No one is sure what impact President Obama’s newfound support for same-sex marriage will have on the election in November. But the Obama campaign isn’t just going to sit back and wait and see.
The Obama campaign on Wednesday announced the launch of Obama Pride: LBGT Americans for Obama, an outreach effort targeting the LGBT community. The new initiative, which coincides with Pride Month in June, will prioritize efforts to engage the community and mobilize voters. LGBT-targeted registration efforts were held Tuesday in honor of Harvey Milk Day. On the to-do list for Obama Pride are trainings, planning sessions, phone banks and house parties, particularly in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada and Florida.
On a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Jamie Citron, the campaign’s LGBT vote director, said organizers will be working “neighborhood by neighborhood and block by block,” and reaching out to “friends, families and coworkers.”
Plans to aggressively court the gay community represents a shift for the Obama campaign, which has been more soft-spoken about LGBT recruiting efforts in the past. Some critics charge that Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage was a ploy to rake in cash from the gay community. For a president who was for years reluctant to weigh in on the marriage equality issue at all, Obama Pride shows the campaign has pivoted to a new aggressive approach to make sure they reap the benefits of the president’s support of same-sex marriage.
The campaign’s outreach effort includes touting a list of achievements for LGBT Americans under Obama, including the 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act and ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. On the conference call, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign and a national co-chair of Obama for America, ran through a version of the list.
“President Obama is not paying us lip service,” Solmonese said. “He really and truly cares.”
The campaign is also also eager to play up Mitt Romney’s position on issues important to the gay community.
“Mitt Romney’s position on same-sex marriage is also historic,” Solmonese said, “but not in the way it should be.” Solmonese said that Romney would move the clock backward for gay Americans, including his preference for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. “We cannot afford to sit on the sidelines,” Solmonese said.
Given that same-sex marriage remains a divisive issue, the new campaign initiative is trying to harness any and all support for Obama’s position.
Polling has shown two themes on Obama’s gay marriage stance. On the one hand, Americans are clearly moving toward President Obama’s position: A poll from ABC News and the Washington Post released Wednesday morning shows support for gay marriage at its highest point ever in their polling, 53 percent in favor of legalization and 36 percent against.
On the other hand, the move did invite some electoral dangers — a Quinnipiac poll of swing-state Florida out Wednesday showed 23 percent of independent voters said they were less likely to vote for President Obama after the announcement, while 9 percent said they were more likely to vote for him. But NBC News and Wall Street Journal national numbers released Tuesday night showed that Obama’s new position didn’t rate very highly for the vast majority of Americans, especially in some key voting groups. From NBC’s First Read:
In the poll, a combined 17 percent say it makes them “much more likely” or “somewhat more likely” they will vote for him. That’s compared with a combined 20 percent who say the announcement will make them more likely to vote for Mitt Romney, who opposes gay marriage.
Perhaps more importantly, 62 percent say the president’s support for gay marriage doesn’t make a difference in their vote — including 75 percent of independents, 76 percent of moderates, 81 percent of African Americans, and 65 percent of residents in the Midwest.
In the end, the question will be whether the trade-off is worth it — there’s a only a small percentage of voters in the middle who say Obama’s position will make a difference in how they vote. The launch of Obama Pride indicates that the Obama camp has decided that the boost they get in enthusiasm, organization and fundraising could outweigh any crucial wavering voters who will decide their vote on gay marriage.
