans for Prosperity-Ohio are pursuing a different model by attempting to contact 1 million to 1.5 million voters through door-to-door efforts.

Katie Paris moved to the Cleveland area in 2012.
Suburban women began organizing in Ohio in 2016.
The Center for Campaign Innovation studied relational organizing in March 2025.
Red, Wine & Blue conducts its relational organizing program throughout 2026.

Political Context

Opponents and conservative advocacy groups often argue that high-intensity, localized relational organizing lacks the scale of traditional mass-media campaigns. These critics maintain that direct, high-volume door-knocking operations remain a more reliable mechanism for reaching large, diverse voter universes.

Ohio residents may notice an increase in direct texts from personal acquaintances regarding local school levies and congressional races. Voters should remain aware that these messages are part of an organized effort to influence 2026 turnout through personal social networks.

The takeaway

Relational organizing shifts the burden of campaigning from paid staff to the average voter's personal network. By leveraging pre-existing trust between friends, organizations can potentially reach voters more efficiently than through traditional cold-contact methods.