Empowering young voters of color in the Deep South

Southern Poverty Law Center

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, two questions loomed large: Would young people turn out to vote, and could they see the connection between the issues that matter most to them and the need to vote for the future they want to see? Many people liked to call them “low-propensity” voters, but what if we considered them “high-potential” voters instead?  

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that has a storied history in civil rights activism, saw this need and decided to accept the challenge. The organization which has a strong base of Generation X supporters also saw an opportunity to introduce themselves to Generation Z in a way that could build trust leading up to and beyond the election season. 

That’s where Spitfire came in. Over the course of a year, Spitfire and SPLC partnered to create The South’s Got Now | Decidimos, a bilingual campaign to show young high-potential voters in AL, FL, GA, LA and MS that their votes are power. 

Here’s how we did it: 

• Campaign research: Our team knew that the best campaigns are powered by research. Spitfire brought in HIT Strategies, a trusted polling firm with expertise in diverse and young audiences, to co-lead the research phase and help us better understand young people’s views on politics, voting and the change they want to see in their communities. HIT led a two-step research process that included focus groups with young high-potential voters and an online survey of 1,200 young people of color in the target states. From this thoughtful research, Spitfire developed a campaign strategy, narrative and messaging designed to increase feelings of “vote power” among our priority audiences and turn them out to vote..
• Campaign name: Spitfire launched a naming convention that would capture young Black, Asian, Pacific Islanders, and Indigenous people’s feelings, frustrations, defiance and hopes for the future. The result? The South’s Got Now | Decidimos. A campaign with parallel names. The English name pays homage to an iconic hip-hop moment when Outkast stated emphatically “the South’s got something to say,”while speaking to the desire of young people who are ready to create change for themselves and their communities. The Spanish name means “we decide.” It speaks to the hope of young Latinos who carry the dreams of their elders, some of whom immigrated to the U.S. for a better life. Both set the stage for young people of color in the Deep South to enthusiastically declare that this is their time and they have the power to decide their futures.
• Campaign messaging and support: Spitfire turned the insights into themes that would guide the campaign messaging across social media, video, SMS, ads and in-person events. We trained nonprofit partners in the messaging to support their on-the-ground work to turn out young voters. This strategy helped personalize the messaging and generate research-backed content that would resonate with Gen Z. Our approach equipped SPLC and its partners with message insights rooted in the value of “freedom” in early 2024 and put the organization ahead of the curve when later the Harris campaign strongly leaned into the same concept.
• Campaign launch: Leading up to and after the campaign launch, our team partnered with SPLC to outline the goals, timing and messaging. Spitfire and SPLC organized a national media briefing to launch the campaign plus regional briefings occuring in several states. Spitfire created English and Spanish press materials and worked with the SPLC team to pitch reporters to attend a virtual media briefing that drew local and regional press (including Atlanta’s WBAE and Mississippi Public Broadcasting in English and Yahoo! Noticias, El Diario, and La Oferta in Spanish) to discuss the campaign research. 

The story of The South’s Got Now | Decidimos is still being written as a vehicle for civic engagement beyond voting, but the deeper accomplishment is the bridge created for SPLC to get to know a new generation of young people and empower them to drive change and defend freedom for people across the South.