With the 2024 election just weeks away, organizers around the country are mobilizing voters to vote for Kamala Harris and defeat the MAGA authoritarian faction working to take our country backwards. At the same time, Israeli leaders’ devastating escalation of violence in Gaza, using weapons supplied by the U.S., remains an issue that organizers must contend with in conversations with potential voters. Many groups are considering if and how events in Gaza will impact voter turnout and vote choice, and whether this should change the messages they deliver. 

In a recent Randomized Controlled Trial online survey conducted via Swayable, We Make the Future Action, ASO Communications, and Underpin tested different messages for addressing voters’ concerns about the war in Gaza. Our goal was to better understand the most effective messaging approach for organizers who are grappling with this as they mobilize voters who rank the war in Gaza among their top issues in this election.

We do not wish to oversimplify all of the efforts that are needed in order to create lasting peace. Many organizations are wrestling with their role in making that happen and some of those groups have landed on a theory of change that includes electing the Harris ticket as a part of that strategy.  We acknowledge that this study is very limited in its scope, and more research is needed. With this in mind, we are keeping our recommendations contained to the core messaging needs of the organizers who are mobilizing voters toward Harris for president. 

Vera Action and We Make the Future Action collaborated to create this social media toolkit to help activists and organizers tell a comprehensive, solutions-oriented story that rejects racialized “tough-on-crime” rhetoric and drives us forward to the vision of safety, accountability, and justice our families and communities need. 

Over the last few decades, public opinion about how to deal with crime has shifted away from an overreliance on incarceration and policing and toward embracing comprehensive solutions for safety. However, too many politicians continue to lean hard into the “tough” playbook, instead of offering real solutions that challenge the status quo and deliver real safety and justice for our communities.

To move the conversation to be rooted in both good policy and good politics, we must ask not who is “tougher” on crime, but who is truly serious about advancing safety.

Check out our Messaging Guide: Winning the Narrative on Safety, Accountability, and Justice for additional advice.