Seed the Vote is a left-leaning Berkeley, California-based organization that assists left-of-center candidates and was formed to defeat President Donald Trump. While focusing on campaign efforts in swing states, over 80 percent of its volunteers come from California and New York. Seed the Vote partners with left-leaning organizations to mobilize volunteers into forming assistance groups for campaigns and individuals already active in other political organizations.

History

Seed the Vote is a project of Everyday People PAC, a left-of-center political action committee based in San Francisco. The initial goal of the project was to defeat then-President Donald Trump and his policies. ¹

Seed the Vote attempts to mobilize and promote volunteers and messaging campaigns in swing states. ² Seed the Vote has primarily been involved with elections in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Florida. ³

In 2019, a group of San Francisco Bay Area activists formed Seed the Vote as a grassroots organization to recruit and train volunteers to affect elections in swing states. ⁴ Seed the Vote works with local left-leaning organizations in each state to assist in recruiting volunteers to make phone calls, go door-to-door, and assist with other campaign activities. ⁵

Everyday People PAC has a parallel program to Seed the Vote called Generation Rising, which focuses on race issues as Seed the Vote has stated it has such “a large percentage of white people.” ⁶

Advocacy

Seed the Vote’s structure creates “pods” of eight or more individuals committed to working together. ⁷ Each pod is trained to post in online chat conversations and steer them toward a liberal point of view, work together at phone banks, or go door-to-door on behalf of left-leaning candidates. ⁸

Individuals who are already engaged in left-wing politics join “branches.” ⁹ Branches consist of people who are already connected through another organization and are provided additional guidance and tools to further promote left-leaning candidates. ¹⁰ Branch members include Bay Rising Action, Catalyst Action Fund, Chinese Progressive Association Action Fund, Liberation Road, Leftroots, Seedlings for Change, and Water for Grassroots. ¹¹

While targeting the four swing states of Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Florida in 2020, Seed the Vote claims to have a least one volunteer in all 50 states, though 60 percent of volunteers are from California and 21 percent from New York. ¹² To recruit and maintain volunteers, Seed the Vote regularly conducts seminars and webinars on left-leaning topics such as alleged voter suppression, liberal movements that have won elections, and the stakes of a current election. ¹³

Partner Organizations

Nationally, Seed the Vote partners have included People’s Action, Center for Popular Democracy, Working Families Party, Mijente, United Against Trump, Democracy Defense Coalition, Protect the Results, and the Frontline. ¹⁴

In Arizona, Seed the Vote partners with Living United for Change in Arizona, UNITE HERE, and 11/CASE Action. ¹⁵ In Georgia, Seed the Vote partners with New Georgia Project Action Fund, Asian American Advocacy Fund PAC, Showing Up for Racial Justice, UNITE HERE, Care in Action, Mijente, and Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights Action Network. ¹⁶ Seed the Change in Florida has partnered with Florida Rising (formerly New Florida Majority), Florida for All Coalition, and Dream Defenders. ¹⁷ In Pennsylvania, Seed the Vote team up with Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance and Pennsylvania Working Families Party. ¹⁸

Funding

In the 2020 election cycle, Everyday People PAC raised at least $1.6 million. ¹⁹ During that cycle, Seed the Vote and Generation Rising claims to have raised $221,960 from 4,406 individual donors giving $100 or less. ²⁰ Through the Solidaire Network and the Movement Voter Project, the two organizations raised over $875,000 from major donors. ²¹

Leadership

Le Tim Ly is the director of Everyday People PAC that includes Seed the Vote and Generation Rising. Le Tim Ly has worked for the left-leaning Chinese Progressive Association in San Francisco, California. Previously, he worked for Youth United for Community Action (YUMA) and Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action (PILA). ²²

From February 2020 through March 2021, Le Tim Ly gave $181,906 to Everyday People PAC while listing his employer as the Chinese Progressive Association. ²³

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